iPhone Duo Durability: Destroyed（原声文稿）

The iPhone Duo Durability Test.

Double the displays, double the durability doubts, and definitely double the dollars.

The Duo is a dazzling, delicate, and downright debatable device, devised by Dorks… That's not nice. I mean, designers… Much better. …in downtown Cupertino.

Devastatingly deluxe, today's drills will determine the dependability, or detail the disappointing demise, and deferred dissection. Is the Duo a dual display disaster?

Or a delightfully dynamic, delectable dollar devouring device for the devastatingly devoted?

Only one way to find out?

With the phone out of the box, you would think just by listening to Apple that this is the first folding phone ever made.

We can play along with that, no problem, everyone's got a fantasy.

But they are totally correct in that this is the first folding phone with dual ultra -thin glass layers on the center screen, which is extremely interesting.

Maybe now it won't scratch at level fingernail like all the other folding phones.

I think Apple took everything that they learned from making the ultra -thin titanium iPhone Air and then combined that with everything Samsung has learned for the past eight years while they were making their own folding phones.

And then, for some unknown reason, Apple also dug up the grave of Microsoft's old folding phone from like six years ago and stole the name, Microsoft Duo.

But since everyone else forgot about that guy, I guess we can too. Sharing is caring after all, am I right?

The iPhone Duo is definitely the first of its name and the first of its kind.

Right off the bat, it's a fun little device.

It's basically like using two phones at once, which is great since it costs as much as two phones.

Scroll in two social media apps at the same time will definitely help squeeze out those last few drops of happiness from those dried up dopamine receptors. Problem solved.

It's a tempting device, and as an Android user of 15 years, if this video gets 200 ,000 likes, I'll switch teams for a month. Please don't.

While messing with the cameras, I noticed my jerry rig knife was magnetically adhering itself to the phone.

So busting out the magnet paper, we can see where all the magnets are located.

These help hold the phone shut, and this information will come in handy later.

We also see all the magnets on the back for the wireless charging, which looks super cool.

The insides of Apple's iPhones are always cooler than the outsides, so hopefully it snaps in half for us here in a few seconds.

We also get a close -up look at the hidden under -display camera at this point, along with these soft center crease.

As you can see, the pressure of my finger kind of flexes the screen a bit like fabric. Not a big deal.

This matte finish really does help hide the crease a lot, and I'm a fan so far.

Starting our scratch testing on the exterior screen, the iPhone Duo has ceramic shield 2 glass on the front and regular ceramic shield on the back glass panel.

Now, we can work our way up through the Mohs Scale of Hardness to verify its scratch resistance.

Plastic scratches at a 2 or 3, sapphire with scratches at a level 8 or 9, and this ceramic shield glass, again, only starts showing the faintest of marks at a level 7.

I can't even say the thing. Nice work, Apple.

This exterior glass also protects the front 12 megapixel exterior selfie camera. The camera does not come with face ID, though.

The glass goes all the way up to the super -thin earpiece slit between the glass and the titanium frame. So far so good.

Moseying on over to the inner flexible screen on the iPhone Duo, this is where things start to get interesting.

See, Apple says there are 10 ultra -thin layers sandwiched together to make up this inner flexible screen.

And two of those layers apparently are ultra -thin flexible glass with a matte nano -texture scratch resistant coating on the surface of that inner display.

It is super cool that Apple has an underscreen camera.

Yeah, ZTE released a smartphone with an underscreen camera back in 2020, and Samsung did it on their own folding phone in 2021.

And you can't forget Red Magic that did it in 2022.

But just like the British in the 1800s, nothing really exists in the world until Apple does it for the first time. So here it is. We should call it Victoria.

You can see the way the pixels turn on and off under the screen to let that 4 megapixel selfie camera peek around the pixels.

Also, pay attention to how muted those pixels are under the anti -glare matte coating. We'll come back to this in a second.

Continuing our scratch test, surprisingly the matte nano -texture finish does a really good job at hiding scratches, which is great because just like every other folding phone in existence, the iPhone Duo scratches at a level 2 with deeper grooves at a level fingernail.

