iPhone Duo Screen Cracks? Apple responds to concerns

While I’ve had no issues at all with the iPhone Duo unit I’ve been testing over the last two weeks there have been reports of some people’s screens breaking within hours of opening their fancy new phones.

When I first saw these I thought they were people wasting money breaking screens for social klout and views, but no, there’s a trend here.

If you look at all the images of these failuers, the pixels fail in the almost exact same location for every single user:

SO, what’s happening?

Well while we could look for a teardown of the device by YouTubers, Apple themselves have revealed much when the device was announced back in September.

If we look at the inside of the device and the hinge in particular, you’ll notice there’s a different part to the hinge almost exactly in the spot the above phones have failed:

I’d hazard to guess without any facts that the part there is what gives the hinge tension and allows it to feel the way it does when opening and closing.

And if that part fails, It likely snaps up to damage the pixels.

This is further confirmed by a YouTuber who broke the hinge down and found a failure in that part:

EFTM contacted Apple about the failures, and were told “The response to iPhone Duo from early users has been incredibly positive, and we are seeing exciting things from developers who are rapidly updating their apps to take advantage of its unique form factor. We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units. If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement.”

The advice in Australia is to return your device to place of purchase, but if that wasn’t Apple I’d hazard a guess if you pop into an Apple Store they would rush to help you out with a replacement.

As to how it’s happening, I feel like this will end up like GripGate on the iPhone 4. We’ll be given a lesson in how to “Close” the phone, because my suggestion is it’s a heavy thumb on that spot of the screen when closing the device which is causing the failure. So use the frame of the phone to close it, no the screen.