9to5Mac reported on Nov. 5 that CNET’s Fold-a-Phone livestream ended on Nov. 4 with the iPhone Duo past 260,000 folds. At that point, the hinge and crease appeared to be holding up, making the count an interim result from one test rather than a lifespan rating. 9to5Mac’s report also said CNET planned to continue daily testing until at least Nov. 20.
For a broader look at the phone’s everyday use, see NeoTeo’s earlier iPhone Duo coverage. Its fold test is a separate question: what does a cycle count say about this device under a particular procedure?
A fold count is useful when you know the test method and the point at which the count was recorded.
How CNET ran its fold test
CNET’s configurable Fold-a-Phone is designed to test foldable phones’ hinges and screens. The machine was tuned to fold at a human-like pace: CNET’s lab representative put its rate at about 900 to 1,000 folds per hour, explaining that folding too fast or too slowly could distort the stress on the hinge. The lab representative also said Apple had not given CNET a fold-count durability target. CNET’s explainer describes the rig and its method.
The method gives the 260,000-plus count useful context, but it remains specific to CNET’s machine and procedure. A cycle count from one test cannot, by itself, predict how long every owner’s phone will last.
Two creators tested separate phones under different conditions
AppleTrack’s test ended with a broken display
In Sam Kohl’s AppleTrack test, the iPhone Duo went through bending, 1,000 folds, sand and ocean-water testing before its display failed. The video was sponsored by Wispr Flow, and its result belongs to that test sequence and device.
Klawiter added dust and cold to a hand-folding test
Kuba Klawiter reported that a purchased 256GB retail iPhone Duo failed after 75,000 human-operated folds. His test added simulated pocket dust at around 50,000 folds, followed by exposure to ice and cold. Klawiter said he bought the phone in Poland; the fold count belongs to that unit and those test conditions.
A viewer also asked about a dark vertical bar visible after the bend segment in AppleTrack’s video. That is a frame-level observation from the video, not a diagnosis of a defect.
What the separate results tell us
The three outcomes describe specific devices and procedures. CNET’s machine count, Klawiter’s hand-folding test with added dust and cold, and AppleTrack’s sequence of physical stresses are not a shared durability ranking. Together, they also do not provide a representative estimate of how often iPhone Duo displays fail in ordinary use.
