Apple’s first foldable iPhone is already showing cracked screens for some buyers just hours after the $1,999 device hit stores Friday.
The iPhone Duo, 254 grams and 11.3 millimeters thick when folded, drew an 8.8 out of 10 from Engadget and 7 out of 10 from both The Verge and WIRED before its retail launch. Engadget called the long-awaited entry into the foldable market “worth the wait,” while The Verge described it as a “messy, expensive, good time.” Wired labeled it an “astonishingly good first foldable.”
Yet by Friday afternoon, a handful of Reddit posts painted a different picture for some early owners. “iPhone Duo screen cracked within 6 hours of ownership,” one user complained. The person said they had taken out the device to show it off to a friend when they “felt something around the internal hinge, underneath the screen.”
“As I continued opening it, I heard an audible crack, and the screen broke right along the hinge,” the post continued. “There were no marks or damage on the inner screen’s surface or the external hinge to suggest anything had been caught or damaged.”
The customer returned to an Apple store, where staff provided a replacement Duo.
Another Reddit user posted video of a cracked device, commenting: “Looks like some of them are cracking in the exact same area.” Yet another image of a cracked Duo carried the caption, “I’ve seen several iPhone Duos with damage in this exact same spot.”
The hardware otherwise impressed reviewers with its titanium construction and smooth hinge that holds the screen at different angles. The 7.6-inch matte display unfolds to dramatically reduce glare, though the crease remains visible at certain angles and can still be felt when running a finger across the screen.
Software shortcomings emerged as a major frustration across reviews. While Apple’s own apps generally transition seamlessly between folded and unfolded screens, many third-party offerings remain poorly optimized. Wired’s Julian Chokkattu described the problem: “Thick, black bars on the sides, with a phone-sized app in the middle of this tablet-like display.”
Engadget’s Sam Rutherford called the gap between optimized and unoptimized apps “the biggest growing pain you’ll face on Apple’s first foldable.”
Multitasking also faces rigid constraints. “If you have two apps split-screen on the Duo, Apple won’t let you resize one app to be slightly bigger than the other like you can on Android,” Chokkattu wrote in Wired. “Here, a 50-50 split is always enforced. You can’t add a floating third app when in split-screen either, even though Apple has offered a similar capability on iPads for years.”
Those limitations could ease as developers adapt. Wired reported that several popular apps received updates during the testing period, while Creative Strategies said the share of its installed apps optimized for the Duo increased dramatically over roughly six days.
Other compromises are baked into the hardware. “Despite being Apple’s most expensive iPhone, the iPhone Duo does not have its most powerful camera system,” Chance Miller of 9to5Mac wrote. Its main and ultrawide cameras generally earned favorable marks, but reviewers found their performance inferior to the iPhone 18 Pro, particularly in low light.
The hidden 4-megapixel camera beneath the inner display disappointed further, with Gizmodo reporting washed-out image quality. “I hear you: it feels absurd that a $2,000 phone—the most expensive iPhone ever—does not have the most versatile camera system that Apple has to offer,” Gizmodo’s Raymond Wong wrote, adding that he “noticed more lens flares coming off streetlights and more smeared details.”
The folding design does offer novel photographic advantages, including the ability to use the higher-quality rear cameras for selfies while viewing the shot on the outer screen.
Battery life exceeded several reviewers’ expectations. Tom’s Guide found the Duo lasted 13 hours and 20 minutes in a continuous 5G web-browsing test using its larger display, handily beating the 10 hours and six minutes recorded by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 but falling well short of the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s 17 hours and 31 minutes.
The Wall Street Journal delivered one of the harshest overall assessments, describing the device as “Too Much iPhone, Too Little iPad.” Despite its expansive inner display, the Duo falls short of an iPad for productivity, with more limited multitasking and keyboard capabilities, according to the Journal.
The 5.4-inch outer display drew mixed reactions, with some reviewers praising its compact footprint and others complaining that websites and apps feel cramped. Colors also appear less vibrant and blacks less deep than on Apple’s non-folding premium iPhones, a trade-off of the anti-reflective finish.
Tom’s Guide called it the “best designed foldable yet,” while 9to5Mac concluded that a conventional iPhone remains the more practical choice for most consumers.