A tech reviewer took a novel approach to testing the iPhone Duo’s hinge, using a custom-made device to automatically fold the phone more than 32,000 times.
The goal was to find out if the Duo’s hinge got loosey-goosey after repeated folds. The result proved pretty shocking.
iPhone Duo fold test yields surprising result
One of the biggest complaints about folding phones is the crease in their screens after repeated use. And two of the biggest questions about the iPhone Duo are how well the hinge will hold up over time and whether its advanced design will help Apple avoid the curse of the crease.
Apple made a big deal out of the hinge in its press release announcing the first folding iPhone last month. The company said the hinge is “engineered from more than 100 components to precisely control opening and closing and support the center of the display, delivering a smooth, satisfying feel.”
However, as tech journalist Joanna Stern says in the iPhone Duo review posted to her YouTube channel on Wednesday, Apple didn’t say exactly how rigorously it tested the hinge in the phone, which starts at $1,999. So she teamed up with a hardware specialist to build a clever machine, which she used to put Apple’s first folding phone through an accelerated, real-world stress test.
“A couple of weeks ago, I had an idea,” Stern says in the video. “What if I could test the iPhone Duo’s hinge while I slept? So I called Aron Cohen, a hardware designer and prototyper, and asked him to build something that could fold and unfold the phone.”
Hingey puts iPhone Duo through more than 32,000 automated folds
The tiny machine Cohen built for Stern, which they named Hingey, looks like the kind of contraption you might see in an Ikea store testing the durability of a chair.
“We didn’t have much time, so I tried to figure out what I could put together,” said Cohen, founder of Aron Studio. “A servo motor and some 3D prints, little controller on the back.” Cohen designed Hingey so they could adjust the angle, speed and dwell time of the folds.
As Stern tests the iPhone Duo for her review, she wonders aloud if the phone’s hinge is getting looser. Sometimes she thinks so; other times she’s not so sure.
Her iPhone Duo review is creative and fun, with “breaking news” bits showing how things are going with Hingey. I recommend you watch the entire thing. However, if you don’t have 16 minutes to burn to get to the final verdict, you can read what she found below.
Spoiler alert: Surprising result!
After four nights of automated folding, Stern took the iPhone Duo back to Cohen’s lab for a checkup. On her first visit, Cohen had used a calibrated push-pull gauge to measure how much force it took to open the phone. Now — after a total of 32,640 folds by Hingey — he replicated that test and found a big surprise.
“The result: The hinge was actually a little bit stiffer,” Stern says, which seems impossible but should put to rest concerns that the iPhone Duo will become floppy over time.
“In everyday use, I really couldn’t feel a difference,” Stern concluded. “So after 32,000 folds, it felt pretty much the same as day one, which is pretty darn impressive.”
Elsewhere in the video, Stern comments on the iPhone Duo’s pros (multiple “poses,” solid battery life, nice multitasking, “ultimate selfie phone”) and cons (bad FaceTime camera, lack of telephoto lens and Face ID, hot in the hand). Like many other early reviewers, she calls Apple’s first stab at a foldable quite impressive — and she can’t wait for the next version, which fixes some of its flaws.
The iPhone Duo arrives in stores this Friday. However, a combination of high demand and limited supply means Apple might not have any available for walk-up customers. Preorders sold out almost instantly last week, and iPhone Duos are already selling at big markups on eBay.
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender. He appears weekly on the Cult of Mac podcast. You can find him on X @lewiswallace.
