After delay, Samsung's $2,000 Galaxy Fold hits stores in the U.S.

Samsung's highly-anticipated new $2,000 foldable smartphone hit stores in the U.S. on Friday, after a wave of bad reviews delayed its planned debut from April.

While the Galaxy Fold has been released elsewhere, the U.S. rollout was put on hold after several tech reviewers reported that the units they had received were damaged within a day or two of using them.

The phone was unveiled by Samsung in February and was supposed to be available to U.S. consumers in April before the rollout was put on hold.

Samsung proclaims its latest gadget as "the biggest leap forward in mobile technology since the first smartphones arrived a decade ago," but it comes with a hefty price tag for a smartphone, starting at 1,979.99.

Its most buzzed-about feature is that it is designed to seamlessly fold from a 7.3-inch tablet to a 4.6-inch smartphone.

After giving frosty reviews to the first version of the device, tech sites have responded more positively to the revamped version.

The tech blog Endgadget said the new version is "stronger than before," and that Samsung addressed the key structural issues that were causing the initial version of the phone to break. The review notes that "beyond those hardware changes, nothing else is new on the Galaxy Fold."

Others, however, still cast doubt on the phone's durability.

A reviewer at Tech Crunch said the display on his new device was damaged after just a day of use.

In response, Samsung said the Fold is a "first-of-its-kind device, made with new materials and technologies that allow it to open and close just like a book."

"We encourage Galaxy Fold owners to read the care instructions included in the box and in the product manual available online," the company said. "Products used within these guidelines are covered under warranty. If they have any questions, Galaxy Fold owners can consult with Samsung product specialists through the Galaxy Fold Premier Service any time, any day."