Crackgate? iPhone Duo owners report screens breaking along the hinge

Some iPhone Duos are already experiencing hinge issues that cause display cracks, according to photos shared on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Almost all display defects are located along the hinge and most result in a line of bright pixels on one side of the screen.

An iPhone Duo owner in Australia said his device cracked after being opened less than 20 times and there had been no visible damage before.

I had my iPhone Duo for about six hours and had probably opened it less than 20 times. I was showing it to a friend and as I opened it I felt something around the internal hinge, under the screen.

As I continued to open it, I heard an audible crack and the screen broke along the hinge. There were no marks or damage on the interior surface of the screen or the external hinge to suggest anything had been stuck or damaged.

The user visited an Apple Store and Apple immediately replaced the broken device. Apple is likely collecting faulty iPhone Duos to look for points of failure, and this research could lead to manufacturing improvements to reduce future problems.

There are several images of broken screens from demo devices in China, where the ‌iPhone Duo‌ launched hours before the US. The history of most images is unknown and possible user damage is a factor. Some reviewers who got an ‌iPhone Duo‌ put it through bend testing and didn’t experience any screen issues, but that’s a small sample.

With so many people getting iPhone Duos today, some failures are expected. It’s unclear how widespread the problem is or whether we’ll see an uptick in complaints over time. Hinge failures due to normal use should be covered under the one-year warranty, and customers receiving an ‌iPhone Duo‌ today will also have two weeks to make a return.