In a nutshell: Samsung’s latest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, has found its way to Zack’s test bench for a healthy dose of durability testing. Is it any more robust than earlier Samsung foldables? Sort of…
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 features a larger front display and an improved hinge mechanism compared to Samsung’s earlier effort. In testing the outer display against scratches, JerryRigEverything found that Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus holds up against scratching on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness to a level six with deeper grooves at level seven.
Of course, this was after Zack removed the pre-installed screen protector, which Samsung warns against doing. With the protector in place, scratches were visible at level three.
Moving to the interior folding screen, Zack notes a semi-temporary rubber screen protector on top of a more permanent plastic layer. Even after removing the outer layer, which again, you shouldn’t do, the screen scratches at a level two.
“The hardness of the folding display has not changed,” Zack notes. “The Galaxy Fold 2 can still be damaged by a fingernail.”
An area where Samsung has seemingly made an improvement, however, is with the hinge. When sprinkling dirt and small pebbles on the device, none appeared to get into the inner gears. That wasn’t the case with the first-gen Fold as dirt and debris quickly found their way inside.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 starts at $1,999.99 and is available as of writing from most major carriers and directly from Samsung.