iPhone Duo review roundup: A little weird, a lot of fun, and a breath of fresh air
Macworld ·
Macworld The first wave of iPhone Duo reviews has landed, and the overall response is very positive. Reviewers have uncovered numerous issues with Apple’s first-ever foldable, but have proved surprisingly forgiving. Let’s get into the details. Late to the party Apple, not for the first time, is arriving late to the party. “The iPhone Duo arrives seven years after Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold,” pointed out Wired . But this is classic Apple strategy, and there are good reasons why the company bided its time. “In Apple tradition,” the site continued, “its first entry into an existing category feels fully mature; the Duo has significantly less jank than the first few generations of its Android counterparts.” “The iPhone Duo took its time getting here,” CNET agreed, “but it’s made quite an entrance.” And Gizmodo was impressed by Apple’s ability to play catch-up. “I think we can all agree that the iPhone Duo has already achieved what competing foldables have not been able to in seven years: generate considerable buzz for foldable phones,” the site argues. Design: Something new Considering it’s Apple’s first foldable, the Duo appears to offer a more polished design than one might expect. “Apple’s first foldable phone doesn’t look or feel like a first attempt,” wrote Tom’s Guide , “because of the sheer attention to detail. The way the friction hinge holds nearly any angle. The seamless switching between the cover and main display with the same aspect ratio. And the nano-texture coating, which minimizes glare and the dreaded crease.” PC Mag was impressed, too. “Apple knows hardware, designing high-end devices that look good, feel great to use, and work seamlessly,” the site observed. “And that’s largely true with the Duo… The matte white rear panel of my review unit looks and feels fantastic. I also like how Apple polishes its logo into the glass, making it reflective in contrast to the smooth matte finish surrounding it… The hinge feels utterly fantastic.” “Despite its added thickness and weight, I’ve found the iPhone Duo surprisingly comfortable to carry in my pockets,” reported 9to5Mac . “Its shorter, wider footprint makes a bigger difference than I expected… it’s hard to overstate just how impressive the whole thing feels in practice.” Gizmodo did raise one concern. “I was a little irked that the iPhone Duo caused my front pants pocket to sag. I’ve been so spoiled by the iPhone Air’s lightness that the only solution was to wear a belt again to cinch my pants tighter around my waist.” The site conceded, however, that the Duo “is a beautifully engineered device.” Apple How easy is it to use? The problem with new things is that they are unfamiliar. Some reviewers were concerned that buyers would find the Duo difficult to use, particularly at first. “I’ve been using iPhones since June 2007,” wrote PC Mag, ominously. “I know how to use an iPhone. And since Face ID arrived on the iPhone X back in 2017, I’ve gotten into a good rhythm for swiftly unlocking the phone. You can toss all that muscle memory out the window.” Gizmodo agreed. “I’ve gotten so used to using Face ID since the iPhone X that going back to Touch ID required a little muscle memory retraining,” the site complained. The Verge argued that it is “wild to have iPhone apps with controls in all kinds of different places; reaching for the back button in Apple’s Mail app and realizing it’s moved from the top left to the right is kind of disorienting. A lot of using the Duo is just figuring out how to use an iPhone again, which hasn’t happened in a long time.” But not everyone found the user experience a trial. CNET reported that switching from the iPhone 18 Pro Max to the iPhone Duo “has been seamless, and not only because of the synchronization baked into Apple’s operating system. I haven’t experienced any hiccups while using iOS 27 on both Duo screens. Instead, the implementation feels intentional.” Screen quality and the crease question The great challenge when creating a foldable is to avoid the appearance of a crease in the screen. Reviewers felt that Apple did a good job in this department. “The infamous crease—where the phone folds—is hardly visible thanks to Apple’s display stack and clever use of a matte-finish nanotexture screen,” Wired reported. PC Mag was a little more conservative in its praise. “Apple has done well at minimizing the crease’s appearance,” the site noted, “but it’s still there. You can see it when the display is off, and you can feel it if you run your finger across the screen.” In other respects the screens on the Duo were positively received. CNET said the 5.4-inch cover screen “doesn’t feel cramped. I can comfortably do just about anything I would on a bar-style phone, just on a smaller scale. The keyboard is roomy, taking up around half the cover screen, so typing feels seamless and easy. I haven’t grappled with any more typos than usual.” And The Verge was similarly complimentary about the 7.6-inch inner display. “Apple’s very proud of this inner matte display, and for good reason,” the site said. “It looks and feels incredibly solid, a big step up from foldables with glossy, seemingly soft screens with glaringly obvious creases.” ?????????? Apple How well do third-party apps work? Apple’s own apps have naturally been tweaked and redesigned to work perfectly on the Duo’s unfamiliar screen arrangement, but the big question is how much effort and skill will third-party developers be prepared to put into optimizing their apps? The answer is: it depends. “I was intrigued to try third-party apps optimized for the iPhone Duo,” wrote Tom’s Guide, “and there are plenty of standouts so far. [But] non-optimized apps can range from looking a bit off to horrible. Keeping in mind that many top apps will be updated by the Duo’s release date, I noticed that certain apps had huge black bars on the left and right side of the display, like Disney Plus and The