Here’s why the iPhone Duo’s hinge could be cracking the screen

Inside Apple’s first folding iPhone, contact with the delicate inner screen could cause a stress ‘hotspot.’

苹果首款折叠屏 iPhone 的内部设计中，与脆弱内屏的接触可能会导致应力“热点”的产生。

Within hours of the iPhone Duo launch last Friday, people reported that the inner screen on some brand new foldable phones was already broken. The issue was similar across many photos shared on social media: some kind of issue or crack would appear in the middle of the screen above the hinge, with lines appearing on the right side of the display. On Monday, Apple acknowledged an “issue” and said it’s replacing damaged units, without going into much detail about how many broken phones have been reported so far.

上周五 iPhone Duo 发布后的几小时内，就有用户反映部分全新折叠屏手机的内屏已经损坏。社交媒体上分享的许多照片显示问题非常相似：屏幕铰链上方的中间位置会出现某种故障或裂纹，显示屏右侧则会出现线条。周一，苹果承认存在“问题”并表示正在更换受损设备，但并未详细说明目前已收到多少起手机损坏的报告。

So what’s actually going on? Shahram Mokhtari, the lead teardown technician at iFixit, has actually taken apart the iPhone Duo and has a pretty good idea about the potential cause, telling The Verge that it’s due to an issue along the hinge, where a series of gears, springs, and joints work together to let the device close flat, while also trying to avoid creating a deeper crease by giving that screen space to bend more gently inside while it’s closed.

那么，到底发生了什么？iFixit 的首席拆解技术员 Shahram Mokhtari 已经拆解了 iPhone Duo，并对潜在原因有了相当清晰的判断。他告诉 The Verge，问题出在铰链处，那里的一系列齿轮、弹簧和关节协同工作，旨在让设备闭合时保持平整，同时通过为屏幕提供内部弯曲空间来避免产生更深的折痕。

At the troublesome spot, it appears that the flexible inner screen is pushing up against a part of the hinge. That inner screen is already “extremely sensitive,” he says — if you took a pick or a sharp tool and poked at the edges of the screen, “you’re going to break that screen.” If you look at the pictures of damaged Duos on social media, there’s often a black spot where the damage is focused on the display, and that’s where the metal is hitting the screen, Mokhtari says.

在出现问题的部位，柔性内屏似乎正顶在铰链的某个部件上。他表示，内屏本身已经“极其敏感”——如果你用拨片或尖锐工具戳屏幕边缘，“屏幕就会损坏”。Mokhtari 指出，如果你查看社交媒体上受损 Duo 的照片，显示屏损坏处通常有一个黑点，那就是金属撞击屏幕的位置。

You can see a visual representation of what Mokhtari is talking about in iFixit’s written and video Duo teardowns, which reveal where the hinge transitions, as the center hinge support makes space for a crossing flex cable, creating several edges that could ultimately be the culprit. The damage iFixit has been seeing is at a point where the center support bar might not always drop down far enough while the screen folds, possibly creating a stress “hot spot” between the flat bar and the bent screen inside a closed iPhone Duo.

你可以在 iFixit 的图文和视频拆解中看到 Mokhtari 所述情况的直观展示。拆解揭示了铰链的过渡位置，由于中央铰链支撑架为穿过的柔性电缆留出了空间，从而形成了几个可能最终导致问题的边缘。iFixit 观察到的损坏点在于，当屏幕折叠时，中央支撑杆有时无法完全降下，这可能在闭合的 iPhone Duo 内部的平坦支撑杆与弯曲屏幕之间产生了一个应力“热点”。

At least one user with a broken Duo screen said they “felt something around the internal hinge” while showing it to a friend, kept opening it, and heard an “audible crack,” with the screen breaking. YouTuber CuriousHagi, who covered a Duo with dirt as part of a strenuous durability test, captured something similar on video, and the screen break appears in a similar spot. In a teardown video, CuriousHagi found that a part of the hinge that connects to the central bar had snapped.

至少有一位 Duo 屏幕损坏的用户表示，在向朋友展示手机时“感觉到内部铰链周围有异物”，在反复开合过程中听到了“清晰的碎裂声”，随后屏幕便损坏了。YouTube 博主 CuriousHagi 在一项严苛的耐用性测试中将 Duo 覆盖上泥土，并在视频中捕捉到了类似情况，屏幕破裂的位置也如出一辙。在拆解视频中，CuriousHagi 发现连接中央支撑杆的铰链部件已经断裂。

Apple says the issue affects a “small number” of Duo units, and Mokhtari says that “In terms of numbers, we don’t know. Apple definitely has all the data here. And I suspect they know more than they’re telling us as well.” But he notes that because foldable screens are so delicate, a “certain number” of them will fail, as will a number of the hinges because they’re also “extremely complicated and delicate.” And while Apple isn’t recalling the Duos, “If three months from now, we’re still seeing the same kind of failure, then it’s a more widespread problem, and that might lead to a recall,” Mokhtari says.

苹果称该问题仅影响“少数”Duo 设备，而 Mokhtari 表示：“具体数量我们不得而知。苹果肯定掌握所有数据，我怀疑他们知道的情况比告诉我们的要多。”但他指出，由于折叠屏非常脆弱，一定比例的屏幕会出现故障，铰链也是如此，因为它们同样“极其复杂且脆弱”。虽然苹果目前没有召回 Duo 的计划，但 Mokhtari 认为：“如果三个月后我们仍然看到同样的故障，那么这就是一个更普遍的问题，可能会导致召回。”

Mokhtari points out that since this is the first generation of the iPhone Duo, it’s the first time Apple’s engineers are getting data on the hinge, and he says that “I guarantee you” Apple will redesign what’s at fault here for its next-generation foldable. He also notes that, generally speaking, “the phones do seem to be in people’s hands and people are using them, and they’re not running into any issues whatsoever.”

Mokhtari 指出，由于这是第一代 iPhone Duo，这是苹果工程师首次获得关于铰链的数据。他表示“我敢保证”，苹果会在下一代折叠屏产品中重新设计这些有缺陷的部件。他还提到，总的来说，“手机确实已经到了用户手中，人们正在使用它们，而且并没有遇到任何问题。”