Apple’s foldable gets replaced

Apple says it will replace iPhone Duo handsets affected by a screen problem that appeared almost immediately after the company’s first foldable phone reached customers, an awkward start for a device meant to signal a fresh chapter for the iPhone.

The company told the BBC it is aware of “an issue impacting the inner display on a small number” of units and said affected users should contact Apple for a replacement. It did not say how many phones were affected.

Images posted online appear to show several kinds of failure: vertical lines spreading across the inner screen, cracks along the central crease and, in some user reports, a crunching sound when the device is opened. One user identified by the BBC, Justin Lokos, posted a photo of a faulty display and then shared an image of a replacement handset, thanking an Apple store in New York.

What is established, for now, is narrower than the online reaction. Apple has acknowledged a defect affecting some devices and is offering replacements. The scale of the problem is not clear. The BBC also noted that some images of damaged phones circulating on social media may have been generated using artificial intelligence, which makes the visual evidence noisier than it looks at first glance.

That matters because the Duo is not a routine product update. It is Apple’s first foldable device, its most expensive iPhone line yet, and a test of whether the company can make a category long associated with fragile engineering feel ordinary enough for mass buyers. In the UK, the handset starts at £1,999 and rises to £3,199 for higher-spec models.

Foldables have always asked consumers to trust a hinge, a crease and a flexible display all at once. Those are difficult demands for any manufacturer. Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold stumbled in 2019 after reviewers reported broken screens, and the wider foldable market has spent years trying to persuade buyers that novelty and durability can coexist.

Apple had presented the Duo as the foldable that would get the experience right. John Ternus, the company’s new chief executive, said at the device’s launch that rival foldables felt like “two phones awkwardly stuck together” and that Apple’s version would “redefine the experience of using a foldable phone”.

For customers paying flagship prices, the immediate question is simpler than that promise: whether the screen survives being opened and closed as intended.