Apple has acknowledged that some of its iPhone Duo handsets have developed problems with their screens, days after the company’s first ever foldable went on sale on 23 October.
Apple said it was aware of “an issue impacting the inner display on a small number” of the phones, and urged affected users to contact the company for a replacement.
What owners are reporting
Photos posted on social media show lines across the screens. Some owners have posted cracks running along the centre crease, others chipping at one part of the display, and others bright lines down the right-hand side which users attribute to dead pixels. Several report a crunching or popping noise when opening the device.
The described sequence is consistent: an unusual stiffness in the hinge when unfolding, then a sound, then a crack. Some say it happened within hours of purchase during ordinary use. Users have given the problem a name — crackgate.
One Reddit user wrote that the screen cracked within three hours of buying the phone, after opening it at most twenty times, following a sudden pop. An iPhone Duo user, Justin Lokos, posted an image of a device with lines across the right side of the display, and later a picture of a new handset beside the broken one, thanking an Apple store in New York for its help.
Two cautions, one of them unusual
The extent of the problem remains unclear. Apple has not said how many devices are affected.
And here is the wrinkle that makes this a story about more than hinges: the BBC notes that some images showing faulty devices may have been created using AI. A consumer fault report is now a category of content that can be fabricated convincingly, which cuts both ways — it lets a real defect be dismissed as fake, and lets a fake one spread as real. We wrote this morning about genuine storm photographs being accused of being AI-generated; this is the same erosion arriving in product journalism.
Francisco Jeronimo, technology analyst at IDC, said that meant caution was needed before drawing conclusions about the whole production run. But he added that the early reports also showed “that even a company with Apple’s engineering resources and supply chain discipline faces a steep learning curve in foldables”.
The hinge problem is not new
The Duo’s 7.6-inch (19.3cm) inner display is held together by a central hinge — a complex piece of engineering that has produced similar flaws in folding devices from Apple’s competitors. Samsung’s first foldable, the Galaxy Fold, suffered an early setback in 2019 when reviewers reported broken screens.
Apple says the Duo’s hinge is designed to minimise the crease in the middle of the display and to keep working reliably over long use. Cracks appearing within days of launch put that claim under strain.
Why the replacement promise is the hard part
Supply is the problem. Every colour and storage configuration has sold out online, and a new order placed now is unlikely to arrive before 22 January. So even a customer entitled to a replacement may be waiting months — and that is before 28 further markets open on 30 October.
Jeronimo made the same point from the business side: “Apple has a loyal customer base and a retail network that can swap devices on the spot, but with a further 28 markets launching on 30 October, it needs to clarify its warranty position quickly.”
The Duo starts at £1,999 ($2,668) in the UK and runs up to £3,199 for the best-equipped models, making it the most expensive iPhone ever. It is Apple’s first major iPhone redesign in almost two decades, unveiled by new chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook in September. “Others have created foldables that just feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together,” Ternus told an audience at Apple’s California headquarters last month, saying the Duo would “redefine the experience of using a foldable phone”.
If you are buying in Bangladesh
Three practical points. The Duo is not officially launched here, so a unit bought grey-market has no Apple warranty path for exactly this kind of inner-display failure — and this is a fault that needs a replacement device, not a repair.
Second, if you are buying officially, the warranty terms are the thing to read. When the iPhone 18 launched officially in Bangladesh, the Shield+ package included a second year of cover with one front screen and one back glass replacement. Whether any such package covers a folding inner display is a question to ask before paying, not after.
Third, the obvious one: wait. A first-generation folding device with a public hinge problem four days after launch is the textbook case for letting somebody else go first. Apple is also showing new Macs today, so there will be plenty else to look at — we previewed what is expected at that event last week.
