Apple did not rush launching the iPhone Duo. The company had been quietly chasing this idea for over a decade. Its engineers, including current CEO John Ternus, started filing patents for foldable displays and flexible OLED screens for years. Now, 15 years of patience, prototypes, and folding tests later, the iPhone Duo finally landed in people’s pockets. Except now, barely days after sales went live and people started using it, a growing pile of Reddit threads and MacRumors forum posts suggest something isn’t sitting right. iPhone Duo screen cracks have appeared along the hinge.
Almost every reported iPhone Duo screen crack traces back to the same spot: the hinge. Owners describe a bright line of broken pixels creeping across one half of the display, with zero scuffs or dents to explain it.
One Australian iPhone Duo user says his unit gave out after fewer than 20 opens, just six hours into ownership. He felt something shift near the internal hinge mid-fold, heard a crack, and watched the screen split, with nothing on the surface or the hinge itself hinting that anything had been caught or mishandled.
That same user walked into an Apple Store and walked out with a replacement, no questions asked, which hints Apple may already be gathering faulty units to study where exactly the design is cracking.
Similar cracked-screen photos have surfaced from demo units in China, where the Duo launched hours before the US, though user damage hasn’t been ruled out there.
Meanwhile, some early reviewers who deliberately stress-tested their iPhone Duo screens reported no issues at all, a reminder that the sample size here is still tiny. With millions of these shipping worldwide, a few failures were always statistically likely; whether this becomes a pattern or a footnote remains to be seen.
Anyone picking up an iPhone Duo has a two-week window to return it if the crease starts talking back.