Some iPhone Duo Models Are Breaking. iFixit’s Teardown Might Explain Why

The tricky part, according to iFixit, is the inner display. A thin matte nano-texture finish sits on top of the OLED screen, and if you’re not careful, you could easily peel the layer off. (Apple strictly tells users not to remove this finish on a support page.)

Removing the full inner screen requires melting the adhesive with a heat gun and some real elbow grease to pull the screen away. Users have reported breaking this part of the screen, and it seems it is the most fragile component and the hardest to replace. (Apple has an inner screen repair service, but it costs $999.) The Duo also collects dust in typical places like the USB-C port, outer edges, and speaker, but it accumulates along the inner hinge, causing it to sound "crunchy" like other folding devices when dust gets inside.

Apple long resisted letting users repair their own devices. When it finally started offering real repair options in 2021, its programs got off to a rough start and were less helpful than they could have been. Slowly but surely, thanks to various legislation in the US and the European Union, Apple has been introducing efforts to let people fix their own things. The iPhone Duo had a widely accessible repair manual on launch day, which hasn't always been the case for how the company shares that kind of information.

The iPhone Duo may not be perfectly repairable—folding phones might never get there. But when a device starts having problems like cracked screens, it’ll be nice to know how to fix the thing.