Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold hands-on

For what I wanted at the time, all that was acceptable. But as a first-generation product of a new category, I wouldn’t have tried it without that three year warranty. There were bound to be issues.

All these flagship devices are aimed at people who do have money to burn. The ordinary models based on 5 year old tech are absolutely amazing at all the things people do with their devices. No one really needs any of the newer features.

This is the problem that any mature product industry faces - once the basic product is good enough for 99% of the users it becomes a boring commodity. Innovation stops selling devices because it only adds things most people don't want. The result is either cost driven price reduction as manufacturing processes get cheaper, or silly features (like fragile folding mechanisms) that the company can advertise to keep the perception of being high-edge expensive cutting-edge tech despite most buyers opting for a product that doesn't have any of that stuff but are still willing to pay for the status of having the brand.

If anyone were to buy a modern Samsung folding phone, I'd suggest you make sure you get the two-year coverage for the screen and assume it will break soon after that, so treat it like you're going to buy one every 2-3 years. But remember that warranty repairs sometimes involve sending the phone away for weeks, and Android's phone transfer story is still incomplete. That's merely my experience, of course.