Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, officially launched on October 23, 2026, and within days the device is facing an early test of trust across global markets, with early buyers reporting screen failures and hinge issues.

Photos and videos shared across social media platforms show affected displays marked by a bright line of white pixels in the bottom-left corner, while others document damage along the middle of the screen, likely caused by the hinge. One widely circulated post on X showed the bright-line fault on a new unit.

Another post shared on X captured what users described as a dancing screen, with images shaking and shifting from one region of the display to another while the phone was held in the folded position. The distortion persisted even when the user opened the screen to its full size, and the image imbalance became more consistent and severe.

Early users reported that the problems began shortly after unboxing, with symptoms ranging from hinge creases and rectangular white digital prints to dead pixels and outright cracks.

An Australian owner said the display cracked after about six hours of ownership and fewer than 20 openings of the phone. The user said they felt something beneath the screen near the internal hinge while opening the device to show a friend, then heard a crack as the display broke along the hinge. The complaint was among the first-buyer damage reports documented by The National.

The wave of complaints marks a notable setback for Apple, which had long held back from entering the foldable market. The company had delayed announcing its foldable device in order to avoid the creases and durability flaws that most competitors encountered. The hardware-failure reports now run counter to Apple's long-standing reputation for polished and reliable product debuts, and their timing — days after launch — risks shaking early adopters' confidence and making global buyers more hesitant to invest in Apple's first-generation folding device.

Apple is not the first company to endure a rough opening in the foldable phone market. Samsung, the market leader in foldable devices, which currently holds roughly 40% of the market, unveiled its first foldable phone in February 2019 but delayed the product's release to fix screen and hinge durability issues that early product reviewers had flagged. In its 2019 statement acknowledging the failures and its decision to pull back, Samsung said it wanted to take measures to strengthen display protection. "We will also enhance the guidance on care and use of the display, including the protective layer so that our customers get the most out of their Galaxy Fold," the company said at the time.

A short analysis by iFixit, a popular platform that publishes device repair guides, points to the hinge as the major cause of the malfunctions. According to iFixit, the display failures tend to cluster near a specific stress position that emanates from the transition area where the central hinge support meets the flex cable opening. As the phone folds, the elevated central support bar places excessive pressure directly against the flexible OLED panel, potentially causing tears or line faults in the pixel array.

The repair specialists added that the folding process relies on internal curved guide rails to dictate the display's pivot points. During folding, these rails may shift higher than intended and come into direct mechanical contact with the underside of the screen assembly, creating an uneven force point — a mechanism that could explain the bright lines appearing on some devices. iFixit cautioned that its findings are not fully confirmed pending long-term testing, though the physical location of the screen damage correlates with the internal hinge's flexibility design. Users have meanwhile been advised to avoid forcing the device closed to prevent further screen damage.

Apple has not issued any statement confirming a design or hardware defect. Reports note that the company is gathering damaged units and sending them back to engineering teams for inspection following widespread public outcry. Separately, an unconfirmed report indicates that some Apple Stores have been privately exchanging damaged or cracked iPhone Duo units for affected customers under warranty or replacement protocols, despite limited retail inventory. In another case, customers in the US said T-Mobile told them it could not replace any parts for the Duo until January.

While Apple has yet to make an official announcement on the issue, the company has published a repair price sheet for the iPhone Duo on its support page. Fixing the back glass costs $199, rear camera repair is priced at $229, inner display damage carries a $999 fee, and repairs categorized as "other damage" cost $1,499. The inner display is the component at the center of the reported failures, making that $999 fee the line item most relevant to affected owners.

For a device that some owners say has failed within hours of unboxing, those figures underscore that Apple's first foldable will be a difficult and expensive phone to fix. From here, the clearest signposts to watch are the findings from Apple's engineering inspections of returned units, the conclusions iFixit reaches after its pending long-term testing, and whether replacement parts reach carriers by the January timeline some T-Mobile customers were given.