While the center crease disappears. It's like in the construction industry.

It's very common to paint hallways and big rooms in an eggshell or satin finish instead of gloss because the non -shiny finishes hide imperfections really well.

The keys and coins are leaving marks along with the medieval chainmail armor.

And with the screen on, the imperfections are just totally disappearing.

It's an incredibly brilliant move on Apple's part to have a matte display on the iPhone Duo, but when the screen turns off, those imperfections do come back.

It's not really as big of a deal as I was expecting it would be.

The nano -texture layer is a pretty elegant solution to a plasticky problem.

The extra layer of ultra -thin glass Samsung tucked into Apple's screen doesn't help the scratch resistance a whole lot, but the top layer of matte protection sure does.

The marks do not clean off with isopropyl alcohol, so they are definitely permanent.

In my semi -unprofessional opinion, the only real difference between Samsung screens on their own fold and Samsung screens on the Apple Fold is the top matte textured layer.

But what happens if we remove that top layer? Would the iPhone Duo still survive?

Obviously, I can't structurally compromise this first duo, since it still has to go through some things. But luckily, I have dual duos, thumbs up for that.

And we can get a look at what that screen actually looks like without the matte layer installed.

Obviously, taking off the nano -texture is super -duper frowned upon by Apple, since it is an integral structural layer of the screen, but for science it'll help us see what the real display looks like underneath.

Apple says that if the top surface layer of the screen never comes off or gets scratched, they will replace it themselves for 49 bucks.

Samsung does it for free on their own folding phones, at least for the first 12 months, but let's Let's not keep score.

If the inner screen gets totally damaged though, like on a pixel level, it'll cost $1 ,000 to replace, $1 ,000 to fix that inner screen.

And I don't know if you heard me on that or not, but it will be 10 Benjamin's to replace this inner display if it ever breaks.

The nanotexture layer of this night sky colored duo does not want to come off on its own, but it can be persuaded.

Once it's off, you can see what a difference it makes for the screen. Yeah, the glares are back, but so are the colors.

One looks like a vibrant fresh AMOLED display, and the other looks like it has Vaseline smeared all over the top.

It's a tough trade -off, and I'm by no means telling people to take off the nano -texture layers. To be honest, you'll probably end up breaking it. But personally, I think now it kind of looks better. Let me know what you think down in the comments.

Continuing onward with our original Star White iPhone Duo, there's really no way to protect the center screen from damage, besides just leaving it closed as much as possible.

The exterior screen though, slapping an extra layer of glass on top will definitely help keep it alive during drops.

And of course, improve the resale value when you decide you don't like folding phones anymore.

True story, it happened to me when I tried out the Z Flip for a few days. I knew within 24 hours that I am not a folding kind of guy. It is real glass.

Well, I'm not a folding guy. I am, however, definitely a titanium kind of guy.

Apple just dropped a ton of money to work with an American company called Perimen in Pennsylvania, who can produce all the titanium Apple needs for the iPhone Duo.

And like I'm for sure secure enough to show off my own titanium rod, this is about 200 bucks worth of grade 5 titanium, but when you get a look at what the guys are packing in Pennsylvania, I can see why Apple forked over 100 million.

I would very much like to see that titanium operation in person someday.

The camera control and The power buttons are not removable, that's one feature Apple didn't take from Samsung. Neither are the volume buttons, which are up top.

Instead of having the volume buttons go up and down like we usually see on a normal phone, this time you have to go left and right, since they're on the top.

And you'll be happy about that decision, since that's what Apple decided for us. You get what you get, then you don't develop it.

The spine of the iPhone Duo is also titanium, 85 % of which has been recycled.

The bottom of the iPhone Duo has our lower stereo loudspeakers, as well as the USB -C3, which can charge at 35 watts, I think.

Apple's not very good at giving us straight answers on the tech specs.

The spatial audio loudspeakers, that you can hear audio from the left side and over on to the right side, independently from each other, are kind of cool.

And it's nostalgic that Apple kept their two pentalobe screws going for each half of the phone. Kind of fun.

