After nearly 4 years, my family has had enough of foldables

When the Galaxy Z Flip 4 was released in 2022, my wife, Millie, decided that flip phones were what she wanted. Aside from being gorgeous, especially in Bora Purple, the Flip 4’s form factor fixed problems Millie had with her Galaxy S20 FE. Since then, she’s been a devoted flip phone user, subsequently owning the Z Flip 5 and Z Flip 6. Last week, though, she ordered a Galaxy S26 Ultra. After three and a half years, she decided enough was enough, and I don’t blame her.

We all know that foldable phones are more fragile than traditional ones. It isn’t as bad as some say, but the truth is a flexible plastic display will always be more prone to damage than a slab of glass. It isn’t the hardware failures that have driven Millie away from foldables, though. Instead, it’s the way Samsung has treated these failures.

Her Galaxy Z Flip 5 (pictured) suffered a catastrophic display failure when it was only six months old. Was it dropped? Poked with a fingernail? No. The rubber gasket that sits on either side of the screen to protect the hinge had come loose, letting dust inside the device and killing the screen. You’d think this would be covered under warranty. A phone that was only a quarter of the way through its warranty period (we get two years in the UK) and is in otherwise immaculate condition shouldn’t fail like this.

It wasn’t covered. When we went to an official Samsung store, we were told that “Samsung has engineered this component (the rubber gasket) never to fail,” and therefore the needed repair wouldn’t be covered under warranty. If it weren’t for the fact that we had insurance, this is a repair that would have cost £304.

Now we reach the Z Flip 6. In only eighteen months of ownership, it’s needed its screen protector replaced twice. It’s annoying, but not a dealbreaker. In the UK, Samsung offers unlimited screen protector replacements during the warranty period. Heading to the nearest EE store, the phone carrier that is now Samsung’s repair partner in the UK, only takes half an hour, so it isn’t much of an inconvenience. The first replacement at our local store went smoothly. I put the phone in repair mode, handed over the phone, and we went back shortly after to pick it up. The last attempt did not go so smoothly, though.

We were in a different part of the country visiting family when the screen protector failed this time, so we booked an appointment at the nearest store. From the very beginning, it was a terrible experience. First, we were told that we absolutely had to factory reset the device and that repair mode wasn’t sufficient. Once they inspected the phone, the repair was refused. Apparently, the hinge is “misaligned” and needs to be replaced, even though the phone is clearly immaculate and doesn’t have any more problems. The Samsung Care Plan for the device has expired, making the cost of this repair over £350. We said no and took the phone back.

That was the last straw, and as I said at the outset, the Z Flip 6 has now been replaced with a Galaxy S26 Ultra. You’re probably wondering why Millie went with another Samsung phone after the awful experience we’ve had so far. Well, it’s harder to switch to a different brand of phone than you might think, even if she loves my Pixel 10 Pro’s camera.

One UI is hard to say goodbye to. I switched from Samsung phones to a Pixel 10 Pro last year, and missing One UI features was the hardest part of the transition. Millie tried it — I set up a user account for her on my Pixel for a few weeks so she could see if she liked it, and she couldn’t make it work. Good Lock is the main hook. She uses One Hand Operation+ to modify Android’s gesture navigation, and it’s become so ingrained in her muscle memory that she couldn’t give it up.

So, we knew she wanted another Samsung phone, one that wouldn’t need frequent visits to a repair center. But what model? I have a base model Galaxy S25 and an S23 Ultra lying around, so she spent time with both. The S25 fit in her pockets better, which is one of the reasons she loved the Flip, but the S Pen won her over to the Ultra. Millie loves to draw, doodle, and sketch, and having something as powerful as the S Pen in a phone is what made the difference. She didn’t need to take an iPad and Apple Pencil to work so she could draw on her lunch breaks anymore — the S Pen did it all.

The only issue was the weight. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is a wrist-numbing 234 g. Add that to the sharp corners, and the phone was too uncomfortable to hold long-term. I knew the S26 Ultra wouldn’t have that problem. When I had hands-on with the phone, the drop to 314 g and the rounded corners were one of the first things I noticed, so once my cousin’s Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived, the first thing I asked them was if Millie could hold it. She did, and we ordered it the next day.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra isn’t perfect. Its size makes it harder for Millie to fit it into her pockets or bags, and it’s still heavier than she’d like, even if it’s manageable. Those cons are more than outweighed by the pros, though. The Privacy Display feels like magic, the cameras are a giant leap from the Flip 6, the S Pen is as incredible as ever, and the battery lasts her at least 36 hours, while the best a Flip ever did was 18. Millie still loves flip phones, and I could see her going back in the future. But that won’t happen until Samsung gets its support straight. Whether you’re going to a Samsung Store or the official repair partner, the experiences we’ve had are inexcusable, and a brief look at Reddit and Samsung’s forums will tell you we aren’t alone.

I’ve got a Z Fold 7 press unit, and I absolutely love it. It’s one of the best phones I’ve ever used. But after the experiences we’ve had with Millie’s flip phones, there’s no way I would spend my own money on one of Samsung’s foldables. In fact,  I find it difficult to recommend any Samsung phone right now, regardless of whether it folds or not, because the customer support is awful. That’s hard to say as someone who has been a fan of these products for so long.

Have you had a poor experience with folding phones or Samsung’s customer support? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.