iPhone Duo inner screen repair costs $999, so if you preorder one anyway, buy AppleCare+

iPhone Duo preorders opened October 16, and the number I’d look at before the $1,999 starting price is $999. That’s Apple’s estimated fee to repair the Duo’s folding inner screen without AppleCare+, MacRumors reported from Apple’s own repair listing, and iDevice reported the same figure. With AppleCare+, the same inner display repair is $99, according to 9to5Mac. Apple says the phones start arriving October 23.

The rest of Apple’s list, as MacRumors reported it, is $379 for the outer display, $199 for back glass and up to $1,499 for anything filed under other damage. iThinkDiff notes these are estimates, and the final fee is set after Apple inspects the phone.

Samsung’s folding phones cost less to fix. Nokiamob reported that the inner screen on a standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 runs $579, up from $449 for the Fold 7. Apple’s fold costs $420 more than the standard Fold 8 to replace.

9to5Mac reported AppleCare+ adds $19.99 a month to the Duo, and iThinkDiff reported you can also pay $199.99 a year or $399 up front. Paid yearly, the plan costs about a fifth of one inner-screen repair, so it pays for itself the first time the fold breaks.

In my October 9 YouTube video on why I won’t buy a Duo, I said that if you get one anyway, get protection, because if you’re dropping $2,000 you’re not going to complain about another few hundred. There’s no track record for this screen yet because the phone is brand new.

If you’re preordering anyway, AppleCare+ belongs in the same checkout, not on a list of things to decide later. If $199.99 a year on top of $1,999 feels like too much, I’d take that as the answer on the first fold and look at a phone without a hinge, or wait for the second Duo.

The inner screen is the part you open and close all day, and one cracked fold costs about half of what the phone did.