Apple’s Foldable Has a Screen Problem. Its Price Makes It Worse.

Apple’s first foldable iPhone has a problem that no amount of premium packaging can easily solve: questions about the durability of its inner display, on a device that costs nearly ₹3 lakh in India. Users reported the inner screen showing lines hours after buying. It’s also being called Crackgate on the internet.

The issue has already been labeled as ‘CRACKGATE’

Apple lists the estimated out-of-warranty cost of repairing inner-display damage on the iPhone Duo at ₹1,49,900. That is roughly half the starting price of the 256GB model, which costs ₹2,99,900 in India.

iPhone Duo price in India. Source: Apple.com

In the US, the corresponding screen-repair estimate is $999, against a starting price of $1,999. The numbers make an uncomfortable point about the economics of owning a foldable: the component that makes the phone distinctive is also among its most expensive potential liabilities. 

iPhone Duo repair cost in India. Source: Apple.com

The concern is not hypothetical. In a teardown published on October 25, repair specialists iFixit examined reports from owners whose inner displays developed cracks or bright lines along the fold. Some users reportedly experienced problems within hours of purchase, with accounts describing a popping or crunching sound when opening or closing the device.

Buyers in Japan, China, Australia, and other countries have reported the same issue. In some cases, the display reportedly fails while the phone is still on display in stores.

iFixit mapped the reported damage against its model of the hinge and identified areas where mechanical stress could be concentrated. But this is not a confirmed diagnosis, nor do the reports establish how frequently such failures occur across all devices sold. The distinction matters: early failures warrant investigation, but a handful of reports cannot establish that the entire product line has a manufacturing defect. 

The bigger question is why Apple is facing these concerns after entering a market that has spent years confronting the same engineering challenges.

Royole’s FlexPai appeared in 2018, while Samsung introduced the Galaxy Fold in 2019. Samsung’s first attempt encountered display problems serious enough to delay its launch. The company said at the time that its investigation had identified issues potentially associated with exposed hinge areas and substances entering the device. It subsequently worked on strengthening display protection before releasing the phone. 

Apple, therefore, is not entering an unexplored technological frontier. It has had years to observe the trade-offs involved in making a large flexible display fold repeatedly without compromising reliability. That does not mean every problem should have been eliminated, but it raises the expectations against which Apple’s first attempt will be judged.

There is, however, more to the iPhone Duo than its early failures. iFixit awarded it a provisional repairability score of five out of ten, the highest it has given a foldable phone. Its batteries are relatively easy to remove, and several components are more accessible than those in competing foldables. Yet the inner display and hinge remain difficult to service. Better access to some components does not necessarily make the most consequential repair inexpensive.

This is where Apple’s pricing becomes central to the debate. At nearly ₹3 lakh, buyers are paying not just for a folding screen, but for the expectation that Apple’s hardware, software and service ecosystem will justify the premium. But reliability becomes especially important when the cost of damage approaches half the purchase price.

Apple does not need to have invented foldables to succeed in the category. Its challenge is to make the format sufficiently reliable and useful that consumers see a reason to choose it over established alternatives. The company may yet do that. For now, the question is whether its first foldable can demonstrate the durability expected of a product at this price and whether Apple can turn years of watching its competitors into an advantage rather than merely another entry into the market.