iPhone Duo Survives 450,000+ Folds in CNET's Test, but the Hinge Is Starting to Slip

Quick summary: For about three weeks, CNET has had an iPhone Duo on a folding machine, live on a weekday stream. It has now passed 451,000 folds and still works. But the hinge is finally showing wear. According to MacRumors, CNET says it started feeling looser around 390,000 folds, and at about 440,300 folds the screen stopped opening all the way before the machine closed it again.

Key takeaways

• 451,000+ folds and the iPhone Duo is still running, with no cracking, no screen blackout, per CNET’s reporting.
• Hinge wear: Looser at ~390,000 folds. At ~440,300, it stops 5 to 10 degrees short of fully open on the machine, and no longer has its “snap.” It still opens fully by hand.
• The test isn’t over. CNET will keep going until it hits its failure conditions: loss of power, sensors failing to detect the screen, or screen blackout.
• Real-world math: At 100 folds a day, 450,000 folds is more than 12 years of use.
• Apple hasn’t said how many folds the iPhone Duo is rated for.

What actually happened to the hinge

Here’s how CNET described it, as quoted by MacRumors: the wire that opens the phone “would withdraw before the screen was in the fully open position, but it would then sort of ‘coast’ the rest of the way down.” Then, between 12:30 and 1 a.m., around 440,300 folds, the screen “would no longer have time to open all the way” before the machine closed it again.

So the phone isn’t broken. CNET says it still holds other screen positions without issues. Gadget Review’s write-up quotes CNET saying “It’s not fully broken yet, but the hinge has started to break down,” and says the displays show no worse crease than before.

How does that compare to Samsung?

MacRumors points out the iPhone Duo uses OLED panels from Samsung Display, and the display in the Galaxy Z Fold7 passed a certified third-party 500,000-fold durability test. That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, though. A machine test isn’t a certified lab test, and as Gadget Review notes, hinge design and how “failure” is defined are different from product to product.

What it means if you own one

Honestly? This is good news. CNET’s rig runs about 900 folds an hour, roughly 20,000 a day, per Gadget Review. Even heavy users aren’t anywhere near that.

The caveats:

• A machine isn’t your pocket. The test doesn’t include drops, sand, dust, pocket lint or temperature swings, which is what usually kills foldable hinges in real life.
• A loose hinge still matters. If your phone doesn’t open flat, it can affect typing, viewing angles and modes that depend on the screen’s angle.
• Protect it. A good case and keeping it out of sandy pockets will do more for your Duo than worrying about fold counts. One option is the MOBOSI MagSafe Kickstand Case.

My take

Half a million folds with a perfectly fine screen is better than I expected from Apple’s first foldable. If the hinge is what eventually gives out, not the display, that’s a better failure than a dead screen. And it’s a great reason to look at AppleCare if you’re buying one. I broke down whether it’s worth it in my iPhone Duo AppleCare article. Still deciding between the two big foldables? The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the one to compare it against. I’ll update this when CNET’s test finally ends.

Sources

• MacRumors: iPhone Duo Survives 450,000 Folds, but Hinge is Weakening (Nov 13, 2026)
• Gadget Review via Yahoo Tech: Apple’s iPhone Duo Survives 451,000 Folds. The Hinge Is Starting to Show It. (Nov 13, 2026)
• CNET’s Fold-a-Phone livestream (weekdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT, per MacRumors)