Apple has acknowledged that some of its new iPhone Duo handsets have developed screen faults, days after the company’s first foldable phone went on sale.

Apple said it was aware of “an issue impacting the inner display on a small number” of the devices and urged affected owners to contact the company for a replacement, the BBC reported.

Owners have posted photographs online showing lines running across the folding screen, cracks along the display’s centre crease, and have reported a crunching noise when opening the device. One user, Justin Lokos, posted an image of a handset with lines across the right side of the display, and later a picture of a replacement phone alongside the faulty one, thanking an Apple store in New York.

The scale of the problem is unclear. Apple has not said how many devices are affected, and the BBC noted that some images circulating of faulty handsets may have been generated using artificial intelligence.

Francisco Jeronimo, a technology analyst at the market research firm IDC, said that meant caution was needed before drawing conclusions about the whole production run. But he added that the early reports showed “that even a company with Apple’s engineering resources and supply chain discipline faces a steep learning curve in foldables”.

Because Apple had positioned the Duo as a “premium alternative” to established foldables, Jeronimo said, “how it handles this first-generation issue will shape buyer confidence in the category well beyond its own sales”. With a further 28 markets due to get the phone on 30 October, he said, “it needs to clarify its warranty position quickly”.

The Duo’s 7.6-inch (19.3cm) inner display is held together by a central hinge — engineering that has produced similar flaws in rival foldables. It is Apple’s most expensive iPhone, costing up to £3,199 for the best-equipped models, and marks the first major iPhone redesign in almost two decades. It was unveiled by chief executive John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook in September.

Not reported

Neither filing gives the number of affected handsets, the cause of the fault, or whether the 30 October rollout will be altered.

Sources

Hiru News, which credited the BBC, put the phone’s starting price at about US$2,668; the £3,199 figure above is the BBC’s, and refers to the best-equipped models.