Apple has revealed new details about the engineering behind its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, with Hardware Engineering Vice President Tom Marieb highlighting the device's hinge, display construction and long-term durability in an interview with TechRadar.
Marieb said Apple devoted significant engineering effort to the hinge's torque profile, “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.'"
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Apple has also focused on the foldable display and the visibility of its crease. The iPhone Duo features a matte nano-texture finish designed to reduce glare and reflections.
He also criticised the use of third-party screen protectors, arguing that Apple puts extensive engineering effort into its display glass.
Marieb asked users to "hold us accountable" over long-term crease visibility, noting that the matte nano-texture finish serves a structural purpose. Unlike glossy displays whose reflectivity easily highlights surface topology changes, the matte finish actively reduces glare while softening the visual impact of any creasing over time.
“Personally, when I see someone put a screen protector on their iPhone, it makes my skin crawl, because we work so hard to make beautiful front screens,” Marieb told TechRadar. “So we very much wanted to develop new coatings that could withstand [scratches], but also make sure that these coatings were wear-resistant as well."
Apple focuses on both scratch resistance against sharp objects and long-term surface wear from daily use. Balancing these two properties requires careful material design, as enhancing one often compromises the other.
Marieb also discussed Apple's broader approach to device durability, saying the company tests products around five years of real-world use rather than relying solely on older military specifications or legacy testing standards.
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The executive emphasized that Ceramic Shield 2 strikes a careful balance between opposing material demands: acute scratch protection and gradual surface wear. Marieb said, "We could have made it more scratch-resistant, but it would have been a little less wear-resistant. It's the long life we're looking for against both of those loads over time,”
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