How Long Does The iPhone Duo's Hinge Last? This Test Has A Reassuring Answer

Apple unveiled its first and highly anticipated foldable phone in September 2026. Early reviewers praised the iPhone Duo for its premium build, gorgeous 7.6-inch inner screen with a virtually crease-free display, and clever details like the dynamic unfolding effect where the interface smoothly carries over from the front display to the inner one. But just weeks after the first Duo devices started shipping, some customers complained of cracked inner displays, apparently caused by a flaw in the hinge. Apple insisted the defect was confined to a small number of phones, and offered a replacement Duo to affected customers. Thankfully, the issue hasn't turned into a wider problem, but just how durable is the phone's highly engineered hinge?

Cnet decided to put it to the test, building a machine designed for the sole purpose of repeatedly opening and closing single-hinge foldable phones. Since October 23, Cnet has been folding the Duo continuously, occasionally live-streaming the test on YouTube. Its iPhone Duo has now passed 300,000 folding cycles – a cycle being a complete opening and closing of the handset — without any sign of mechanical failure. The crease, too, is holding up well.

It means that if you opened your iPhone Duo, say, 50 times a day, you might expect the hinge to still be working just fine for 16.4 years. But let's be honest, you'll probably be onto your third or fourth handset in that time, with your first Duo nothing but a distant memory. The results of Cnet's test could also be good news for the used market, as a Duo with 73,000 folds behind it — equivalent to four years of opening and closing it 50 times a day — should still have plenty of life in its hinge, making the purchase of a used Duo a little less daunting.

Notably, Apple has so far declined to share how many folding cycles the Duo's hinge endured in its own testing. While it will surely have undergone thorough durability evaluation, it's possible that the tech giant sees little value in putting a number on it, especially when you consider that real-world longevity depends on far more than repeated opening and closing in laboratory conditions. Things like drops and bumps, not to mention excessive pressure and dust, can all take their toll on a phone, making a single fold-count number a potentially misleading measure of durability over a long period.

Still, that hasn't stopped rival foldable makers from proudly publishing various figures. Among the foldables released in 2026, Oppo cited certification by the independent German testing organization TÜV Rheinland confirming that the Find N6 successfully completed 1 million folding cycles. Oppo has also publicized its own figures for the Find N6, announcing that the phone's folding display is "certified to stay flat" after 600,000 folds.

Samsung, meanwhile, claims the hinges on its Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 are able to endure 200,000 folds. According to Motorola, the Razr Ultra (2026), can withstand as many as 400,000 folds, while Honor's Magic V5, released in 2025, can apparently handle up to 500,000 folds. Like Apple, Google has yet to reveal the figures of a foldable test involving the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, though it did say in 2025 that the previous iteration of the handset — the Pixel 10 Pro Fold — could handle more than 200,000 folding cycles.