It would be impossible to keep up with the number of media outlets that have embraced the ‘foldable phones are too fragile' narrative over the past year, so why not flip the script for a moment, look at the big picture from the opposite angle, and have some fun while we're at it? That's what Snazzy Labs host Quinn Nelson appears to have done in a recent Twitter video wherein his Galaxy Z Flip is thrown around and mishandled on purpose for the sake of comedy, only for the phone to survive the abuse without issues.
Even with Luciano Michelini's Frolic playing in the background, you could argue that the humorous video may have a bit more validity than the usual ‘scientific' torture tests we've seen over the past year. Why? Because if you're going to drop your Galaxy Z Flip in a sandbox, you're likely to pick it up, wipe it off, and put it back in your pocket. What you're unlikely to do in the real world is sandwich a bunch of sharp rocks between the two folding pieces after you've compromised the integrity of the hinge and sweeping mechanism.
https://twitter.com/SnazzyQ/status/1283133904593928193
To be fair, Samsung's troublesome Galaxy Fold review units are partly to blame for the unfavorable first impressions surrounding the durability of its foldable phones, but even so, things went out of hand quickly after the Galaxy Fold's release and the public's perception was skewed by countless headlines filled with negativity. It almost looked as if various independent testers were hell-bent on proving that Samsung's foldable phones are not viable, to the point where they created mechanical contraptions designed to torture-test the Galaxy Fold in an attempt to reach a predetermined outcome.
But as many of our readers know, this narrative hasn't aligned with our own real-life experiences with the Galaxy Fold or the Galaxy Z Flip. Our experience was very positive, and in a way, it more akin to what you see in the video above, sans the funny soundtrack and the part where Quinn Nelson almost uses the phone as a soccer ball.
Some of SamMobile's team members have been using the Galaxy Fold for 10 months with no issues, and the phone even survived a holiday to Egypt without any problems. The Galaxy Z Flip is even sturdier. Samsung handled the initial launch properly, and the improvements brought over to its second foldable device have made it more durable than the Fold; or at the very least, they alleviated some concerns.
All joking aside, we don't think the meme-ish video above should be considered a scientific experiment meant to prove whether or not the Galaxy Z Flip can take a beating. That doesn't seem to be the original intention to begin with, so we don't recommend any Galaxy Z Flip owners to recreate these ‘testing' scenarios. But we do believe that Samsung's foldable devices, especially the Galaxy Z Flip, are more durable than most people give them credit. Many people still live under the impression that foldable phones are toy-like products that are prone to breaking from normal usage, and that's simply not the case.
Nevertheless, Samsung can, and should continue to improve the durability of its foldable devices. An IP rating would go a long way, but until that happens, you should still get a lot of mileage out of a foldable Galaxy device as long as you're exercising common sense, even if you might experience the occasional accidental drop. You might get unlucky, but those cases seem to be extremely rare.
