A YouTuber has torn down the iPhone Duo and says he found what is causing the screen cracks reported by owners of Apple's foldable. The teardown, from the channel CuriousHagi, points to a weak point inside the phone's hinge, according to The Verge.
Social media and the iPhone Duo subreddit have filled with complaints that the foldable is failing quickly and dramatically. Some users say the phone lasted only a few hours before the hinge appeared to catch on something, then cracked loudly and broke the screen. The cracks keep appearing in the same spot, which is what made the teardown worth watching.
What the iPhone Duo teardown found inside the hinge
CuriousHagi first reproduced the cracked screen during durability testing, then opened the iPhone Duo to look for the cause. Inside, he found a complex hinge assembly: a gear-like central hinge plus two different types of linking hinges.
The broken part, per the teardown, is one of the links in the middle of the phone. That link is thinner than the links above and below it, and it snapped at a small notch where it would be weakest. He also found marks where the hinge met the support plate, suggesting where it may have gotten caught.
Apple has not publicly confirmed the cause of the cracks, and the teardown is one user's investigation rather than an official diagnosis. Still, it lines up with owner reports that the failure starts at the hinge and ends with a cracked screen in the same place.
Why 'crackgate' matters for the iPhone Duo
The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable, so any durability issue gets outsized attention. Reports of hours-old units cracking have already made the rounds online, and a repeatable teardown finding gives those complaints a clearer technical shape.
The Verge notes the cracks all seem to happen in the same place, which is hard to dismiss as random user damage. If the thin middle link is the weak spot, the question becomes whether Apple can reinforce it through a design change or a service program.
