Foldable phones always come with a big question: how long will they actually last? This question is often about how well the hinge holds up to constant opening and closing. For its newest Galaxy Z Fold7, Samsung made a bold claim. They said the phone could handle up to 500,000 folds. That’s a huge jump from older models.
Someone on YouTube decided to put that promise to the test. A YouTuber known as Tech-it took on the challenge. They wanted to see if the phone truly lived up to Samsung’s durability claims. Instead of using a machine for constant folds, Tech-it chose a different method. They folded the smartphone by hand for several days. This manual approach added real-world variables. It made the results feel more organic and less like a lab experiment. Standard machine tests usually fold devices with the exact same speed and force every time.
Galaxy Z Fold7: Problems Before 200,000 Folds
The Galaxy Z Fold7 is rated for 500,000 folds. But Tech-it found problems much earlier. He kept a detailed log of his findings in a document. The first issues appeared after just 6,000 folds. The smartphone started experiencing random reboots.
This reboot error became a regular thing. After the initial 6,000 folds, the phone would restart about every 10,000 folds. As the test continued, more problems cropped up. At 46,000 folds, the YouTuber noticed the phone’s hinge started making strange noises.
Around 75,000 folds, an unknown black liquid leaked from the hinge. This only happened once. Still, it raised concerns about the foldable phone’s actual durability. Later, at 175,000 folds, the issues became more serious. All of the Galaxy Z Fold7’s speakers stopped working. This included the top, bottom, and earpiece speakers.
Tech-it also observed changes in the hinge itself. It became much smoother to open and close. While the “Free-stop” feature still worked, the hinge’s original elasticity seemed to be gone. Interestingly, all these problems appeared before 200,000 folds. That’s the maximum durability Samsung used to claim for its earlier foldable devices.
So, was this just one bad experience? Or does real-world usage tell a different story about foldable phone durability? You can watch Tech-it’s video on YouTube to see the test for yourself, and review the detailed notes in his document.