The Galaxy Note 4 just launched, and already we see reports of yet another “Gate”, a “Gap Gate”.  Early users report of a small gap between the screen and the walls of the phone. The issue was first reported on by iTToday in South Korea, and so far only a few users and Note 4 devices seem to be affected.

According to the users, a business card or two pieces of paper can fit in the screen gap. This could potentially be a source for liquids or dust into the device.

The Note 4 has just been introduced to South Korea, and all 30.000 initial units were sold out. Initially Samsung acknowledged the problem, but was more or less ignoring it, probably in hope to bring not more attention to it: ”The reported issue does not impact the functionality or quality of the Galaxy Note 4,” an official Samsung spokesperson told us. “We assure our customers that all Galaxy Note 4 units meet our strict manufacturing and quality control standards.”

Today Samsung adresses the issue in a new light though and says the Gap is a “a necessary manufacturing issue,” and not an anomaly in a few devices. Samsung further says on their European Website that they

So basically it seems that for the Design and Manufacturing of the Note 4, the Gap in the Screen seems to be necessary, according to Samsung. That also means, that all Galaxy Note 4 will have the Gap, not only a small number of phones.

Further Samsung said on their European Website:

Basically Samsung says, that the Gap, which is already big enough to fit a Credit Card, could get bigger with the times. Also that Gap is existent on every Galaxy Note 4 Screen. If Samsung is correct with that, and its not a PR mistake, this would be a recipe for disaster on the Note 4. With an even bigger gap dirt and liquids can easy get in and damage the Note 4 phone. Hopefully this would not lead to a damaged screen or worse.

We have seen a lot of devices, as well on similar size as the Note 4, without any significant screen Gap. Yet Samsung is embracing the GAP as a necessary feature. When we actually had the possibility to test the Note 4 in Berlin on the IFA, we couldnt see the GAP, although we did not specifically look for it as well. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha, with a very similiar design, does not have any screen Gap.

It is very interesting to see the second big smartphone manufacturer to have those big problems with their FlagShip Smartphones. Very unique about this case though, is that Samsung is actually admitting to having a Gap on the Note 4, saying its a feature, that could further expand. While Apple went through Bendgate, basically denying it 100%.

We have yet to see what is the better strategy for not hurting the brand. The most important though is that Galaxy Note 4 users are not negatively affected, so we will follow this issue very closely.