Here we are. Three years after its launch, Samsung’s very first Galaxy Fold will no longer receive updates and will therefore not make its transition to Android 13, a symbol of its announced death. The launch of the very first folding smartphone from the South Korean firm was not without its pitfalls and marked a real turning point in the industry. Today, the number of devices using this technology on the market has evolved and this type of product is gradually becoming more democratic.
A product abandoned too soon?
In September 2019, the first Fold of the name was really not a device like the others, especially in terms of its price which crossed the symbolic bar of 2000 € for the first time. An expensive device that was released with Android version 9.0 (Pie) in its time and was promised with three years of software support, which was the norm for high-end devices from Samsung at the time.
This choice was not very surprising at the time and could even seem standard, but today it seems a little more questionable and gives a strange feeling of shortened lifespan for a device at this price. It will have been in the end “abandoned” after only three years, thus leaving on the floor after this relatively short period of time users who have invested a tidy sum in their first generation device.
Samsung is improving
Since then, Samsung has made enormous efforts in this regard. The company now allows itself to offer four years of software support for its products, a performance that even puts it ahead of Google. Software support has become one of its strengths, with its latest model, the Z Fold 4, now also having its four-year follow-up.
The features of the Galaxy Fold will therefore cease to evolve too, which could quickly tire users. Even those who had opted in 2019 for a device which still represented a new concept and which therefore by definition are attracted by new experiences.