This is our own video: we folded and unfolded a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 by hand, one fold at a time, until the counter hit 1,000. No machine, no lab, just a few of us taking turns on camera. We wanted to see whether the screen and the hinge would show wear, and here is what we saw.
Contents
First, how to read this test. It is a hand test on one unit. We counted every fold ourselves, and the team swapped in and out because, as one of us put it mid-test, it is a workout. It tells you what one Fold8 looked like after 1,000 deliberate opens and closes in a single session. It does not tell you how the phone ages over years of pockets, bags and dust, and it is not a substitute for a lab durability rating.
The test: 1,000 folds by hand
We opened with a nervous joke ("I'm really scared") and then started counting. The rhythm was simple: fold it shut, open it fully, count one. We checked the phone at the early marks, and at 100 folds the screen was working fine with nothing to report.
Around the halfway mark the phone was still opening and closing normally. Later in the run we paused to check again, and by roughly 700 folds the screen was still working. One of us admitted to hand cramps by then, which says something about how many times 1,000 really is. We pushed through the last 100, and then the counter finally read one thousand.
What the phone looked like afterwards
| Checkpoint | What we saw |
|---|---|
| 100 folds | Screen fine, "so far so good" |
| About 700 folds | Still working, no problems |
| 1,000 folds | Screen working perfectly fine; crease visible only if you look for it; hinge still stiff |
The moment of truth came right after the last fold. We opened the phone and the screen came straight on and worked normally. We then swiped around the home screen and a web feed to make sure it responded normally.
On the crease, we were straight about it: there is still a crease in the middle, but it is not very visible. You only see it if you go looking. That is a fair result for a screen that has just been folded a thousand times in one sitting.
The hinge was the part we were most curious about, and it passed too. Even with the phone closed, it still felt pretty stiff to us. A loose or wobbly hinge is the classic sign of wear on a foldable, and we did not feel any.
What this means if you are thinking of buying one
If your worry is "will it survive being opened and closed all day", our test points in the right direction: 1,000 folds works out to about a year of opening and closing it three times a day, and this unit came out with a faint crease and a firm hinge. Treat it as encouraging rather than a guarantee. One unit, one session, hands only.
One useful extra from the video description: the Galaxy Z Fold8 supports both eSIM and a physical nano SIM, so you have a choice of how to set up your line.
For the full picture of the phone itself, read our Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra review, check Galaxy Z Fold8 price, specs and pre-order in Malaysia before you buy, or go back to our first impressions of the Fold8, Fold8 Ultra and Z Flip8.
