Folding tests for foldable phones have been a thing ever since Samsung released the original Galaxy Fold in 2019. But while some independent testers and content creators devised their own (arguably faulty) folding machines, others are doing things differently. Mrkeybrd went above and beyond and humanized the testing process by having actual people perform thousands (and hundreds of thousands) of folds by hand in front of a camera.
Such a test is happening right now! As of this writing, Mrkeybrd's team members are taking turns folding and unfolding the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra by hand on a YouTube live stream. It looks like a daunting task for which not many would volunteer, but it's all in the name of science! And this method ensures that the foldable phones and their hinges don't suffer unnecessary additional stress.
Check out the live stream below and join us after for a brief recap. You may want to learn that the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra was the first (and so far, only) device of the two to suffer a hardware failure.
Story continues after the video
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra's hinge broke at around the 40,000 fold mark
Although the folding-unfolding test was not over at the time of writing, the first failure had already happened. And it was the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra that dropped the ball first.
Specifically, the Razr 40 Ultra's hinge experienced its first failure around the 40,000 fold-unfold mark in the live stream. It wasn't a critical failure, and the phone still worked, but the integrity of the hinge dropped to where the phone no longer folded completely shut (image below). Meanwhile, at the same ~40,000 mark and counting, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 experienced no such issues.
It will be interesting to see how the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will behave by the end of the live stream. The test might be concluded by the time you read this, but we will try to update the story with new details as they develop. As of publishing this article, Samsung won the first round, and Motorola's hinge is causing problems. But the battle is not over, and anything can happen.
Update: As of this update, the counter sits at ~64,000 folds. The Galaxy Z Flip 5's integrity seems uncompromised, but it doesn't look (or rather, sound) good for the Razr 40 Ultra. Its hinge is creaking badly. Round 2 goes to Samsung.
Update 2: The battle is over. After the hinge gave up, the Razr 40 Ultra's screen broke at ~126,300 folds and it's out of the race. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 continues to work without any issues after ~152,000 folds. The test continues only to see how long the Flip 5 can last, but it already beat the Razr 40 Ultra by a large margin.
Update 3: The Galaxy Z Flip 5 developed its first hinge issues after ~223,000 folds. The screen still works without any problems.
Update 4 (final): Although its hinge was limping, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 survived more than 400,000 folds. However, its screen finally gave up at 401,146 folds, but not before the phone got covered entirely in flour, egg, sugar, and cornmeal upon hitting the 400k mark.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 won this contest. Samsung's efforts to improve the durability and build quality of its foldable phones over the past few years didn't go to waste. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is among the most, if not the most, resilient foldable phones on the planet.
