I’m under a tight return window because this iPhone Duo is for my work phone, and I need to decide whether the crease is normal before I commit to keeping it. After a week, the center crease looks more noticeable under overhead lighting and I can feel it when scrolling across the fold.
I tried cleaning the screen, checking it in different rooms, lowering brightness, and comparing it with the display unit I originally handled. Cleaning and brightness changes made no difference, while the display unit comparison was inconclusive because the lighting was different. How bad is the crease on yours after similar use, and what should I check or try next before requesting an exchange?
The hidden risk is waiting for yourself to “get used to it” until the return window closes. A visible, evenly centered crease that changes with lighting and feels smooth is expected on a foldable. A sharp ridge, uneven dip, touch issues, pixels changing color, hinge noise, or rapid worsening is not. Check it powered off under side lighting, then scroll slowly across the fold with a drawing app. Since it’s a work phone, I’d exchange it if the crease already distracts you during normal use. A replacement may look similar, but you’ll remove the doubt while you still can.
A crease that is only visible at an angle is fine, that’s just how folding phones are. But one that is visible when typing emails or working with documents is less useful. Since it’s a work phone you should take pictures of it right now and make sure the seller notes it before you return it.
Compare it side by side with a store display unit using the same brightness and a white document. If yours is clearly deeper or distorts text more, exchange it now rather than gambling on a first-generation work device.
A foldable screen will never be perfectly flat, no matter how enthusiastically the marketing pictures might pretend otherwise. Comparing crease pictures on the internet will get you nowhere, as depending on the shot’s angle and exposure, the same phone can appear both perfect and with a visible groove.
I would also argue against relying on a store display as a replacement for your own phone. That one has very likely been abused throughout the day by people trying to fiddle with the hinge for fun, so instead, take a picture of yours from the same angle and light a couple of days in a row. If the line is consistent and disappears while you’re actively using the device, it’s most likely the intended design. If it’s growing more prominent over time, return it.
The issue is not with other owners having a crease, it’s that they have it, too. Are you going to start noticing yours every time you open Excel in the next two years?
Don’t sit there flexing it open and shut to test the crease. That habit does nothing but stress the hinge and the film, and it teaches your thumb to find the dip so now you notice it every time. Leave it folded like you actually use it and judge it during real work.
Something nobody’s flagged yet: temperature messes with how deep that crease reads. A foldable panel is softer when warm and stiffer when cold. If you’re checking it first thing in a chilly office, the line can look more pronounced than it will after the phone’s been in your hand a while. So if you’re going to compare your own photos across a few days like @turboserver6318 suggested, at least keep the room temp roughly the same, otherwise you’re measuring the weather.
The other thing worth separating out is the crease itself versus the factory film on top of it. On a lot of these foldables the pre-applied protector starts lifting right along the fold line first, and people read that as the screen getting worse. It isn’t. A tiny bubble or a soft spot at the crease that catches a fingernail is the film, not the panel. If that’s what’s happening, an exchange won’t fix it because the next unit does the same thing eventually. Peeling the factory film yourself usually voids something, so don’t.
Where I land: the crease being ‘normal’ isn’t really the decision. Every one of these has it. The decision is whether it’s stable and whether the touch layer behaves across the fold. Slow-drag a fingertip straight over the line and watch for any stutter or dead patch. Steady line, clean touch, keep it. Growing line, mushy touch, hinge that feels gritty, take the return while you still can and don’t overthink it.
A personal phone one can live with a bit of patience, but the work phone under a return deadline should go back immediately. The crease itself is to be expected, but trying to ignore it when glancing over emails, reviewing paperwork on the desk, or using the device at a desktop setup is a valid reason to return the phone. ‘Normal’ does not always mean a satisfactory experience for your use.
Test it out in the position that you typically work in. Holding a foldable device in your hands is one matter, but the way it glares at you from a stand beside a laptop is an entirely new challenge. That specific angle can make the fold appear far more irritating than it does in practice. Test it under the lighting, font sizes, and applications you tend to use as opposed to putting it in perfect display conditions.
If there is a case fitted onto the device, pull it off for a moment and see if the phone can open up completely flat without pushing and pulling at the display. Bulky cases that cover the folding mechanism or bad alignment from the adhesive can cause the device to tent slightly, which will intensify the glare from the middle of the display. This does not cause touch issues or display problems, but it can exaggerate the appearance of an ordinary crease.
My own cutoff would be simple: if you don’t think about it after a moment of working on a laptop, leave the phone be. If your eyes continue to drift towards the fold after a few days, return it even if the display is within tolerances. An exchange might result in the exact same crease, so think long and hard before considering another foldable device or if a traditional laptop would be the more practical work tool for you.
Don’t finish enrolling it in company management yet. MDM, work eSIMs, and activation lock can turn a basic return into an IT cleanup job, especially if only an administrator can remove the profile.
The confusing bit is that a crease can be normal and still make the phone wrong for you. If it remains visible while reading ordinary emails at your usual desk angle, I wouldn’t expect that annoyance to vanish just because the display passes inspection.
Make the keep-or-return decision first. If it goes back, have IT remove management, then erase the eSIM and confirm Find My is disabled before handing it over.
Whether or not the crease looks the same with the overhead light turned off is an important detail to note. A strong overhead lighting source may cast a dark or bright stripe directly on the fold, fooling one’s eye into thinking that a minuscule dip is a significant crease. Test it near a window with indirect lighting, then rotate your phone so that the fold faces the opposite direction. If the stripe vanishes or looks significantly different, it is safe to say that you are dealing with a reflection.
I would not recommend taking photos of the crease at different times of the day or under different lighting conditions. The phone’s computational photography is dynamic, meaning that its exposure, contrast, and sharpness may be altered dramatically from shot to shot. Only judge the crease by looking at it straight on with the applications you use most often. The text should not be skewed, pixelated, or tinted in any way, and scrolling should not give the illusion of a divided screen.
If you find that the crease is not as noticeable when looking at it straight on, you should return the phone. If you keep looking at it under different conditions, you will always find a worse perspective. Another iPhone Duo will always have a fold, and the process of swapping devices may turn into an exhausting search for the perfect flat phone.