Apple is facing mounting complaints after customers reported that displays on the new iPhone Duo foldable smartphone are cracking within hours of purchase.
Early hardware teardowns point to a potential mechanical failure inside the folding hinge, although it remains unknown how many handsets are affected or what specifically causes the panels to fail.
Reports of fractured displays began appearing across the online forum Reddit over the weekend, following Apple's retail release of the phone on Friday, according to technology news website The Verge. Affected users reported similar structural damage originating near the hinge mechanism, with bright lines spreading across the lower right section of the flexible display. Technology commentators and social media users have rapidly dubbed the situation Crackgate.
The reports involve the most expensive smartphone Apple has ever brought to market. In Spain, launch prices for the iPhone Duo begin at 2,339 euros for the 256-gigabyte model and reach 3,839 euros for the top configuration equipped with 2 terabytes of storage.
Customer reports of broken displays
Among the complaints, an Australian customer posting under the username Midnight_Slump in the iPhoneDuo subreddit reported that his screen broke after only six hours of ownership. The user explained that he had opened and closed the device fewer than 20 times before the failure occurred.
The customer recounted that he was showing the phone to a friend when he felt an unexpected object or obstruction in the area of the internal hinge beneath the screen. When he continued to unfold the device, he heard a cracking noise and the display broke directly along the line of the hinge. He stated that there were no marks, scratches, or surface damage on either the inner screen or the external hinge to indicate that any foreign object had been caught or had caused impact.
Staff at an Apple Store replaced the broken handset with a brand new unit on the spot, the customer said. Other users have published photographs and video recordings showing identical fractures, though there is currently no public tally to confirm the full scale of the issue.
Teardown findings point to hinge link
Independent repair specialists and hardware testers immediately began investigating why the folding screens were breaking under ordinary handling. The technology YouTuber CuriousHagi managed to replicate the fracture during endurance testing and subsequently dismantled the handset to examine the internal components.
During the teardown, CuriousHagi discovered an internal hinge link that was visibly thinner than the links positioned directly above and below it. The link was broken across a small notch, and internal rub marks suggested that the moving hinge mechanism had jammed against the underlying support plate.
Specialists at the electronics repair organisation iFixit proposed an explanation that aligns with CuriousHagi's observations. Technicians suggested that a central piece within the hinge assembly may fail to descend or retract sufficiently when the smartphone is folded closed.
If that central component remains raised, the flexible screen rests directly on top of it, concentrating mechanical pressure onto a single vulnerable point rather than dispersing it evenly across the frame. iFixit also observed that an accordion-folded ribbon cable connecting the two halves of the phone runs adjacent to this area, though technicians noted that the cable itself is not necessarily the reason for the defect.
Display crease and stress test results
The teardown by iFixit also revealed how Apple engineered the display to disguise the central crease that naturally forms on folding panels. Apple applied a specialised nanotextured coating to the screen that scatters incoming light and softens reflections, making the central indentation far less visible to the naked eye without physically eliminating the groove.
The wave of user reports contrasts sharply with several extreme stress tests conducted before and during the retail launch. Technology tester Tim Pan carried out 11,500 opening and closing cycles last week, including 1,000 cycles conducted at sub-zero temperatures, without causing the display to crack. While the folding crease became significantly more visible after the trial, the screen remained intact and functional.
Similarly, technology journalist Joanna Stern tested the iPhone Duo through 32,640 continuous opening and closing cycles using an automated testing rig. Her benchmark concluded without detecting any significant structural breakdown or visible deterioration in the flexible panel.
Foldable phone history and market challenges
The launch of the iPhone Duo represents Apple's long-anticipated entry into the foldable device market, arriving seven years after Samsung released the first Galaxy Fold in 2019. Samsung encountered a comparable crisis when early review units suffered screen failures within days of dispatch, prompting the South Korean manufacturer to delay retail distribution for several months to redesign its hinge and screen protection.
Foldable smartphones rely on flexible organic light-emitting diode displays bonded to ultra-thin glass and protective polymer layers. Because these components must bend repeatedly across a mechanical pivot, any microscopic misalignment or foreign debris inside the hinge can exert lethal focal stress on the brittle display substrate.
Apple developed the iPhone Duo over multiple years with the intention of avoiding the mechanical vulnerabilities that troubled earlier folding phones. However, the emerging reports of screens breaking within hours of unboxing suggest that the physical engineering of folding glass remains an unforgiving frontier for consumer electronics.
