Apple VP says iPhone Duo hinge, display crease, durability engineered for extended use

When asked about the crease in the iPhone Duo’s folding display, Marieb pointed to nano-texture as a great solution that he said would continue to minimize a visible crease even after extended use. He said the choice of a matte finish was part of that equation. “Hold us accountable to that, please. The choice of a matte finish — apart from it being beautiful — is part of that equation,” Marieb said. “When you look at glossy displays, their specularity makes it very easy to pick up topology differences. That’s part of the reason we picked the matte finish — it’s not only beautiful in terms of preventing glare, but it’s also more forgiving of [hinge] changes over time.”

On the hinge, Marieb said Apple worked heavily on the torque profile and changed many mechanical properties so that the iPhone Duo feels solid when closed, comparable to a high-end automobile’s car door. He described that as design intent, so users would feel the device is well crafted and safe to use. “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,” he said. “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.’”

Marieb also discussed the Duo’s half-folded state, which he said was among many use cases for the device. He said Apple had to consider whether people could interact with the device without it feeling floppy, and that it optimized torque profiles at both ends and in the middle so the hinge does not feel like something being pulled open or loose. “And then, as you said, we have a lot of use cases where the Duo is [in a half-folded state]. And so we also had to think, ‘Can people interact with this [device] and not have it feel floppy?’ So getting those torque profiles right at both those ends, as well as in the middle — not having it feel like you’re pulling something open, and not feeling as if it’s floppy — we spent a lot of time optimizing that,” he said. “So thank you for noticing, because a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that.”

Marieb praised Ceramic Shield 2 as an incredible technology that makes third-party screen protectors unnecessary. He said seeing someone put a screen protector on their iPhone makes his skin crawl because Apple works hard to make beautiful front screens. “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,” he said.

The quotes were published by Axel Metz at TechRadar. Marieb is Apple’s new vice president of hardware engineering, the same role Apple CEO John Ternus once held, according to 9to5Mac. The iPhone Duo is scheduled to launch next month and will bring an all-new software experience to iPhone along with several hardware innovations, 9to5Mac reported. The full interview is available at TechRadar.