iFixit

Apple has released its official DIY repair guide for the iPhone Duo, though genuine replacement parts are not yet available to order.

Meanwhile, iFixit has published its teardown review of the phone, calling it the most repairable foldable smartphone they've ever taken apart.

Sounds pretty promising, but iFixit still only gave the phone a five out of 10 repairability score, and they recommended a conventional phone if repairability is your priority.

That advice could come in handy if CrackGate, reports of duo screens cracking along the hinge, keeps on crackalackin'.

Thankfully, YouTuber CuriousHaji may have found a clue after stress testing and then dissecting a duo.

It's not just one person.

And when iFixit did its teardown, it said, we think we may know where it is.

And ultimately what happened is that Apple came out with a statement about it.

So taking it from the realm of, is this just a weird thing on the internet or is there something here? And Apple said, yes, there is an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units.

Yeah.

I mean, it's amazing.

I watched the iFixit tear down.

No matter what the product is, I will watch their videos because I just love how this stuff is built.

I mean, it's amazing.

I watched the iFixit tear down.

No matter what the product is, I will watch their videos because I just love how this stuff is built.

And, of course, it's built very similarly to the Samsung, the shorty Samsung boy because they use the same screen mostly.

It's not just one person.

And when iFixit did its teardown, it said, we think we may know where it is.

And ultimately what happened is that Apple came out with a statement about it.

So taking it from the realm of, is this just a weird thing on the internet or is there something here? And Apple said, yes, there is an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units.

Yeah.

I mean, it's amazing.

I watched the iFixit tear down.

No matter what the product is, I will watch their videos because I just love how this stuff is built.

You just got a bad one, basically.

So iFixit, who is famous for doing their teardowns to see how easy it is to repair a device or just see what all goes into it, they've done a teardown of the new foldable iPhone.

And one of their theories, and it's kind of lining up to what people who are having the issue are saying, is that it's not the screen, it is the hinge.

Right.

IDC says that failures showing up in the same spot could point to the hinge or how the screen folds around it.

Repair firm iFixit says even a small manufacturing variance or piece of debris there can essentially damage the flexible display.

Apple says impacted customers should contact AppleCare for a replacement.

The scale of this is still unclear, but for a $2,000 first-generation device, how Apple handles these early failures could be critical to buyer confidence as it ramps production.

But we seem to be... having a few very high profile versions of this out there, but it's real.

And we may have a hint as to why it's happening to the people it is happening to, thanks to iFixit's teardown.

iFixit gave it a 5 out of 10 for repairability, particularly praising the ease of repairing the battery, replacing the battery.

The inner display and the hinge, however, bring the score down.

But five out of 10, while it doesn't sound that great, makes it the most repairable foldable phone that iFixit has yet rated.

That is probably what Apple would prefer to be the headline today.

But with the reports of the cracks out there, iFixit speculated that a bar inside the hinge may be the culprit.

Apple uses multiple curved guides that extend when the display is folded to try to make that screen fold smoothly and minimize the crease.

There's been a couple of teardowns, and the teardowns...

I mean, no one can know right now, but there is an area in the phone's hinge where people like iFixit could say, oh, okay, there may be... a stress point right here that is causing this problem.

But it's still like, it's causing it for the people it's causing it for.

It isn't that every phone is doing this or that every phone even would break this way.

If this is an issue, we will discover that it's an issue.

And if this happens to you, you just tell Apple.

Even iFixit, their headline is the most repairable foldable has a huge screen problem.

It's not a huge problem.