Samsung released its first-generation Galaxy Fold — a futuristic, book-style foldable smartphone — back in 2019, well over seven years ago.
Apple, which has a long track record of playing it safe and entering markets long after a specific consumer electronics segment has been established, finally released a foldable of its own, called the iPhone Duo, last week.
Yet despite the lengthy delay, the cracks are already starting to show — in the most literal way possible.
An astonishing number of customers across the globe are reporting that the $1,999 device’s 7.6-inch inner display is already cracking down the middle, with horizontal white lines indicating something is seriously wrong. Users across social media platforms are sharing images of their devices, which they say broke just hours after receiving them.
While customers are able to swap in their phones at the local Apple Store for a new one, the “crackgate” issue has left an understandably bad taste in customers’ mouths.
“More crack than a plumber,” one affected Reddit user wrote. “My iPhone Duo screen gave out on me last night.”
Others even mocked up lock screen images that carefully obfuscated the obvious white lines.
After days of frustrated customers posting pictures of their broken screens, Apple finally publicly acknowledged the issue.
In a carefully worded statement, Apple celebrated that the response from early users had been “incredibly positive,” but noted that it’s “aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units.”
It’s still not entirely clear what is causing the cracking or how widespread the issue is. Independent testing has shown that dust can enter the hinge mechanism, despite the device’s IP68 dust and water resistance rating. One YouTube analysis suggests the Duo’s complex hinge mechanisms may be prone to snap at a specific weak point.
The Duo is a major departure from years of Apple playing it safe, with mostly iterative improvements to each of the iPhone’s yearly releases that have increasingly failed to convince users to ditch their still-capable devices in favor of a new one. On top of it all are soaring consumer electronics prices triggered by the AI gold rush.
Of course, chances are Apple will have an opportunity to iron out these issues for the next generation of the Duo. But that won’t exactly be reassuring to early adopters, who took a chance on the extremely expensive first-generation device.
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