Apple has acknowledged that some units of its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, have developed screen problems just days after the highly anticipated device went on sale. Photos circulating on social media show lines appearing across the inner display of the handset, which starts at £1,999 ($2,668) in the UK. Apple said it was aware of "an issue impacting the inner display on a small number" of phones and urged affected customers to contact the company for a replacement.
Other Duo owners have posted images showing cracks along the centre crease of the screen, and some have reported a crunching noise when opening the device. One user, Justin Lokos, posted a photo of lines across the right side of his display before later sharing an image of a replacement handset alongside the faulty one, thanking an Apple Store in New York for the swap. Apple has not said how many devices are affected, and Francisco Jeronimo, a technology analyst at IDC, cautioned that some images circulating online may have been generated with AI, meaning some caution is needed before drawing conclusions about the whole production run.
Even so, Jeronimo said the episode shows "that even a company with Apple's engineering resources and supply chain discipline faces a steep learning curve in foldables." The Duo's 7.6-inch inner display is held together by a central hinge, a piece of engineering that has produced similar flaws in rival foldables — Samsung's first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, suffered a near-identical setback when reviewers reported broken screens in 2019.
The stakes are higher for Apple than they were for Samsung at the time. The Duo marks the company's first major iPhone redesign in nearly two decades and was unveiled by new chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook in September and promised the device would "redefine the experience of using a foldable phone." Jeronimo said Apple had positioned the Duo as a "premium alternative" to established foldables, meaning "how it handles this first-generation issue will shape buyer confidence in the category well beyond its own sales," particularly with the phone launching in 28 more markets on October 30.