There are four of them now and it'll be super cool to take this apart, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss that teardown video.

The back glass of the iPhone Duo houses the 25 watt rear wireless charger with a gradual slope up to the two cameras on the camera plateau.

If we zoom into the Apple logo back here, no it's not your eyes, Apple absolutely floundered the stencil placement on this one. It's not even close. We got Duo Apples on the Apple Duo.

Up at the cameras we have our ultra -wide 48 megapixel camera on the left and our regular main 48 megapixel camera on the right.

There's no telephoto this time like we see over on the pro iPhones.

There is a tiny metal grill for the rear -facing microphone, as well as a single tone LED flash.

And that's great in everything, but this is where we start to encounter some problems.

See Apple says the iPhone Duo is IP68 water and dust resistant, which are some bold claims for a folding phone.

And this should mean they shouldn't be scared of a little dust, right? Super wrong.

It is cool how the dust sticks to the magnets on the back, though.

Dust is going to be the iPhone Duo's worst nightmare, and as you can see, there are copious amounts of sand, dust, and dirt covering the whole phone.

But spoiler alert, the world is made of dirt, so there's a decent chance you'll come in contact with the stuff at some point if you go outside.

And thanks to all that dirt, my new iPhone Duo is completely done closing.

The dirt doesn't enter into the screen, or anywhere around the frame.

It appears that the hinge is the issue.

There's a few ingress points where enough dirt can get inside to keep the hinge from closing. The dusty duo is damaged.

The magnets that normally have enough force to hold the phone shut can't overcome the force of the dust that is collected inside of the titanium hinge.

And now it's stuck open.

If you only learned one thing from this video, it's how important it is to stay away from dust, dirt, grit, sand, and vans that say free candy on the side.

As far as the pixels go, it's basically exactly what we saw on Samsung's newest Fold 8.

7 .6 inch, 3000 nit, 120 Hertz refresh rate OLED that starts to burn after about 10 seconds.

The exterior screen is the 5 .4 inch with the same 3000 nit, 120 Hertz panel, but it lasts for more than 20 seconds without damage, since the glass is there to help absorb and redistribute that heat. Finally, the bend test.

I've been testing these folding phones since the first generation seven years ago.

Most do survive, but you know, some explode like the Pixel Fold last year.

Historically, Samsung's make the strongest foldables, so let's hope Apple followed in their footsteps.

There is quite a bit more flex than I anticipated.

And while the phone body does remain intact during this initial flex, unfortunately Fortunately, the inner screen has developed a permanent, unreparable $1 ,000 down -the -drain green line, which emanates from the center of the screen all the way out to the titanium frame.

And yeah, it still won't close from all that dust.

Bending again, we now have three lines.

The hinge lets the body flex just far enough that the inner flexible screen gets permanently damaged.

We've never had this problem with these Samsung foldables, by the way, except for that trifle, but that gets it passed since it's the size of an iPad.

Maybe it's the dust in the hinge, or maybe it's the hinge not being as rigid as it needs to be, but the iPhone Duo does not survive my durability test.

Don't let anyone sit on your phone when it's in the open position.

Since now the whole inner screen is unresponsive and my wallet just got $1 ,000 lighter.

Now, Apple's kind of funny when it comes to protecting their own fragile phone. They provide us with two case options at launch.

One is called a folio case that has a neat magic carpet style extending hinge cover. This costs $130 by the way.

The case almost needs a case with how expensive it is.

And it also does not protect the sides of the phone, which is wild.

Then we have the $80 duo case, which does cover the sides of the phone, but not the hinge.

And as we know, leaving a portion unprotected is a bad idea. Just ask Achilles.

Now, to be fair to Apple, I do think I know why they skip protecting the whole phone.

Most folding cases have spring -loaded axles inside the hinge, attached with a screw and metal plates to make the whole thing open and close properly with your phone.

But just like glass, moving parts have a tendency to break, especially when you move them thousands of times over years.

And the last thing you want is a spring springing from your case in the springtime.

And you might be like, hey Jerry, if Apple can't keep my duo alive, how am I supposed to keep my duo alive. And that's a great question.