When Samsung released the first Galaxy Fold in 2019, it didn’t even make it until launch day before units began breaking. As the first wave of review units rolled out, several had their folding screens crack or break before the review embargo lifted.
Those were the early days of foldable screen technology, but it sort of set a level of expectation for these types of devices. Knowing that a folding screen would need to be a material that can almost fold in half, it’s been something to worry about with each release, even as companies like Samsung and Google have continued to improve durability.
iPhone Duo displays are already cracking
With Apple releasing the iPhone Duo this week, we have been curious how durability will play out. After all, Apple is late to the foldable party, but they enter at a time where so many others have done the hard work of advancing foldable technology, most importantly in the display department.
Could Apple skip the mess that Samsung ran into with the iPhone Duo? Well, they made it through the review period without issue, but now that the devices are in the wild and in stores for folks to tinker with, we are already seeing broken units.
At least three Reddit threads have popped up on this launch day showing units that have broken foldable screens in the exact same spot. All three of the pictures we have show the devices in Apple stores, one of which went through about 6 hours of use before breaking, another that apparently didn’t even make it through setup before it cracked, and a final unit that is a demo device.
I think the big takeaway here is that these devices have all met the same fate, failing at a weak spot in an identical location. Something is going on with units about 2/3 of the way down the folding screen’s crease that is causing displays to fail.
We’ll continue to watch this story unfold and see how Apple responds. I see some have already started the #CrackGate hashtag. Silly.
