Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, launched in Singapore on 23 Oct, starting at S$3,099 for 256GB and going up to S$4,899 for 2TB. Over 200 people queued outside Apple’s Orchard Road store on launch day, and within hours, more than 700 listings for the device had appeared on Carousell, some priced as high as S$8,888. Just days later, Apple confirmed it will replace handsets affected by screen problems, after users posted photos online showing lines across the inner display, cracking along the fold’s centre crease, and a “crunching noise” when opening the device. Apple has not said how many units are affected, and noted that some images circulating online may have been AI-generated.
This is not the first time a foldable phone has run into screen trouble right out of the gate. In 2019, Samsung delayed the launch of its original Galaxy Fold after reviewers found their review units cracking or flickering within days of use, with the company eventually pushing the release back by several months to fix the design.
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Apple itself has been through something similar before, though not with a foldable. In 2010, the iPhone 4’s all-new antenna design meant that holding the phone a certain way could cause signal bars to drop sharply, a controversy that became known as “Antennagate”. The late Steve Jobs eventually held a press conference offering free cases to affected customers, and the issue was resolved in later iPhone models.
Early hardware issues on brand-new designs are common enough that “wait for the second or third generation” has become something of a rule of thumb among tech buyers, even if it is not always followed.
If you have ever held off on a new phone, console or gadget because it just came out, or jumped in anyway and dealt with the bugs later, you already know which camp you are in.
But, we want to know: Do you avoid buying first-generation tech like the iPhone Duo?
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