iFixit Gives the iPhone Duo the Best Repair Score of Any Foldable, and Points to a Spot in the Hinge Where Screens Are Breaking

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - The iPhone Duo is the most repairable folding phone iFixit has ever taken apart, the repair company said in a teardown published Sunday. It also offered the most detailed look yet at what might be cracking some early owners’ screens.

iFixit gave Apple’s first foldable a provisional repairability score of 5 out of 10, the highest it has given any foldable, according to its teardown report. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 and Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold both scored 4. The score is provisional because replacement parts are not yet on sale, though Apple has already published its repair manual. “This is the most repairable foldable smartphone we’ve seen so far, and it’s still going to be a bear to repair,” iFixit said, as quoted by MacRumors.

Video: iFixit / YouTube

The good news comes from tricks Apple has used on regular iPhones. Both of the Duo’s batteries use electrically releasable adhesive, so applying a small current to their tabs lets the cells lift out without prying. iFixit called it the best battery removal it has seen in a foldable. The two cells hold 7.5 and 11.6 watt-hours, about 19.1 watt-hours in total. The outer screen came off intact, as did the trim around the inner screen, which is held by clips. On the Galaxy Z Fold8, iFixit said, that trim crumbled during removal. The logic board is a single layer rather than the stacked design used in most iPhones since the iPhone 8, and the internal layout is flat enough that cameras and charging parts are reachable without much other disassembly.

Image: iFixit

The inner screen is the hard part. Apple charges $999 to replace a damaged inner display outside warranty, and iFixit said the repair will be slow and delicate even with Apple’s special fixtures. A cheaper fix exists for the top layer: the matte nano-texture cover can be replaced without touching the OLED underneath, a $49 service without AppleCare or $19 with it.

That cover does much of the work of hiding the crease, iFixit found. Under a microscope its surface is covered in tiny rounded bumps that scatter reflections. With the layer peeled off, the crease was as visible as on other foldables. The team also found oval subpixels pointing in different directions, which it linked to an Apple patent application on reducing diffraction artifacts.

Image: iFixit

Then there are the broken screens. Owners have described hearing a crack while opening or closing the phone, followed by a line down the fold and a bright line across the display. To look for a cause, iFixit built a 3D model of the hinge from teardown footage, patents and CT scans, then compared it with photos of the damage. “The breaks cluster near the transition from the gap for the crossing flex cable to the central hinge support,” the team wrote. The damage sits slightly below where the display cable passes through the hinge, “at a point where several edges meet and change how the thin display is supported as it bends.”

Image: iFixit

iFixit offered theories rather than a verdict. In one simulation, the central support bar fails to drop far enough as the phone closes and the curved screen comes down onto it, creating a small stress hotspot near the reported break location. Another possibility involves the curved rails that guide the hinge’s metal joints. The team also noted that a wiring fault could produce the same lines without the panel physically snapping.

Image: iFixit

The hinge also picked up dust. In iFixit’s fluorescent powder test, most of the glow stopped at adhesive barriers around the electronics, and the Duo collected less visible powder than the Fold8 or the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Enough reached the hinge to make it crunch, echoing JerryRigEverything’s dust test last week. Apple did not immediately return a request for comment from The Verge. For now, Apple is offering owners replacement units, iFixit said.