Apple's first foldable phone has barely been out a week, and it already has its first controversy. Owners are calling it crackgate, and it is exactly what it sounds like.
The iPhone Duo launched on October 23, 2026, starting at $1,999 for 256GB. It folds like a book into a 7.6-inch inner display, powered by the A20 Pro chip and a titanium hinge made of more than 100 tiny components. Within days of launch, buyers in the United States, Australia, China, and elsewhere began posting photos of the same fault: a thin crack running down the inner screen, directly over the hinge, followed by a bright line of stuck pixels across one half of the display. Some of the phones reportedly stopped folding properly afterward.
The most-shared case comes from an owner in Melbourne, who wrote that he had the phone for about six hours and had opened it fewer than 20 times when he felt something near the hinge under the screen, then heard an audible crack. Other owners describe the same pattern, with cracks appearing during setup, after only a handful of folds, or within the first day. By October 25, 9to5Mac had counted about ten unique cases, which is small against the number of units already in customers' hands.
Apple responded on October 26, telling USA TODAY and others that it is aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units, and that affected customers should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Apple says most units are not affected, that the fault tends to appear quickly, and that AppleCare+ is not required for the replacement.
Here is what we do not know yet, and it matters. Nobody has a confirmed cause. The working theory is a batch of units with a defective hinge component, possibly a slightly misaligned piece pressing into the inner screen. iFixit's teardown points to possibilities including pressure, a trapped particle, repeated bending, or a manufacturing defect, with breaks clustering near the gap where the flex cable crosses the central hinge support. Apple has not given a number, a cause, or guidance on preventing it.
There is also noise to filter out. Some widely shared crack photos turned out to be fake or altered, and one folding-machine test opened and closed a Duo more than 32,000 times over four nights without cracking it. Meanwhile in Korea, buyers are returning Duos even without defects, citing crack fears, scarce replacement stock, and apps that do not yet fill the folding display properly.
The honest verdict: it is too early to judge whether crackgate is a batch defect or a small run of early failures. If you own a Duo, check the hinge area early and often, and if you see a crack, contact AppleCare rather than living with it. Out of warranty, that inner screen costs $999 to replace in the United States, about half the price of the phone. We will keep watching this one, because a $2,000 phone that cracks in a week is a story that is not going away.
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