When closed, the iPhone Duo fits squarely in my palm and slips easily into just about any pocket — and I say that as a woman who owns clothes with tiny pockets. It unfolds with a slight springiness that makes it easy to open. Unfurled, the Duo resembles a smaller iPad Mini, but with a satisfying matte inner display that reduces glare and makes the center crease virtually invisible. (Tilt the phone with the screen locked and you’ll still see that line, but you won’t notice it while watching a show or scrolling through social media.) Apple says the inner display is also resistant to scratches and dents. I’ve been gentle with the phone, but both screens have held up without any scuffs so far.
It is expensive, it’s full of compromises, and it can be incredibly frustrating to use. Switching from the Duo back to one of our standard slab phones to get something done often felt like a relief. Sometimes you just need your iPhone to do what you need it to do — that’s why Apple has been so risk-averse in changing it.But all of the risk and weirdness of the Duo is also fun, in the way the best early adopter devices are fun. It’s incomplete as a product, but complete enough as an idea that you can see where things are going. It’s reminiscent of the very first MacBook Air, which took exactly no one by storm — it took a full redesign for Apple to get it right, and then it took over the entire industry.
The iPhone Duo is the best designed foldable phone I’ve ever tested, with a sturdy and premium build and a nano-texture display that hides the crease. I also like the multiple usage modes and split-screen multitasking. However, while fully updated apps for the Duo look great, non-optimized apps do not. And the lack of a telephoto zoom is a bummer for a $2,000 phone.
After a week with the iPhone Duo, I’m convinced that this form factor represents the future of the iPhone. There’s something special about a compact, notebook-like iPhone that unfolds into a tablet-like experience, and it just makes sense once you start using it. Importantly, neither screen feels compromised. I’ve been repeatedly surprised by how capable the outer display is compared to what I expected.
The Apple iPhone Duo arrives as a fully realized folding smartphone from a company that, perhaps smartly, sat back and watched a category stumble, grow, develop, and solidify into a desirable form factor. As such, it avoids most of its predecessors' missteps while delivering exquisite engineering, a vibrant, virtually crease-free screen, and a compelling design.
There's a warning that often comes up between gadget nerds when considering a new product: Don't buy first-gen devices. As exciting as contraptions with novel form factors can be, they are also often a test to see how a concept will fare in the real world. The big difference here is that Apple allowed rivals like Samsung and Google to explore and revise foldable phone design for several years before making one of its own. The company had the luxury to learn from its competitors' accomplishments and missteps, which means the iPhone Duo has sidestepped most of the growing pains a new class of gadget might normally encounter.The result is a foldable iPhone that features an exquisite design with highlights that include a beautiful main display, a tough titanium frame, great battery life, solid cameras and excellent performance. And while I think the Duo's more vertically-aligned UI will need to be tweaked down the line, it makes a lot of sense given Apple's approach to mobile multitasking.
The iPhone Duo is easily the most exciting phone of the year. Full stop. If you are an iPhone user who’s been waiting for Apple to enter the foldable phone realm, your patience paid off a year before the iPhone’s 20th birthday. Its sleek design, exceptional craftsmanship, and all-around performance are all best in class for a foldable phone. It buffs out the rough edges Samsung’s, Motorola’s, and Google’s foldables still have after nearly a decade of design evolution.By taking its time to design and develop the Duo, Apple made it look, feel, and perform as if it’s a generation (or a few) ahead of its rivals, despite their significant head start. That’s why longtime Android users looking for a big-screen foldable should seriously consider the iPhone Duo. At $1,999 for a 256-gigabyte model, it’s priced the same as its direct competitors.
Apple might be late to the folding phone party, but the $1,999 iPhone Duo proves that patience pays off. Combining refined titanium hardware with exquisitely tailored software, Apple's first foldable phone delivers two phenomenal displays, category-leading battery life, and rock-solid performance thanks to its A20 Pro processor. It breaks new ground as the first iPhone with Apple Pencil support, while its 48MP Fusion cameras and loud stereo speakers deliver an exceptional multimedia experience. It isn't entirely flawless—the side-mounted Touch ID button can be frustrating, and you will definitely feel its weight in your pocket. But those minor gripes disappear once you start using it.
Here’s my steelman argument for the Duo. iPads are good devices. Almost everyone likes them, and many people love them. But wouldn’t it be better if you could fold an iPad in half to make it more portable? The answer has to be yes — if that foldability did not saddle the device with an ugly visible crease in the display. Folding in half would be a nice trick for any iPad, but especially the iPad Mini. An iPad Air folded in half would fit in more compartments in your backpack, but it would not fit in your pants. An iPad Mini folded in half would. Wouldn’t it be even better if Apple added a small screen to the outside of this hypothetical foldable iPad Mini we’re imagining? That way, even when folded, you could check the time, see recent notifications, and pay attention to Live Activities. That sounds like a great idea, right? Well, that’s the iPhone Duo.
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