CNET's folding machine streams iPhone Duo durability test

Durability livestreams that repeatedly fold and unfold the iPhone Duo have become a trend overseas following the device's launch on October 23, according to automaton-media.com. Among them is a test by CNET, which built an automatic folding machine for the phone and streamed the results on YouTube.

The CNET machine folds and unfolds the iPhone Duo roughly 900 times an hour, or about 20,000 times a day, with the test streamed over five days. It began on October 23, the launch day, and had reached about 55,000 cycles at the start of the first day's stream.

That first session lasted about four hours and ended at about 61,000 cycles, with no abnormality seen on the device at the close of the stream. The livestream had about 90,000 views at the time of writing.

A manual test run by a YouTuber

Tech YouTuber Kuba Klawiter ran a separate livestream using people to fold the device by hand until it broke. In that test the display developed vertical and horizontal white lines after about 75,000 open-close cycles. Before the failure, the team placed the device in a bag of sand at about 60,000 cycles and on a container of ice just before the defect appeared.

Apple released the iPhone Duo on October 23. It is the first iPhone with a folding mechanism, features an A20 Pro chip and brings back Touch ID, and is slated to support Apple Pencil within the year. Before launch, concerns had been raised in various quarters that frequent opening and closing would stress the folding display and make it unsuitable for long-term use. Some buyers have reported display problems, and Apple issued a statement saying it will replace affected units, Reuters reported.