iPhone Duo: First Inner Displays Crack, and Apple Swaps Them Out

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Three days on sale and already the first cracks: Reports of broken inner displays on Apple’s new foldable iPhone Duo are piling up, and Apple has now acknowledged the problem. “We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units,” the company said in a statement to 9to5Mac. Affected users should contact AppleCare for a replacement.

Cracks Along the Hinge

The first reports surfaced over the weekend on Reddit and other forums. The inner displays crack along the center line, exactly where the device folds. According to Gizmodo, leakers have collected at least 20 cases, including reports from China. Some examples:

• Australia: One user reported a crack six hours after purchase, after opening the device fewer than 20 times.
• Texas: Another buyer noticed the damage before even finishing setup.
• Fakes: Not every report is real. According to 9to5Mac, a handful of fake, A.I.-generated reports are also circulating.

According to Apple, the problem appears to surface relatively soon after purchase. AppleCare+ is not required for a replacement, and customers who bought through a carrier should contact Apple directly.

Bad Batch or Design Flaw?

The cause is still unclear. After their teardown, the repair experts at iFixit suspect that certain components in the hinge may put too much pressure on the display, for example a support bar that does not shift far enough when the phone closes. That has not been confirmed. If the problem turns out to be a design flaw rather than a faulty batch, replacement devices would only postpone it.

The timing is bad for Apple. Starting at $1,999 in the U.S. and €2,319 in Austria, the iPhone Duo is the company’s most expensive iPhone, and demand is high: Anyone ordering now will wait until late January. Apple itself stressed that the response from early users has been “incredibly positive.”

Rivals Know the Problem

Cracking screens are nothing new for foldables. Samsung struggled with broken displays on the first Galaxy Fold in 2019 and had to delay its launch by months. Since then, Samsung, Google, Honor and other manufacturers have made the hinges and displays of their foldable phones much more robust. Apple entered the market years later, which should have given it the advantage of learning from its rivals’ teething problems.