The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 carries an IP48 rating: waterproof, but unprotected against dust particles smaller than 1 mm. iFixit confirmed exactly what that means in practice by packing the phone's hinge with UV-reactive dust, then attempting to fold it. The result was an audible crunching sound and a fully seized mechanism.
Disassembly required removing the flexible OLED to reach the hinge, a destructive process. Under UV light, the hinge was coated in dust across every component. The two phone halves stayed relatively clean, but the hinge, the one part that moves constantly and cannot be sealed without redesigning the product, took the full impact.
The parallel to Apple's butterfly keyboard is precise and damning: a mechanically impressive design undone by a fundamental tolerance problem. iFixit's teardown is worth reading in full because the engineering detail on why the hinge cannot be adequately sealed without sacrificing the fold radius is the real story, not just the dust.
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