Apple has finally unveiled its much-anticipated foldable smartphone, the Duo, and it comes with several unexpected features—most notably a hinge engineered with the help of AI and 3D printing. This marks Apple’s debut in the foldable device category, a market that has generated plenty of consumer excitement but hasn’t always delivered on that promise in terms of real-world performance.

Given that foldables are designed to endure twice the physical stress of a standard phone, it’s no surprise that many models in this space suffer from noticeable wear and tear and fall short of the durability found in conventional smartphones. Apple, however, says it has woven advanced safeguards into the Duo’s design to resist the typical degradation that plagues foldables.

The hinge is a key part of that strategy, according to Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer. “During manufacturing, we use AI algorithms to precisely match each individual hinge with its best-fit housing to ensure perfect alignment, and a confocal laser progressively scans the topology of every single unit, and 3D prints up to 25 micro layers of a custom photopolymer to eliminate residual waviness,” Srouji explained during Apple’s Surprise and Shine event on Wednesday.

Srouji also highlighted additional protective measures built into the Duo, including “a custom nano-texture finish that significantly reduces glare and reflections” and a multi-layer lamination approach aimed at boosting overall durability. Whether these innovations will be enough to keep the Duo in top shape over the long haul, however, remains an open question that only time and real-world use will answer.