Apple’s Foldable Debut Hits a Hinge Problem

Apple’s Foldable Debut Hits a Hinge Problem
The iPhone Duo’s first weekend on sale brought the usual excitement around Apple’s first foldable — and a more damaging pattern of complaints. Owners posting online reported bright lines spreading across the inner display, often after resistance near the hinge.

One Australian customer said the phone had been opened fewer than 20 times when they felt something beneath the screen, heard “an audible crack,” and watched the display break along the hinge. The Apple Store replaced it immediately, they said. Similar reports described damage appearing within hours, or even during setup, on a $1,999-and-up device.

By Monday, Apple had moved from silence to acknowledgement. The company said it was aware of “an issue impacting the inner display” on a “small number” of iPhone Duo units and told affected customers to contact AppleCare for a replacement. Apple also stressed that early response to the phone had been positive and that developers were adapting apps for its new form factor.

The dispute now turns on whether this is a limited manufacturing defect or a deeper engineering problem. iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari said the flexible display may be contacting a hinge component at a transition point, creating a stress “hot spot” when the phone closes. Yet he also noted that Apple alone has the data needed to establish how widespread the failures are.

A separate teardown by YouTuber CuriousHagi sharpened that suspicion: after reproducing a failure, he found a thinner central hinge link had snapped at a notch and showed marks suggesting it may have caught against a support plate.

For now, Apple is offering replacements rather than a recall. The early failures underscore the awkward reality of first-generation foldables: sophisticated hinges can deliver a striking new form factor, but they also create a new point of failure.

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