The Verge reports that social media and the iPhone Duo subreddit are filled with reports of Apple's foldable failing quickly, with some users saying the hinge caught, audibly cracked, and broke the screen after only a few hours of use. Tellingly, the cracks all seem to happen in the same place.

YouTuber CuriousHagi reproduced the cracking during durability testing, then pulled the phone apart to find the culprit, discovering a highly complex hinge built around a gear-like central hinge plus two different types of linking hinges.

The piece that broke was one of the links in the middle of the phone that is thinner than the links above or below it, and it snapped at a small notch where it would be weakest; CuriousHagi also found marks where the hinge met the support plate, indicating where it may have gotten caught. iFixit, which also dissected the device, suspects a part of the complex hinge may not be descending properly.

NewsBytes reports iFixit notes an accordion cable runs over that exact spot near the edge of the battery, which could concentrate pressure and produce the audible crack users describe.

Beyond the hinge, the teardowns revealed unusual display engineering. According to NewsBytes, iFixit found the internal screen uses a matte nano-texture cover that improves readability in bright sunlight and hides the crease by diffusing reflections.

Under a microscope, iFixit saw oval-shaped subpixels arranged at different angles, which are likely intended to minimize artifacts and further conceal the crease down the middle of the screen — an ambitious design now shadowed by durability concerns.

The fallout is expanding: The Verge notes iFixit's own teardown may explain the broken screens and hinges, that Instagram on the iPhone Duo needs work per Adam Mosseri, and that Apple has published an official iPhone Duo repair manual.

As 'crackgate' grows, a confirmed single-point hinge failure would put pressure on Apple to explain whether a design revision or recall-style repair path is coming.