Samsung says it will start selling its highly anticipated folding phone on Friday, after the original launch date was delayed by months because of embarrassing problems with the screen.

The South Korean tech giant said on Thursday that the Galaxy Fold is going on sale after it spent the past several months "refining" the device to improve its "design and construction".

The nearly $2,000 phone will launch on September 6 in South Korea, followed later in the month by other key markets including the United States, France and Singapore, with 5G versions available in Britain and Germany.

The Galaxy Fold's original April launch was pushed back after reports that some reviewers' phones were breaking. Journalists who had received the phones said the folding screen started flickering and turning black before fizzling out.

The firm will also offer a programme to Galaxy Fold users under which the company would cover 70 per cent of the cost of screen repair once within a year of use.

The Galaxy Fold has been widely promoted as the “world's first foldable smartphone”, while rivals such as China's Huawei have been racing to bring similar devices to market.

Samsung has a history of humiliating setbacks with major products, most notably a worldwide recall of its Galaxy Note 7 devices in 2016 over exploding batteries, which hammered its reputation.