Apple's new foldable was supposed to be the victory lap. Instead, day-one owners are watching a crack crawl up the middle of a $2,000 screen. Hours after launch, buyers started posting photos of the iPhone Duo's inner display splitting from top to bottom — right along the hinge, where the phone folds. Not a scratch. Not a scuff. A full-height crack, on a phone that costs as much as a used car down payment.
The reports aren't isolated to one region — users from the US to Australia to China have posted the same failure, and per Mashable, one owner says his crack showed up in under six hours and fewer than twenty folds. Apple's fix so far: replacements at the store, and repair manuals.
Because nothing says "premium launch" like the company publishing DIY teardown instructions the same day. Apple's official repair manuals now cover every component — inner display, outer display, both batteries, logic board, the works — though replacement parts aren't in the Self Service Repair store yet. Critics still love the phone; queues wrapped around blocks in Shanghai and New York. Beautiful machine. Just maybe don't fold it like you mean it.
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Video: TechMinute — Apple's $2,000 Foldable Is Cracking on Day One