You don’t need to baby a modern foldable, but a few boring habits can keep its hinge from becoming an expensive problem.
I’ve found that the durability of a foldable can be extremely unpredictable. I used my Galaxy Z Fold4 for almost three years, and it went through a lot of rough handling. My mom’s Z Fold6 broke after about a year, with the inner display failing. Debris around the hinge may have been a factor, but the cause was never determined.
That’s why I wouldn’t take a manufacturer’s fold-count rating as a “use-by” date. Modern hinges are engineered to last for years of normal use, while Google says the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s gearless hinge can handle over 10 years of folding. The idea isn’t to ration every unfold, but to avoid making an already complex piece of hardware work harder than necessary.
Keep dirt out and let the hinge do its job
<img src="https://www.engadget.com/img/gallery/how-to-take-care-of-your-foldable-phones-hinge/keep-dirt-out-and-let-the-hinge-do-its-job-1791301671.webp” alt=”Close-up of a Samsung foldable phone hinge with the Samsung logo visible.” loading=”lazy”>
Maintaining a foldable hinge comes down to some fairly mundane practices. Keep grit away from it, make sure nothing is sitting between the displays before closing the phone and don’t force the mechanism in a direction it clearly doesn’t want to go.
Samsung advises that you clear away any foreign objects before closing its foldables, and to not apply too much pressure to the inner display. That’s especially worth keeping in mind with phones like the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Z Flip8, which have IP48 ratings. The “4” indicates protection against solid foreign objects 1mm or larger, but it does not make the phones dustproof. A beach trip isn’t a good time to discover how much grit your hinge can take.
Motorola is even more upfront about it, stating that dust can shorten hinge life and may cause damage to the internal display. It also suggests checking for debris before closing the phone and advises against using pressurized air dusters on the display.
But that doesn’t mean you have to start counting every time you open the phone. Book-style foldables like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold can handle plenty of everyday tasks while folded. Flip phones naturally encourage more opening and closing, but newer models reduce that need. For instance, the Razr+ 2026 can run full apps on its 4-inch external display without being opened.
Fold-count claims aren’t expiration dates
The giant numbers attached to foldable durability claims are reassuring, but remember that these are laboratory results, not a countdown to failure.
The OLED panel used in the Galaxy Z Fold7 remained fully functional after 500,000 folds during a 13-day Bureau Veritas test at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, Samsung Display said. That’s equivalent to over 10 years of use if folded around 100 times per day, or over six years if folded more than 200 times per day.
There’s an important distinction within that number, however: the test only covered the foldable OLED panel. Samsung Display didn’t claim that every hinge component, flex cable or other part of the phone would last 500,000 cycles.
Real phones have a harder life than test equipment. They are dropped, left in dusty pockets, exposed to temperature fluctuations and sometimes come into contact with water. A foldable can have issues long before its folding mileage is reached, even if the hinge itself is not the part that fails.
Focusing on changes in the phone’s feel is more helpful. Motorola says some noise from the hinge is normal, but if the mechanism becomes harder to move, stops opening normally or starts making new grinding noises, it’s worth paying attention rather than forcing another fold. Ignoring that caution can cost you a lot: Samsung currently lists a Galaxy Z Fold8 inner-screen module replacement at $579.
