SEOUL, October 27 (AJP) - Samsung Display supplies the OLED panels for Apple’s first foldable iPhone as well as the passport-sized Galaxy foldable introduced earlier this year by sister company Samsung Electronics.
But just four days after Apple’s long-awaited debut, reports of cracked displays have highlighted a challenge that goes beyond sourcing advanced components: making them work reliably together.
The iPhone Duo, which went on sale Friday starting at 3.29 million won in South Korea and $1,999 in the United States, has drawn complaints from early buyers reporting cracks, bright lines and display failures near the central hinge — sometimes within hours of unboxing.
In one Reddit post, an Australian buyer said the inner display cracked after roughly six hours of ownership and fewer than 20 openings. Another user reported that the hinge became unusually stiff after about four folds, followed by a loud popping sound and screen damage.
Photos circulating on Reddit show similar damage patterns, with bright horizontal lines extending from the central fold and portions of the display turning black. The accounts have not all been independently verified, and the overall failure rate remains unknown.
Apple acknowledged Monday that a small number of devices had experienced inner-display problems and directed affected customers to AppleCare for replacements. It has not disclosed the cause or the number of affected units.
The complaints have drawn fresh attention to Samsung’s seven-year head start in foldable smartphones, a market Apple entered this month after years of development.
Samsung Display supplies the iPhone Duo’s foldable OLED panel, but it is customized to Apple’s specifications and differs from the panel used in Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z Fold8.
That distinction matters because a foldable phone’s durability depends on more than its screen.
“Samsung Display supplies the panel, but the mechanical design that allows the phone to fold is a separate matter,” said Moon Dae-kyu, a professor specializing in display technology at Soonchunhyang University.
“If the hinge mechanism puts pressure on the panel, it can cause damage,” he said,
Moon noted Apple’s relative lack of experience in mass-producing foldable smartphones could be a contributing factor. Defects that escape detection in a limited number of test units can also emerge when production expands to millions of devices, he added.
Unlike conventional smartphones, foldables require the screen, hinge and internal support structures to move together repeatedly without concentrating excessive stress on the flexible OLED panel.
Repair specialist iFixit, drawing on teardown footage, patents and CT scans, suggested that a central support component in the iPhone Duo’s hinge assembly might not move sufficiently out of the display’s way during folding, potentially putting pressure on the screen.
Neither Apple nor independent investigators have established whether the reported failures stem from the hinge, display materials, assembly tolerances or another cause.
The episode recalls Samsung’s own troubled entry into the market in 2019, when display failures in early Galaxy Fold review units forced it to postpone the launch.
Samsung subsequently reinforced the hinge area, added protective structures and made changes to reduce the risk of debris entering the folding mechanism.
Seven years later, the company is selling its eighth-generation Galaxy Z Fold after repeated refinements to its hinge and display architecture.
Samsung Display’s foldable OLED panel used in the Galaxy Z Fold7 passed a 500,000-fold endurance test verified by international testing and certification firm Bureau Veritas in 2025 — two and a half times its previous 200,000-fold benchmark.
Conducted over 13 days at 25 degrees Celsius, the test demonstrated the panel’s resistance to repeated folding under controlled conditions. Apple has not publicly disclosed a directly comparable official fold-cycle rating for the iPhone Duo.
The figures do not establish which finished phone is more durable: testing a panel differs from testing a fully assembled device.
The stakes are considerable for both companies.
According to Counterpoint Research, cumulative global foldable smartphone shipments are expected to exceed 100 million units by the end of 2026. Apple is projected to capture 25 percent of this year’s market despite entering only in October, while Samsung is expected to retain the lead with a 38 percent share.
The research firm also forecasts global foldable OLED panel shipments of 27.5 million units this year, up 24 percent from 2025, with revenue rising 48 percent to $4.4 billion.
The fallout has reached South Korea’s component suppliers.
Shares in Fine M-Tec, a supplier of foldable display support components, tumbled Monday as speculation over the failures spread. The company denied that its components were responsible, saying the cause of any finished-product failure required objective technical verification.
For Apple, the complaints are an early test of its ability to turn advanced components into a reliable finished product in a category where Samsung has spent years learning from manufacturing setbacks.
For Samsung, they highlight the distinction between supplying a competitor’s display and engineering the device around it.
Whether the failures prove to be isolated manufacturing defects or require broader design changes remains unknown. Apple has secured Samsung’s screen technology. The experience of building a foldable phone must still be earned.
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