Visitors photograph the new Samsung Galaxy Fold at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Photo: IC

Samsung Electronics is retrieving all Galaxy Fold samples distributed to reviewers, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, as the firm smarts from the reputational blow of postponing the launch of its first foldable smartphone.

The South Korean tech giant was met with embarrassment ahead of the device's US release on April 26, with a handful of technology journalists reporting breaks, bulges and blinking screens after just a day's use.

However, the setback for the $1,980 niche device is trivial compared to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle of 2016, when exploding batteries forced Samsung to scrap the flagship model at huge cost. Galaxy Fold shipments this year are likely to make up less than half a percent of Samsung's annual total, analysts and investors said.

The company said on Monday it would delay the retail launch of its Galaxy Fold smartphone for an unspecified period of time after reviewers discovered problems with the display, a hit to the reputation of the world's largest handset maker.

Last week, reviewers started posting problems with the device on Twitter, but as of Friday the company did not know the root cause of the screen defects, according to Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy, who said he was in direct contact with the company.

About 50 units of the $1,980 foldable device had been sent for review to journalists, analysts and bloggers in the US ahead of a planned April 26 launch, Moorhead said.

It was not immediately clear how many of the devices were defective. Four units sent to journalists and a YouTube personality contained problems, according to their posts on Twitter.

Samsung declined comment beyond a prepared statement.

"To fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold. We plan to announce the release date in the coming weeks," a Samsung spokesperson told Reuters on Monday.

Samsung also postponed media events for the device planned for this week in Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

While Samsung has not said how long the delay could be or whether production of the unit has halted completely, some analysts said the delay was minor compared to the massive recall and production halt that the company endured with its Galaxy Note 7 in 2016.

"It's certainly an embarrassment to Samsung's reputation but this won't have much financial impact on them since they created a whole new category of foldables with this product. There is no market share to lose," said Moorhead, who added that his test version of the phone was working without any issues.

Instead of plaudits ahead of the phone's planned launch, the South Korean conglomerate has been blighted by a handful of technology journalists reporting breaks, bulges and blinking screens.

Samsung said initial findings showed that the issues could be associated with impact on exposed areas of the hinges. It also said there were instances where substances found inside the device affected the display performance.

Wayne Lam, an analyst with IHS Markit, predicted the issue would likely be resolved within a month.

"We all know that Samsung has a technology that works. It's likely that this glitch is a problem with mass production and the failure is just in the single digit percentage," he said.

Samsung has hailed the folding design as the future in a field that has seen few surprises since Apple Inc's iPhone in 2007. Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has also announced a folding handset, the Mate X.