Apple has acknowledged that the inner display on a limited number of its first foldable handset, the iPhone Duo, is affected by a defect, and it is directing owners who run into screen trouble to AppleCare to arrange a replacement unit. The company's statement was relayed by Bloomberg technology editor Mark Gurman on his X account and reported by الشرق للأخبار. Apple did not say what is causing the problem, how many devices are involved, or how the swap process will work.
Why it matters
The admission lands in the first day the device has been in buyers' hands, an unusually early stumble for a new product category at Apple. Foldables depend on a flexible inner panel that has to survive repeated bending, and any hint that the screen can fail within hours of purchase goes to the heart of whether the form factor is durable enough for mainstream buyers. Apple's response also sets the tone for how it handles the launch: it is offering replacements without, so far, explaining the technical root cause.
What owners reported in the first 24 hours
Complaints began surfacing within a day of the phone reaching customers, according to الشرق للأخبار. Some owners said the inner screen was damaged within hours of buying the device; in some cases the failure came before they had finished setting it up for the first time.
Users posted images of the damage on Reddit. One account, Midnight_Slump, said the screen broke after roughly six hours of use and only about 20 openings. The owner described feeling something like grit beneath the display while unfolding the phone, then hearing a cracking sound as a fissure appeared.
A second account, leftyhyzer16, reported that the screen broke before setup was complete. This user noticed stiffness in the hinge after folding the device four times and then heard a crack while trying to move it. A third owner described a break followed by a black line and the loss of colour on the display, less than six hours after starting to use the phone.
Hinge part draws scrutiny
Independent teardown work has pointed toward the hinge assembly. A test by the JerryRigEverything channel found that the hinge lost flexibility and that the phone could no longer close fully after being exposed to a large amount of dust.
Analysis by iFixit, which dismantles devices to assess how repairable they are, suggested the inner screen damage may be tied to a component in the hinge that could press on the flexible panel as the phone folds, harming it. Shahram Mokhtari, who leads teardown operations at iFixit, told The Verge that the likely source sits in the hinge area, where a set of gears, springs and linkages work together so the handset can shut flat while leaving room for the inner display to curve gradually, which helps reduce the depth of the crease at the fold.
In the area Mokhtari suspects, however, the flexible inner screen appears to press against part of the hinge. He noted that the display is sensitive enough that pressure from a pointed tool on its edges can crack it. He also said photos of damaged units circulating on social platforms often show a dark spot where the harm is concentrated, which he said may mark the point where the metal part meets the screen.
iFixit's teardown shows where the shape of the hinge's central support changes to make room for a flexible connecting cable running through it, producing several edges that may be linked to the problem. According to the analysis, the central support bar may not always drop far enough as the display folds, which could concentrate pressure at a single point between the flat bar and the curved screen inside the closed phone, leaving it more vulnerable to damage. That remains a possible explanation only: Apple has not announced a confirmed technical cause.
The company's guidance to affected users is to contact AppleCare if their phone's screen is giving them trouble, and a replacement handset will follow. What to watch is whether Apple publishes a cause or a production fix, and whether the number of reported failures grows beyond the small batch it has described.
