Apple Exec Says 'Hold Us Accountable' on iPhone Duo Crease

Friday September 18, 2026 9:51 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple hardware engineering VP Tom Marieb spoke with TechRadar and shared some candid thoughts about Apple's upcoming iPhone Duo.

iphone duo weather
The ‌iPhone Duo‌ uses a matte nano-texture display, which is meant to cut down on glare and minimize the visibility of the crease. When asked if the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s crease would be more visible over time, as that's what tends to happen on other foldables, Marieb said the nano-texture display would help. He asked people to hold the company "accountable" on crease visibility.

Hold us accountable to that, please. The choice of a matte finish — apart from it being beautiful — is part of that equation. When you look at glossy displays, their specularity makes it very easy to pick up topology differences. That's part of the reason we picked the matte finish — it's not only beautiful in terms of preventing glare, but it's also more forgiving of [hinge] changes over time.

Marieb said the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s hinge was something he was "especially proud of" because it took a long time to get the right design. Apple wanted a durable hinge that felt solid to open and close.

We really worked on the torque profile very heavily, and that means changing a lot of the mechanical properties of the hinge to have it feel solid, like a high-end automobile's car door, when you shut it. That was design intent, so people would have a feeling like, 'Oh, it's okay. This is well crafted, and it's safe for me to use and not worry about it.'

Apple didn't want the hinge to be "floppy," so torque had to be perfected for different use cases. The hinge Apple came up with lets the ‌iPhone Duo‌ be used in partially folded seated and standing modes, as well as open and closed. Marieb said "a lot of blood, sweat, and tears" went into the hinge design.

Marieb also spoke about Ceramic Shield 2, his dislike of screen protectors, and more, with the full interview available on TechRadar.

The ‌iPhone Duo‌ will be available for pre-order on October 16 and will launch on October 23. Pricing starts at $1,999.

Related Roundup: iPhone Duo

Buyer's Guide: iPhone Duo (Buy Now)

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

Apple Retail Staff Told to Warn Against iPhone Duo Walk-In Purchases

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:30 pm PDT by Hartley Charlton

Some Apple retail employees have been told to warn customers against visiting to purchase an iPhone Duo without a pre-order on Friday, October 23. Apple Store employees told MacRumors that they have been advised that there will likely be no iPhone Duo stock available for walk-in purchases on launch day. Staff have been instructed to discourage customers without pre-orders from coming in...

• 253 comments

Here's What Apple's Apps Look Like on the iPhone Duo

Tuesday October 20, 2026 11:12 am PDT by Juli Clover

With just three days to go until the iPhone Duo is released, Apple is getting ready for the launch. Behind the scenes, the App Store now has screenshots of Apple's built-in apps running on the Duo. We've seen some apps in marketing materials, but images of the ones we haven't seen give us an idea of what it will be like using the iPhone Duo day to day. Many apps are shown in landscape...

• 117 comments

Crackgate? iPhone Duo Owners Report Screens Breaking Along the Hinge

Friday October 23, 2026 11:05 am PDT by Juli Clover

Some iPhone Duos are already experiencing hinge issues that cause display cracks, based on photos shared on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Almost all of the display faults are right along the hinge, and most result in a line of bright pixels across one side of the screen. An iPhone Duo owner in Australia said his device cracked after being opened fewer than 20 times, and there was no...

• 683 comments

Top Rated Comments

Lounge vibes 05

6 weeks ago

MR posters: Apple is going to release cheap crease covered plastic junk.
Apple: has literally spent the last week and a half going out of their way to talk about the crease, not hiding anything about it, and actively saying to “hold them responsible”, actively opening themselves up to lawsuits if their promises are not in the slightest reliable.
MR posters: well um… Apple bad because… um… Steve would never! Yeah. And mat bad. Apple bad.

I think the days of sound form + function are long gone. Not sure any of that talent is still employed at Apple.

It’s wild to me that they’ve made a phone that hinges into two, and they’re still so concerned with thinness that when opened it’s thinner than any iPhone, and so of course they sacrifice making the camera housing flush.

If they made the camera housing flush on any modern iPhone, the iPhone would be thicker than the 3G and 3GS and would weigh almost the same as the AirPods Max.
And if they instead shrunk the camera module down, you would be dealing with a camera with the optics and quality of the 4S/5.
The iPhones have actually been getting thicker and thicker as the years go on, and the duo isn’t even the thinnest foldable on the market. At the end of the day, you still want a mix of function with overall comfortability. If the duo was 5 MM thicker when opened and the camera was flush, the thing would be unusable.

Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)

foobarbaz

6 weeks ago

I’m so glad that after almost two decades of telling us that everyone loves glossy screens, they’re now back to saying matte is beautiful.

Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Luftkopf

6 weeks ago

MR posters: Apple is going to release cheap crease covered plastic junk.
Apple: has literally spent the last week and a half going out of their way to talk about the crease, not hiding anything about it, and actively saying to “hold them responsible”, actively opening themselves up to lawsuits if their promises are not in the slightest reliable.
MR posters: well um… Apple bad because… um… Steve would never! Yeah. And mat bad. Apple bad.

If they made the camera housing flush on any modern iPhone, the iPhone would be thicker than the 3G and 3GS and would weigh almost the same as the AirPods Max.
And if they instead shrunk the camera module down, you would be dealing with a camera with the optics and quality of the 4S/5.
The iPhones have actually been getting thicker and thicker as the years go on, and the duo isn’t even the thinnest foldable on the market. At the end of the day, you still want a mix of function with overall comfortability. If the duo was 5 MM thicker when opened and the camera was flush, the thing would be unusable.

The MR Forums have a reputation to keep. Confidently predicting the failure of every product Apple has launched since at least the OG iPod takes a bit of effort! Apple should have been dead ten times over!

Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MrENGLISH

6 weeks ago

The iPhone Duo is the perfect iPad replacement but not the perfect iPhone.
All we need is an iPhone Ultra with much superior cameras and no bezels.

I agree about it needing superior cameras but disagree about the bezels being an issue.

Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)

aleux

6 weeks ago

I’m so glad that after almost two decades of telling us that everyone loves glossy screens, they’re now back to saying matte is beautiful.

Making products requires compromises, they didn't say matte is more beautiful than glossy, but nano-texture is beautiful in its own way, just like how we have different textures of photo papers.

Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)