hi everyone, I've got kind of a wild story here i wanted to share

I've got this fold 5 since new, September 2023

backstory

one year later of great ownership experience, around august 2024 my power button stopped working, no biggie, small part and phone is still in warranty

I bring it to authorized Samsung repair place (which is outsourced chain anyway, but on Samsung's website for service providers) for warranty replacement of my power button, they say that the individual button is not replacable/not in stock and they will have to replace entire screen, including button. That's fine-ish, it's under warranty so can't say i care. Despite not really wanting new display since i trusted this one

They replace my display and here the problem starts.

From the moment i hold it in my hand i can feel something is wrong. I can feel the chassis cutting into my hand. I flip the phone and see the back glass heavily recessed into the chassis, like it had no adhesive at all and the front display is so poorly attached i can fit my fingernail under it. I tell him, dude I've had this phone for an entire year. I know all too well how it feels in my hand, not cutting my hand when i hold it. The screen also feels like it doesn't open all the way. Not by much but a few degrees and again, i really know this phone well, i stare at it on my desk the entire day. I knew for a fact it opened up less than before

Then i saw it. Oh god

A strip of black adhesive was coming out of the back glass, around my charging port and back into the phone under the back glass.

I tell the front desk clerk that this isn't normal despite him saying that it's normal and "leftover adhesive from the removal". I tell him i don't know if it's from new or old adhesive since it's uncomfortable to hold in my hand and glass is recessed

He brings it back, adhesive is cleaned but now……. there's a speck of dust under my camera lens

I point out that there's now a speck of dust under my camera lens

Here starts the circus

Clerk tells me he'll bring me his manager, young dude comes. I wanted to tell him what happened but interrupts me that "he knows already". He instead diverts the subject to "did you know the phone was rooted? (in the past) I didn't even have to take it in". Even if he was right, how tf is that now relevant. Its like okay, i guess I'll take my messed up phone away now? Afterwards he argued that i have only a year of warranty (expiring a month from that point) instead of two, why were we arguing about that I've got no clue. The angle at which the phone unfolds is normal according to him and "under tolerances". He told me it would take 14 days to fix the phone properly and the whole feeling of the conversation was that i was an unreasonable karen and wanted me to leave already. Which i did after telling him i don't believe he's capable of fixing the phone properly anyway

The e-mails

I've sent a very detailed e-mail to the complaint department of the franchise. Honestly this back and forth is a whole 'nother story entirely, but jesus writing this is tiring due to how bad it gets. TLDR is: We did nothing wrong, you refused to have the phone serviced (for a 3rd time tehnically), we still offer to fix the dust. Nothing about back and front panels, nothing about hinge. The piece of dust. ok. They refuse to replace whole display (again) despite me insisting

I contact Samsung over WhatsApp, they tell me a representative/manager/whatever will personally call me, no one ever did.

I bring the phone to another Samsung branded service center, surprise it's the same chain. But I was already there and f it. I left the phone. They remove the dust and that's it. I still felt like the phone closed 2-3 degrees less than it did before anyone ever touched it internally but I was tired and moved on.

Sudden death

less than a month ago i woke up to a call from a friend. I answer and as i did also unflip the phone. Large screen suddenly flashed and whole phone died. Try holding reset buttons, nothing, try charging it, nothing.

Now imagine this. With what I've told you, would you bring the phone back to the same repair chain? Even if it was under warranty (expired by a few months now) and a checkup would be completely free. Would you?

Mind you, they are the only Samsung repair chain in Bucharest. There literally is nowhere else (authorized) i can bring it.

I do phone repair in my spare time as a hobby for a few years now. I've never taken apart this phone but i said f it. I by no means consider myself anything more than an amateur hobbyist but considering past experience i wholeheartedly believed the phone was better in my amateur hobbyist hands than that of the authorized repair chain. That's how bad it got.

I take the phone apart, back panel, remove the motherboard. Have a look at it, take a measurement on the battery connector, no short. Find nothing wrong. Put board back in to test, starts up like nothing ever happened. I did nothing else except remove the board, breathe on it and reinstall it back in. Shrug, "okay that was easy."

Smoke

Yesterday i landed for my trip to Vienna, i took the fold out on the train and unfolded it for the first time for a few hours. Last one was before doing airport security. When i did, it happened again. Flash. Blank screen. Only now? Smoke. Smoke started coming out of the hinge. Not a lot but a noticeable amount. Hinge heated considerably. I threw the phone on the train table. After 5 good secs it stopped smoking. Then stopped and went cold. Imagine now me unfolding the phone literally 20mins earlier on the plane. I don't want to think about it.

After finding a good ol' S7 at a pawn shop for 50eur for a temporary phone i now was faced with a dilemma:

I have important data on this phone, i want to recover it.

Do i bring a potential fire hazard on a plane? HELL NO

So for the half of my first day of Vienna i took apart the phone with a ripped red bull can and a borrowed screwdriver. I unplug the batteries which looked fine and felt comfortable enough bringing it back with me home, where the autopsy photos you see were taken. Flex cable travelling hinge, connecting the 2 halves together went up in flames. Probably rubbed and shorted on something. Or itself?

https://preview.redd.it/dc76mlv7gj0g1.jpg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c9a73214b6d2a432ec9b6f3d32a45cedf73ca21

Wanna know the worst part of this? I am a big Samsung fan and it f-in sucks not being able to use a product, not because of the product itself but because i literally have nowhere to take it to incase something goes wrong. A product with 0 support. Again, on Samsung's website the only 2 service centers in Bucharest are this chain and another is a carrier. I'm not writing this to throw mud at Samsung. I'm not joking when i say i have over 20 samsung phones. S2 to Note10, Flip 4, a few A series, and many Notes. And now i won't touch a Samsung product ever again, which sucks.

I just want to say this:

To the manager of Samsung Plaza in Bucharest (if u still work there): I hope your pillow is warm and soup cold

To the Fold/Flip owners of the world: In my limited experience, with a sample size of 1 if your phone does not open all the way even by a few degrees it might be dangerous to use or force open.

To Stefan, my fellow Romanian I met in Vienna and let me borrow his screwdriver: Ur a G

To Samsung: I get that you want to be cheap and outsource support for your products but please make sure they have training both in HR and actual technical knowledge, thx