We were seriously impressed by the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold when we got a chance to play with the folding phone at CES 2026. That said, one of our big concerns was how durable the TriFold would be when put through the paces of daily life.
At least one early Z Trifold owner has found that it might not be as strong as you'd like. Apparently, the display on their phone has suddenly broken.
They revealed the broken display in a post on Samsung's official forums. On the left-most of the three sides of the unfolded display, a line of white pixels runs down the screen, right where it folds. There's also a portion where you see that a portion of the panel has died.
The poster said that the device is a month old and that "there was no external shock at all."
Their initial post wondered what they should do next since Samsung doesn't currently offer insurance on the TriFold. The quick answer is to take it in for a screen repair.
Samsung does offer a one time 50% discount for display repairs for buying the TriFold. Still, that costs around 1.3 million won or about $900 USD. You'd think a sudden failure after a month would be covered by a warranty.
A generous update
The original post went up on January 14. In an update that just went live today the user says they went to a Samsung store where his device was replaced. Interestingly, and this may be a machine translation error, he said that they "told me to take my current phone for research."
It's possible that's supposed to read that Samsung took his broken device for research. No word on the cause of the malfunction.
With all this in mind, foldable displays are under more pressure and improved durability is a concern especially for a brand new type of foldable. For this reason, we'd recommend always getting insurance or an extended warranty if you can. Hopefully, Samsung will offer proper insurance whenever the TriFold becomes more widely available in the coming months.
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