Photos of iPhone Duo inner screens cracking along the hinge spread across Reddit and the MacRumors forums in launch week, and MacRumors' review after a week and a half starts there. Apple, per the video, says it's aware of an issue affecting a small number of units, that it tends to show up shortly after purchase, and that affected owners should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Past the cracks, the verdict is that the Duo stays and the 18 Pro Max goes back in the drawer, mostly because the cover screen turned out to be enough for most of the day.

How the Duo gets used

  • The cover screen handles about 70 percent of the day, from notifications to quick replies. The phone opens only when a task needs more room.
  • Unfolded in portrait, vertical video and Instagram finally fill the screen, and a video playing on the top half with another app below replaced the picture-in-picture juggling MacRumors did on the Pro Max.
  • Touch ID sits on the only button on its side, so it's easy to find without looking, and it's been accurate. The volume buttons on top are the awkward trade.
  • Unlocking with an Apple Watch feels close to Face ID, sometimes too close: a stray tap while pocketing the phone unlocks it. It stopped working once the phone was about 2 feet from the watch.

Where it still falls short

  • Cameras are fine 90 percent of the time, by MacRumors' count. The missing telephoto shows up whenever a shot needs 4x to 10x, which the Duo covers with a digital crop.
  • Battery life lands between the 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max. A day spent mostly on the cover screen stretches toward two; heavy unfolded viewing drains it faster.
  • Apps are uneven. Safari wasted the right edge of the inner screen until a third-party extension called Wider stretched pages across it, Golf Now still isn't updated, and Sleeper ignored Apple's right-rail layout and simply filled the screen. Netflix, with its flex mode and digital reflection, is the one the video calls the gold standard.

That app list lines up with the first-day iPhone Duo app tests, and a week after launch, Safari is the gap I'd least expect from Apple's own side.

First-gen Apple hardware is for early adopters, and hinge cracks in week one are the reason. Apple's claim that failures surface early is the useful part: a Duo that's past its first weeks without a mark has, by Apple's own account, cleared the window where this happens.