This might be why Apple iPhone Duo screens are cracking in exactly the same place

Apple's folding iPhone has, by all accounts, got off to a cracking start. Pre-orders quickly sold out, with delivery dates now extending well into 2027. It seems that after a string of somewhat disappointing launches such as the iPhone Air and Vision Pro, Apple has a bonafide hit on its hands. But as always happens in the first few days of a brand new product launch, a few snags are coming into focus.

One of the more curious issues facing some iPhone Duo units is the screen cracking in one very specific location. This involves a thin crack down the centre hinge, and a line of stuck bright white pixels across the right side of the display. The result has aready led to some amusing wallpaper designs making light of the issue.

But why are multiple Duo models breaking in the same way? Well, now that teardowns of the device have begun, we might have an answer. iFixit has revealed an area of concentrated components around the hinge, with a different shape to the rest of the hinge, which could be causing excess stress on the screen.

"To see where the stresses build up from folding, we built a 3D hinge model from teardown footage, patents, and CT scans, then compared it with the reported damage locations," reports iFixit. "The breaks cluster near the transition from the gap for the crossing flex cable to the central hinge support. The damage we’re seeing in photos isn’t right where the display cable passes through the hinge, but slightly lower, at a point where several edges meet and change how the thin display is supported as it bends... The screen’s curved fold comes down onto it, creating a small stress hotspot near the reported break location."

While it's too early to tell the scale of the problem, it seems at least a few units from this early batch of iPhone Duos might feature a subtle design flaw. Right now, early adopters are likely stress testing the product more than the average user, and the fault could be limited to a handful of units, leading to an outsized impression of the issue. If anything, it shows just how much more intricate the design of these foldable needs to be – and that not even Apple is necessarily immune to the difficulties of creating a durable device that can happily fold in half.

Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.