iPhone Duo screen cracks: should UK buyers wait, and how it compares with Android foldables

Last updated: 3 November 2026. This story is still developing.

Apple has confirmed that some iPhone Duo inner screens are failing. "We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units," it told 9to5Mac on 26 October, three days after the phone went on sale in the UK and elsewhere. The damage runs along the centre line of the hinge.

What Apple has said, and what it hasn't

According to 9to5Mac, affected owners should contact AppleCare for a replacement. You don't need AppleCare+, and if you bought through a network, go to Apple rather than the network. Apple hasn't given a cause or any figure for how many phones are affected, so ignore anyone who puts a percentage on it. 9to5Mac also notes that some Reddit reports were fake, AI-generated posts.

The genuine ones follow a pattern. iFixit's teardown says people describe opening or closing the phone, hearing a noise, then seeing a small line along the fold and a bright line across the display. One Reddit owner quoted by iFixit said the hinge "got tight and then made a loud pop when I pushed past it."

iFixit built a model of the hinge from CT scans, teardown footage and Apple's patents. In its simulation, the trouble comes when the centre support bar fails to drop far enough, so the screen's fold comes down onto it and creates a stress hotspot. iFixit calls that "one possible answer", and Apple hasn't confirmed it. There's no recall, and no promised hardware fix.

Your rights depend on where you bought it

Buy online or by phone and the Consumer Contracts Regulations give you 14 days from delivery to send it back for any reason. In a shop, change-of-mind returns are down to the shop's policy.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 covers faults however you bought it. Within 30 days you can reject a faulty phone for a full refund. After that the seller gets one go at a repair or replacement, then owes you a refund or price cut if it fails. For six months the fault is presumed to have been there from delivery unless the seller proves otherwise, as MoneySavingExpert explains, so you don't have to prove you didn't drop it.

• Apple online or Apple Store pickup: Apple's returns policy gives 14 days. It doesn't spell out walk-in purchases, so ask at the till. Your legal claim is against Apple.
• EE, O2, Three or Vodafone: Apple handles the free replacement, but refunds and other legal rights are against the network, as Resolver notes. The handset is usually tied to a device plan, so if you want your money back, talk to the network inside 30 days.
• Currys, John Lewis, Amazon and other retailers: your claim is against the retailer.

Pay over £100 on a credit card and Section 75 makes the card company jointly liable too.

The iPhone Duo against the Android foldables

Prices checked on 3 November 2026. We haven't tested these phones, and no source we trust has compared their creases yet. The Pixel and Honor here are last year's models. Their successors follow below.

The Duo's specs come from Apple's specs page, and its prices from Apple's UK store: £1,999 for 256GB, rising through £2,199 and £2,599 to £3,199 for 2TB. It's the thickest here folded, with no published hinge rating.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold matches its IP68 rating, and Google says its gearless hinge is "designed to handle more than 10 years of bending," according to Engadget. MyMobiles lists it SIM-free from £1,399, sold by Mobiles.co.uk: £600 less than a Duo, with bigger screens both sides. Its weak spot is weight. At 258g, nothing here is heavier.

At 201g, the Galaxy Z Fold8 is the lightest by a distance, and it's also £1,399 SIM-free from Mobiles.co.uk, via MyMobiles. Samsung lists it at IP48, the lowest dust rating in the table, but don't read that as a verdict on its hinge.

That goes for every phone here. iFixit points out that IP certification covers the enclosure, which "doesn't seem to include the hinge mechanism of a foldable". When it dusted the IP68 Duo with fluorescent powder, the phone collected less visible powder than the Fold8 and Pixel 11 Pro Fold had in iFixit's earlier tests, yet enough still reached the hinge to make it crunch. An IP dust rating tells you nothing about the hinge, so don't pay more for a bigger number expecting it to protect the fold.

Honor's UK store sells the Magic V5 at £1,299.99, about £700 less than a Duo. Right now, Black Friday code AV5BF350 takes it to £949.99, and orders by 2 December include one free screen damage repair within 12 months. It's the thinnest here, and the only one with a fold count on the hinge: Honor says 500,000 folds, without saying who tested it.

The newer models, and why we'd still buy last year's

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold arrived on 20 August, and MyMobiles lists it new and SIM-free from £1,799 at Mobiles.co.uk. The Honor Magic V6 went on sale here on 2 July at £1,999.99, according to Honor's buying guide. That's Duo money. Honor quotes 8.75mm and 219g for the white model, and says its screen shield is rated for 500,000 folds and has a five-star SGS certification. That's a claim about the screen, not a hinge rating.

The Pixel 10 Pro Fold already has bigger screens than the Duo and Google's 10-year hinge claim, for £400 less than the 11. The V6 costs £700 more than the V5's normal price, and on Honor's own figures it's 0.05mm thinner and 2g heavier.

What we'd do

Set on the Duo? Buy it online, from Apple or another seller, so the 14-day cancellation right applies. Then open and close it slowly, many times, in those first two weeks. Listen for a noise, feel for tightness, and look along the hinge for bright lines. Anything odd and you're inside both the 14-day window and the 30-day right to reject, the strongest position you'll ever be in.

Holding off is the other sensible move. Early units carry the most risk, and a later batch, or Apple naming a cause, would lower it. Nobody has promised a hardware revision, so don't hold out for one.

For a cheaper foldable, the Magic V5 is the one: £1,299.99 normally, and £949.99 while the Black Friday code lasts. For most people weighing up the Duo, though, our pick is the Pixel 10 Pro Fold while stock lasts: bigger screens, a published hinge claim, and £600 less. If it sells out, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold still undercuts the Duo by £200.

Watch for Apple naming a cause, and for whether reports keep coming from later batches.