Apple’s hardware chief has told iPhone owners, in so many words, to stop wrapping the screen in plastic.
“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,” said Tom Marieb, vice president of hardware engineering.
The line is as blunt as it sounds. Marieb now runs the hardware group once headed by John Ternus, Apple’s chief executive.
It will land badly with a lot of buyers. Plenty still stick a cheap film on the glass before they leave the shop, with high-street accessory walls are built on that habit. Apple’s position is that the habit is outdated.
Apple’s reason for saying the protector is unnecessary
That argument rests on Ceramic Shield 2, first used on the iPhone 17 family, the habit now carried onto the iPhone 18 Pro. The company’s argument is that the surface is three times more scratch-resistant than the previous generation.
The Apple boss argued the hard part was not picking one strength and ignoring the other. Tougher against scratches can mean weaker against long wear, and the other way round.
“We could have made it more scratch-resistant, but it would have been a little less wear-resistant,” he said.
Apple’s answer, he added, was a coating meant to last, not a demo that only looks good in week one. Testers, he pushed, compressed about five years of ordinary use into a few weeks, modelled on how people actually treat a phone.
It is still a lab story, not a pocket full of keys and grit, which is the exam that counts, and other makers have sold that same confidence before.
then they ask you to fold it
The same durability pitch now has to cover a hinge.
The iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable, was shown on 9 September. Pre-orders open on 16 October. It goes on sale on 23 October, from $1,999 — £1,999 in the UK. That is a steep ticket for a first attempt..
Open, it is a 7.6-inch matte inner display. Closed it, a 5.4-inch cover screen.
The inner finish is a nano-texture meant to cut glare. Marieb said the duller surface also hides the slow changes around a fold better than shiny glass.
Thin foldables make people nervous. But the Company disagreed, saying the hinge has more than 100 parts and was tuned so the phone does not feel loose when it is open, shut, or left half-folded.
The Apple boss compared the action to closing a high-end car door and said he was especially proud of the work.
“A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that.”
On the crease that has marked other foldables after a few months, he went further: “Hold us accountable to that, please.”
We have the claim. We do not have a year of real use. The medal waits.
The Duo is IP68-rated and uses grade 5 titanium for the frame and hinge cover.
The phones arrive on 23 October. Until then — leave the film in the drawer.
