How come someone's Apple foldable phone that costs 16,000 yuan broke after only a few days of use?

Who could have imagined that Apple's very first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, has only been on sale for a few days, yet waves of controversies have already been popping up online one after another...

Not long ago, a domestic repair blogger peeled off the nano-textured film on the surface of the iPhone Duo's inner screen. As a result, the originally barely visible crease was immediately exposed. Especially when viewed against light, it doesn't seem to show a huge gap compared with other Android foldable phones.

This immediately sparked a heated debate. Some people think Apple is using a trick to hide the flaw, while others argue that making the crease nearly invisible is a remarkable achievement in itself.

However, Tony would like to remind everyone here that this nano-textured top layer is not the ordinary phone film you usually apply. It also protects the flexible polarizer and flexible glass underneath. Never try to peel it off by yourself, or you might damage the inner screen and suffer a huge loss...

Before the debate over the film even settled, photos showing the damaged inner screen of the iPhone Duo have been posted by many people online in recent days, and according to the pictures shared, almost all the damages occur at the exact same position.

Cracks and liquid leakage mostly appear in the middle of the inner screen, which is the folding area right above the hinge; at the same time, there is often a bright line on one side of the screen, either white or black.

Image source: A compiled collection of iPhone Duo liquid leakage cases sorted out by netizens

The iPhone Duo in Tony's hand is still working well so far. I have been using it for nearly half a month, there is no abnormality in opening and closing, and the inner screen is in perfect condition.

However, not encountering the problem yourself is one thing, seeing a growing number of people run into this issue online is another. Especially when I have seen so many fault photos in the past two days, even the damaged positions are so similar, it's really hard not to overthink this...

As for Apple, there has been no unified official statement addressing this wave of inner screen damage issues yet.

But according to feedback from netizens, some people have already got a new replacement unit or a refund from Apple, while others were told that they need to send the phone for inspection first and wait for subsequent processing.

So up to now, we still cannot confirm for sure, whether this issue is just a quality control problem of a small number of iPhone Duo units, or if Apple's folding structure itself has inherent flaws.

But recently, the well-known foreign teardown agency iFixit has provided some new clues.

They completely disassembled the iPhone Duo from inside out, and even performed a CT scan on the hinge. Combining with Apple's previously filed patents, they tried to restore how this structure works.

As a result, they did find several interesting points.

Let's start with the hinge.

According to Apple's official introduction, the hinge of the iPhone Duo is composed of hundreds of parts, including gears, springs, and various interlocking metal joints and guide rails, all designed to control the bending mode of the screen when the phone is opened and closed.

Just like many current Android foldable phones, Apple has adopted a water-drop shaped folding solution this time. When the phone is closed, the inside of the hinge forms a water-drop like radian, which reduces the squeeze on the screen and improves the crease performance at the same time.

But after comparing the fault photos shared online with the CT model of the hinge, iFixit found a rather suspicious point.

The position where the cracks and bright lines meet is exactly close to an area with complex structure in the middle of the hinge, and the support method at this position is different from that of the adjacent areas.

According to iFixit's simulation, under normal circumstances, when the phone is folded, a support rod in the middle of the hinge needs to move down accordingly, leaving enough bending space for the inner screen of the iPhone Duo.

But if this support rod fails to retract completely, the screen that is supposed to bend naturally may be directly pressed against it, causing the local area to bear extra pressure.

Not only this support rod, the arc-shaped guide rails on both sides that control the movement of the joints may also get stuck during the opening and closing process, causing the screen to receive unwanted extrusion.

In this case, the issues reported by netizens such as tight hinge and abnormal noise when unfolding can be easily explained.

And even though some of the bright lines in the photos almost run through half of the screen, in fact, as long as a small part of the electrical connection inside the OLED is damaged, an entire row or column of pixels may show abnormal display.

So the actual problematic area may be that small part in the middle of the hinge. It is tiny, but can cause a huge impact.

Of course, all these are still speculations made by iFixit based on the internal structure. There is no final conclusion yet on whether the hinge is the part that damaged the screen.

But coincidentally, another YouTube blogger "CuriousHagi" also encountered this problem when he was conducting a durability test on the iPhone Duo.

Later, he simply disassembled the hinge, and he actually found a broken hinge part.

This is a metal connecting rod located in the middle of the hinge, and its position is exactly close to the suspicious area discovered by iFixit through CT scan earlier.

Moreover, this connecting rod is thinner than the parts adjacent to it on the top and bottom. There is a small notch right at the fracture, and obvious squeeze marks can be seen on the corresponding screen support plate. It looks like the parts inside the hinge had abnormal contact during movement.

At the same time, a domestic digital blogger @Youmeiyou Gaocuo also verified the conclusions of the above two parties by disassembling and analyzing the hinge of the iPhone Duo.

Wow, now the suspicion on the hinge has deepened a few more points...

Besides the structural problem of the hinge, iFixit also tested the dust resistance performance of this phone.

They put the iPhone Duo into fluorescent powder and opened and closed it repeatedly, then disassembled it for inspection. The result showed that most of the powder was indeed blocked outside the internal components of the phone, but a small amount still entered the hinge moving area, causing the hinge to make obvious abnormal noises when opening and closing.

Tony also compared the iPhone Duo in my hand with other Android foldable phones, and found that many current Android foldable phones are equipped with a semicircular baffle at both ends of the rotating shaft to cover the gap between the screen and the hinge as much as possible.

But Apple probably wanted the iPhone Duo to be flatter when unfolded, so they completely removed this baffle. As a result, when the phone is half folded, a visible gap will appear between the screen edge and the hinge cover, through which the powder may enter.

Left: iPhone Duo; Right: Android foldable phone

But interestingly, the amount of powder that got into the iPhone Duo's hinge during the test was even less than what they saw when testing the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which shows that Apple's protection design still has its merits.

As for whether there is a connection between those inner screen faults reported online and dust, there is no evidence to confirm that for now.

At the end of the day, no matter it is iFixit's analysis or the teardown done by other bloggers, all of these are only clues at present. We cannot directly conclude that the hinge is the culprit of this wave of screen failures. We still have to wait for Apple's official definite statement about the exact cause.

Looking back, when Tony first got the iPhone Duo, I was really quite amazed. No matter the crease handling or the entire hinge design, you can tell that Apple put a lot of thought into making its first foldable phone a great product.

Impressive as it is, the successive inner screen failures exposed online recently did pour a basin of cold water on many people's enthusiasm.

I saw in the past two days that some friends who had already placed orders started to consider returning the phone and wait and see. Some even simply switched to buy the 18 Pro Max. After all, no one wants to spend over 10,000 yuan on a phone and have to run to the after-sales department just a few days after getting it...

So Tony thinks that apart from figuring out the cause of the fault as soon as possible and giving everyone a clear answer.

What is more urgent right now is to properly take care of the iPhone Duo users who have encountered problems. Arrange inspection for those who need it, and replace the faulty units with new ones when necessary. It's unfair that users who paid full price to try the new product have to bear the loss by themselves and end up being the poor sucker...

Image and Data Sources:

Xiaohongshu

Weibo @Youmeiyou Gaocuo

Youtube @궁금하기 CuriousHagi

https://zh.ifixit.com/News/119895/iphone-duo-teardown

This article is from the WeChat official account "X.PIN", Author: Pang Hu, Editors: Mianxian & Miluo & Ergou, Published with authorization from 36Kr.