Not sure if it will be fixed
The Google Pixel Fold smartphone is not yet for sale, but it is already in the hands of some journalists. And the Ars Technica journalist had such a smartphone out of order after four days of use.
Our colleague says that he hardly used the device during this time, but at the same time he managed to find the cause of the problem.
Initially, a group of pixels appeared on the screen at the bottom, which constantly shone with white light at full brightness. Then the entire left half of the screen stopped responding to touch, and then various artifacts appeared on the screen. The reason for all this is that a small piece of debris got into the place of the screen where there is no factory plastic film that every flexible display has.
The Google Pixel Fold died four days later.
Samsung, BOE, and pretty much every other foldable screen company makes these flexible OLED displays the same way. The OLED panel is covered in “ultra-thin glass” that is thin and flexible enough to withstand the folding process, though not very strong. Since the glass cannot withstand the slightest damage, the entire display is covered with a protective plastic layer. This essentially kills the hard, slippery glass surface we’re all used to, but the inner glass layer provides much-needed structure to what would otherwise be very soft plastic.
This plastic layer is critical to OLED’s survival, but it doesn’t cover the screen to the brim. Every company that makes these screens leaves a gap around the perimeter of the display where there is no plastic layer and the exposed OLED panel peeks out. We usually expect a foldable phone to break along the crease where the screen experiences the most stress. But mine died because of this open area of the screen.
The smallest particle got there, and when I closed the display, the pressure from the other side of the display was enough to pierce the OLED panel. I didn’t see or feel anything when I closed the device, but the display pixels started going crazy. Having examined the device with a magnifying glass, I seem to have found where the puncture was.
As you can see in the photo, in the case of Pixel Fold, a small chute forms between the screen frame and the protective film, into which dust and various debris can easily enter. In the case of a Google smartphone, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the height of the frame is minimal, which is why getting into the same gutter of some piece of debris can have such disastrous consequences.
