Tom Marieb, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, spoke with TechRadar and shared some candid thoughts on Apple’s upcoming iPhone Duo.
The iPhone Duo uses a nano-texture matte display, intended to reduce glare and minimize fold visibility. When asked if the iPhone Duo crease would be more visible over time, as tends to happen on other foldables, Marieb said the nano-texture display would help. He asked people to hold the company “accountable” for increasing visibility.
Hold us accountable for this, please. Choosing a matte finish – in addition to looking good – is part of this equation. When you look at glossy displays, their specularity makes it very easy to detect differences in topology. This is part of the reason we chose the matte finish: it not only looks good in terms of preventing glare, but it is also more forgiving of (hinge) changes over time.
Marieb said the iPhone Duo hinge was something he was “particularly proud of” because it took a long time to get the design right. Apple wanted a hinge that was durable and strong to open and close.
We really worked a lot on the torque profile, which involves changing a lot of the mechanical properties of the hinge so that it feels solid, like the door of a high-end automobile, when you close it. That was the design intent, so people would feel like, “Oh, that’s okay. It’s well designed, and I can use it safely without worrying about it.
Apple didn’t want the hinge to be “soft”, so the torque needed to be perfected for different use cases. Apple’s proposed hinge allows the iPhone Duo to be used in sitting and partially folded standing modes, as well as in open and closed modes. Marieb said “a lot of blood, sweat and tears” went into designing the hinge.
Marieb also talked about Ceramic Shield 2, her dislike of screen protectors, and more, with the full interview available at TechRadar.
The iPhone Duo will be available for pre-order on October 16 and launches on October 23. Pricing starts at $1,999.
