Samsung's foldable phones might be the best in the industry, but they're not without flaws, and some unfortunate Galaxy Z Fold 4 owners are beginning to learn this from personal experience. Their foldable phones can no longer fold open all the way, and some users are sharing on Reddit how they are being forced to try solving the issues on their own.
Needless to say, if you happen to have a Galaxy Z Fold 4 whose hinge appears to be faulty, your safest bet is to try repairing it under warranty (if applicable) at an authorized Samsung repair shop rather than DIY-ing based on information you find from other users. These foldable devices are very complex, even mechanically so, and they're easy to break if they fall into inexperienced hands.
However, your rate of success for warranty repairs might vary. A case in point: another Reddit user says Samsung rejected the warranty claim on their Galaxy Z Fold 4, so they went ahead and disassembled the phone on their own.
They were fortunate enough to repair the phone, but incidentally, this user appears to have also reconfirmed why many Galaxy Z Fold devices, including Z Fold 4s and older models, might be running into the same hinge-related issue where the phones can no longer open all the way and stay flat.
Samsung's innovation might be at fault
When Samsung was developing the Galaxy Z Fold 2, it came up with the ingenious idea of applying small bristles to the hinge to keep foreign particles away from the phone's interior.
At that time, Samsung said the idea was inspired by its vacuum cleaners, and ever since then, every Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip model Samsung released employed this so-called Sweeper Technology for their hinges.
Unfortunately, this innovation may have backfired, at least, according to many users who claim that the bristles and/or the glue that keeps them in place can deteriorate and become an obstacle for the hinge mechanism.
In other words, Sweeper Technology might be keeping away foreign objects, but the sweeper itself might be Samsung's worst enemy.
The good news for foldable phone fans is that the newer Galaxy Z Fold 5 appears to have so far avoided this issue successfully. Whether Samsung addressed the Sweeper Technology problem is unknown. But if nothing changes for the worse in this regard, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 might be the last in the Fold lineup to suffer from these hinge-related defects.
If you are facing any of these issues with your Galaxy Z Fold 4, you may want to try fixing it soon before two-year warranties (in select markets) start expiring later this year. Either that or perhaps you can get a decent trade-in deal and upgrade to the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
