iPhone Duo Crease Barely Changes After 139,000 Folds

An iPhone Duo put through nearly nonstop machine folding for a week has passed 139,000 cycles, and CNET says the crease looks much the same as it did when the test began.

The outlet is using its Fold-a-Phone rig to compress years of opening and closing into days, then pausing long enough to show how the centre line looks with the screen switched off.

According to a report from Mike Sorrentino, you can still spot the crease as the phone opens and closes, but it is hard to see once the display is on. With the panel off during a break in folding, that line is clearer, which matches how the Duo looks straight out of the box before you turn it on.

Wear is still happening along the fold, but Apple’s nano-texture matte finish helps hide it by cutting reflections. That matte layer is meant to come off, and people who have peeled it away have found the crease much more obvious underneath, the same pattern seen on book-style foldables such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. A clip shared on X by Ice Universe showed that uneven look after the film was removed.

Apple will replace the layer as a paid service, at about $27 CAD with AppleCare+ or about $68 CAD without it, based on the U.S. prices of $19 and $49. That option matters for Canadian buyers paying $2,999 CAD and up, especially after early hinge and green-line reports and iFixit‘s own look at how the nano-texture disguises the crease.

CNET plans to keep folding until the Duo can no longer open or close, and it is livestreaming the machine on its YouTube channel on weekdays so viewers can watch the wear accumulate in real time.

Would 139,000 machine folds with a crease that barely changes make you more confident in the Duo’s display, or are you waiting to see how far the test runs?