Samsung’s new foldables are quite impressive, and the company has focused on making them as durable as possible — but sometimes, accidents happen. We asked Samsung how much it would cost to replace a Z Flip or Z Fold 3’s screen should something happen to it, and here’s what the company told us.
Samsung provides a one year warranty with the phones, so if your screen breaks in a way that’s covered, you shouldn’t have to pay for a repair. Out of warranty, fixing the interior folding screen of a Z Fold 3 costs $479. Doing the same for a Z Flip 3 costs $369. Thankfully, the external displays are much less expensive — fixing a broken outer screen will set you back $149 for the Fold and $99 for the Flip.
Samsung also offers its Samsung Care Plus subscription, which costs $12.99 a month for either phone (though Samsung is currently running a preorder deal where you don’t have to make Care Plus payments for 12 months). For Care Plus subscribers, Samsung says there’s a $249 charge for an out-of-warranty screen repair — though the company says that the “deductible covers up to three screen repairs per year.” Care Plus also extends your warranty for two more years after the original expires.
For traditional, non-folding phones, there’s often the option to repair the screen yourself, which can end up costing less than having the manufacturer do it. However, for Samsung’s new foldables, this isn’t likely to be easy. Samsung’s aforementioned push for durability means the phones are filled with a lot of sticky, hard to remove stuff like tape, glue, and goo. The company says the folding screens are made out of multiple layers, which are sealed with a “pressure-sensitive adhesive.” As someone who’s taken apart their share of devices, that sounds like an absolute nightmare.
That said, this isn’t much of a change. It’s not like Samsung’s previous foldables were particularly easy to repair. And while the company’s prices are higher than those for more traditional phone repairs — a broken iPhone 12 screen costs $279 to replace; a Galaxy S21 5G’s costs $199 — Samsung is actually charging less than it used to. According to Samsung’s site, the Z Fold 2’s inner screen costs $549 to replace out of warranty and the Z Flip 5G’s costs $499, though depending on when you bought the phone, you may be eligible for a one-time replacement for significantly less.
