Following the iPhone Duo launch on Friday, a number of owners are reporting that their inner screens have cracked and broken on their own.
The affected units all seem to break in the same way. The screen cracks down the center line of the hinge, and a horizontal block of pixels on the screen is then stuck glowing white.
The scale of the issue remains unclear. We’ve seen about ten unique instances so far, with many posting their (similar) experiences on the iPhone Duo subreddit.
The amount of time it takes for the cracking to happen varies, but obviously it doesn’t take too long since customers have only been able to start unboxing the device since Friday morning. A couple of people even said theirs cracked during the first setup process.
From what we’ve seen so far, most buyers experiencing this problem have been able to return to the Apple Store and get a straight device replacement.
People who bought from carriers may have had less luck, as the carriers do not have immediate stock to give out a replacement. One person said they were told that they must have dropped the phone to cause the damage, and that it was on them to pay for repair.
In terms of why this is happening, there is a working theory that a batch of iPhone Duos have a defective hinge component. The suggestion is a piece of the hinge is slightly misaligned, and pokes upwards onto the inner screen, causing the breakage.
Some on social media have suggested that users should not close the iPhone Duo by pressing in the center of the inner display, and perhaps that contributes to this issue occurring. It is unclear if this is actually relevant advice. Officially, Apple has not given any guidance on how users are expected to handle the phone when folding and unfolding it.
While the reports are concerning, it is worth remembering that Apple has probably shipped hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of units already and only a small percentage of people have had their phone break on them. Hopefully, most people will be able to enjoy using their new iPhone Duo without issue. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment, and will update if we hear back.
My best friend has has had the Samsung version of this for four different generations now. I’ve always been a hater about it but now in gen 4, there are very few issues with Samsung’s folding phones… but they still suck and are fragile as hell.
My conclusion: all folding screen phones like this are shite and Apple gets a first generation mulligan on this one. This release is as bad as any in their history and they should have seen it coming a mile away given Samsung’s myriad issues.My rule: NEVER BUY AN OVERPRICED, GIMMICKY, FIRST-GENERATION APPLE PRODUCT.
Eh, for what its worth my z flip 5 is the longest living phone (3y+) ive had so far
I also work in construction. The lack of ip rating should have killed this device years ago but its still chugging along, ive dropped it 3 times this week and its only tuesday so …
I call bullshit. Even a grain of sand would be disastrous for that phone. You must be in management.
Pretty sure those screens are made my Samsung.
This is probably an issue with the hinge considering its the same location in all cases
Soon, from Apple:
You’re opening it wrong
Lol I predicted this to friends months ago. Apparently the era of phones with hinges taught us nothing.
If they made two screens that meet when you unfold it, with little to no gap, it would be almost the same and surely more durable. But no, it had to be the New Gimmick!
Except even the first generation Samsung folding phones seem to be sturdier than this.
I think your memory might be fuzzy. Samsung had to delay the rollout of the new 1st gen Fold because of hardware issues that showed their faces before they even sold them to customers.
I have been using a Fold7 for years. Stick to EV battery doom.
Nope, I remember it pretty precisely. There was a plastic film that looked like it was meant to be peeled off but wasn’t. If you peeled it off, it broke the screen. But as long as you left it on, things were semi OK. In essence, it was sturdier - the design was “just” confusing for consumers. Samsung fixed the problem before a single device landed in the hands of consumers - which is what actually matters.
I should retract my statement after remembering how good the G1/HTC Dream was. The hinge on that thing was sturdy as hell!
The problem isn’t the hinge itself. Laptops have had hinges for ages without significant issues. The problem is the flexible screen that has to bend around the hinge. That’s a significant engineering challenge. A challenge which Samsung is apparently much better at, even if Samsung’s hinges definitely have their issues.
I bought a used Pixel Fold at the beginning of the year because it was cheap. It was clearly used, needed a good cleaning and has some scratches when I got it. I’ve been using it heavily since, opening and closing it daily. There are a few dead pixels but I think those were there when I got it, otherwise it still works fine.
Didn’t even need to go back to flip phones to know this was going to happen. The smart flip phones from Motorola and Samsung always end up breaking. It’s inevitable.
The same line showed up in the jerryrigeverything video.
Been following this fiasco from a safe distance out of curiosity.
It’s very apparent they pushed this out the door before it was ready and the hinge cracking the screen is only one aspect of that. The UI and UX are severely undercooked, with several of Apple’s own first-party apps not supporting the duo and just showing up as normal portrait iphone apps. Also lots of issues with screen rotation not working, the camera having the quality of a 12 year old iphone, lots of software bugs, some reports of units just outright bricking themselves, and Apple’s own first-party case requires you to glue it to the phone.
The adage of “never buy first generation Apple hardware” has existed since at least the ipod days
the schadenfreude is real
Apple have released a foldable phone now? Any actual innovation or have they just copied and refined what’s already out there?
There are two innovations kind of worth noting. One is that the software animation when closing or opening the phone looks very cool & the second is that Apple’s plastic screen protector is using a somewhat clever matte nano tech that hides the crease -and reflections in general- quite effectively.
Imo folding phones are not really worth using, but the Iphone Fold is especially bad. Not only is the hinge design itself obviously flawed causing all these breakages, but also the hinge internals are sealed really poorly so you get some dirt in there & gg.
I must be jaded because an opening/closing animation as “innovative” makes me want to puke. If the matte screen holds up to 2000 sheets of writing using a stylus, that’s more interesting.
As for usability, I desperately want to combine my note taking device, my ereader, and my phone (comms/camera). I have an eink device, but I don’t find the reflective display worth carrying a second device, usually. After trying out the News+ feature on my iPad for a month I was addicted, but my phone is too small for comfortable long-form reading. And I take a LOT of pen notes on my 12” tablet but, again, it’s another device to lug around. Sometimes I need that screen real estate to draw but often I can get by with an A6 notepad for what I need. The only think keeping me from throwing (more) money at Apple is knowing this is a Gen 1 device and it’s better to have others find the early flaws and work through the bugs.
The displays on folding phones are notoriously soft. So soft that you can easily scratch them with a fingernail. Their inherent fragility combined with limited usefulness and wild pricing has kept me far away from them.
Their utility is limited by the applications they’re used for. Look at the original Fold. It was “candy bar” shaped. Crazy tall when folded. But this meant media only consumed ~60% of the display when opened anyway, so largely useless for that application.
We’re seeing a clear trend toward wide phones on the market now, but that leads to crazy wide displays when folded, which means developing a new UI to do something with all that space.
Copied? Yes. Refined? Considering I haven’t heard of another foldable phone having this degree of failure, maybe not so much.
As with all Apple first gen reporting: consider this wildly inflated by the media for clicks and attention.
This article certainly makes it seem like they’ve copied the fragile hardware from everyone else
Most foldable phones suffer from some degree of wear-based failure over time, I’ve never heard of one failing like this so much straight out of the box.
I have a Samsung Z fold 3 that I still use. No issues with it other than I haven’t found another OS that supports it
My understanding is that this is a manufacturing issue, that some units aren’t being as precisely assembled as they should be. Apparently their manufacturing engineers are working on it, and anyone with an affected unit can get replacements for free, no questions asked.
