Some iPhone Duo owners claim there’s a ‘crackgate’ issue as tests reveal durability weaknesses — but design flaw claims could be bending the truth

• Some users report their iPhone Duos have already broken due to a possible design flaw with the hinge
• A teardown shows that the hinge does indeed seem to be the weak link, but they could only recreate this issue by misusing the phone
• It’s unclear how widespread this issue is, or how many of these incidents occurred under normal use

While there has been a lot of excitement around the iPhone Duo, its launch hasn’t been faultless, with high demand leading to shipping delays and — more worryingly — some users reporting that their phones are already breaking.

Specifically, a small number of users have reported the hinge cracking and causing the screen to break, but is this the start of ‘crackgate’, or are these just isolated incidents?

Going by social media, we’d lean towards the latter — there have been a fair few reports across Reddit and elsewhere, but relative to how many people have received an iPhone Duo, it’s a drop in the ocean.