Ryan Haines / Android Authority
We’ve had foldable phones for seven years, and they’ve come a long way in that time. The foldables we saw in 2025 were thinner, lighter, and better than they’d ever been. Something that hasn’t changed is the way we protect the flexible inner screens. Pre-applied screen protectors are still the norm, and while they’ve gotten better, there will come a time when you need to replace them. Manufacturers want you to bring the phone back and have a professional do the job. But when the screen protector on my Galaxy Z Fold 4 gave up the ghost, I embraced my inner Jeremy Clarkson and asked: “How hard can it be?”
Would you change your own foldable screen protector? 96 votes Yes 21 % No 57 % I don't own a foldable 22 %
The problem with foldable screen protectors
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
You can’t bend a glass screen protector. Not more than once, anyway. As such, the pre-applied protectors on foldable phones are made of plastic. The quality has become significantly better over the years — my Fold 4’s screen protector doesn’t feel anything like the cheap TPU films you can buy on Amazon. Feeling good is only one part of the equation, though. Plastic screen protectors are soft and scratch easily, with even a fingernail doing damage if you press hard enough.
My Fold 4 suffered from a different issue, as you can see in the image above. Over time, these screen protectors start to lift at the edges of the crease, presumably because of the repeated flexing as you open and close your phone. This doesn’t happen quite as often as it used to. My wife has been using foldables as her only phone since the Z Flip 4, and the Flip 6 she’s had since it was released never had the lifting issue, although we did get it replaced recently because of scratching.
When my Fold 4 bubbled, I had three options for getting it fixed: Send it away to Samsung and be without the phone for 2-3 weeks, pay extra to have a technician come to my home and do it, or take it to one of the larger EE stores. EE is one of the major carriers in the UK and performs official repairs on Samsung phones, in and out of warranty, whether you’re an EE customer or not. I’ve used EE for this before, and I’ve always been satisfied, but the nearest store that does these repairs is over an hour away, and I was curious to see how difficult this would be. So, I decided to pick a fourth option and do it myself.
I replaced my Fold 4’s screen protector — you shouldn’t
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
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