You can order a Samsung Galaxy Fold right now, but there's a catch

(Image credit: Future)

published 15 September 2019

You don't have to wait until September 18 to order the long-awaited Samsung Galaxy Fold: The foldable smartphone has started surfacing on online marketplaces like eBay. But there's a catch — the price of owning the handset before it's available to purchase in the region is around double the £1900 it will cost when it's listed on Samsung's website next week. Even if you could afford the £3800 sellers are asking, it wouldn't be worth it; the handset is only available in South Korea at the moment, so the shipment would probably arrive after the handset starts shipping locally.

This isn't the first time opportunists have looked to make a quick buck off a new smartphone. When the iPhone first came out, it was only available in limited quantities in select markets, starting with the United States, before moving over to Europe. That resulted in people overseas taking to the stores to purchase as many as they could to send to Europe. There was just one problem — the people buying the handsets weren't covered by the warranty; it's only valid in the country it was purchased. The same is true for all new hardware, including the Galaxy Fold.

The Galaxy Fold has been somewhat of a nightmare for Samsung. If you haven't been following the drama, let us fill you in. The handset was supposed to launch in the United States in April and Europe in May. Unfortunately, the firm was forced to hit the brakes on the release when a small subset of journalists possession of the handset started experiencing issues that ultimately led to their units morphing into £1900 paperweights. Samsung then had to take it back to the drawing board, showcasing the revised edition in Berlin ahead of IFA 2019 at the start of the month.

Having spent half a decade writing about the latest news for some of the world’s largest publications, Josh is one of the most recognised reporters in the space. Nowadays, in addition to covering the odd news article, he spends most of his time keeping T3's long-form consumer content up to date, while also researching and reporting on the best deals to help you save some serious scratch.