Weather Channel. Unoptimized games look pretty terrible, too, filling up only three quarters of the screen. I just hope developers update their wares. Quickly. And I expect they will out of fear of sheer embarrassment.” Wired was also struck by the disparity between optimized and non-optimized apps, but was more sanguine about the prospects of developers falling into line. “Several apps I’ve tried to open on the sprawling 7.6-inch screen look awful,” the site wrote. “Thick, black bars on the sides, with a phone-sized app in the middle of this tablet-like display. But you likely won’t encounter this problem once the Duo is in your hands… Developers need to target the iOS 27.1 software development kit for full Duo compatibility. That will take some time. But it is a little maddening that some app developers, who for years have never seemed to care about optimizing their app for Android folding phones, are so quick to embrace Apple’s fold.” Performance: Fast, but occasionally hot The Duo is a powerful phone with excellent specs, but for the very best performance you may wish to look elsewhere. “Despite sharing the same processor, memory, and storage options, the Duo’s speeds and performance don’t quite reach the same heights as the [iPhone] Pro models, but it outmatches the [Samsung Galaxy] Z Fold 8,” reported PC Mag. In real life, however, such distinctions are unlikely to make much difference. “In terms of using the phone naturally over the course of a week,” the site added, “I experienced no problems or hiccups. The Duo smoothly transitions from the front screen to the inner screen, apps open swiftly, and multitasking isn’t a challenge at all.” CNET wrote that Geekbench 7 CPU benchmark tests “place the iPhone Duo well above the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. In a graphics test using 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme, the iPhone Duo again exceeded the performance of the Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra, and far outpaced the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.” Impressive. But there are slight concerns about overheating. “For most things it’s plenty fast,” wrote The Verge. “But the reality is that it’s also a thin phone driving two big displays, and it definitely gets warm, and sometimes hot.” Apple Cameras: Not pro, but plenty good As was the case with the iPhone Air last year, the Duo packs slightly less impressive cameras than one might expect given the price. But this may or may not be a problem, depending on your photographic needs. “I was nervous about whether the iPhone Duo’s cameras would pull their weight,” admitted CNET. “Thankfully, I’ve been pleasantly surprised… The photos I’ve taken in a variety of conditions have turned out sharp and vibrant–though you won’t find more advanced, pro-oriented formats like ProRAW capture and ProRes video.” PC Mag was also happy with the device’s performance in photo tests. “The Duo takes superb photos in most scenes,” the site wrote. “Outdoor daytime shots look fantastic, with accurate color, sharp focus, and plenty of contrast.” But Tom’s Guide felt it is “a big deal that the iPhone Duo doesn’t have a telephoto lens. You get just a 48MP main and 48MP Ultrawide, which take great shots. But if you’re zooming in, you’re going to miss the level of detail a dedicated optical can provide.” And The Verge complained that the Duo “relies on heavier sharpening to make up for its weaker [camera] hardware, so fine details look a little crunchier than they do on the 18 Pro. The Duo retains a bit less color detail in low light too, though Night Mode kind of evens out the playing field between them.” Battery life: Mixed messages Some sites were happy with the Duo’s battery performance, while others were frustrated. On the positive side, CNET reported that “even with my excessively high screen time over the past few days, the battery has consistently held up well. One day, I started with a full battery at 8:15 a.m., and after a full day of scrolling through social media, working in Google Docs, sending emails, texting, taking pictures, watching YouTube videos, and placing a couple of phone calls and a video call, I ended the day with 29% at 11 p.m.” And PC Mag wrote: “I ran our usual battery test overnight and came away impressed. I streamed a YouTube video via Wi-Fi on the inner display with the screen’s brightness set all the way up. It ran for 18 hours and 15 minutes. It bested the Motorola Razr Fold (18 hours), Galaxy Z Fold 8 (16 hours, 30 minutes), Z Fold 8 Ultra (16 hours, 29 minutes), and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (14 hours, 21 minutes).” But The Verge was less happy. “The Duo,” it wrote, “doesn’t seem ready to last a full day of heavy use.” Price: High but justified Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the early reviews was how comfortable the reviewers were with the iPhone Duo’s price tag. “The iPhone Duo costs $1,999 for 256GB, rising to $3,199 for 2TB of storage,” noted CNET. “While that starting point is high, it’s in line with most foldable phones.” It added that these prices “sure didn’t stop [the Duo] from selling out almost instantly when preorders opened.” “Do I think the iPhone Duo is worth two grand?” asked Tom’s Guide. “Yes, as it’s only $100 more than the Galaxy Z Fold 8. And you get a more durable design, faster performance, longer battery life, and smarter software.” “[On price,] the Duo is surprisingly on par with its competitors (though still expensive),” concluded Wired. Verdict: Flawed but fun The iPhone Duo clearly isn’t perfect. But reviewers enjoyed themselves and had plenty of qualified praise for the device. “It is expensive, it’s full of compromises, and it can be incredibly frustrating to use,” said The Verge. “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.” “Aside from some minor shortcomings, Apple appears to have stuck the landing with its long-awaited foldable,” said CNET. “Foldable phones offer a breath of fresh air in a stagnant industry, and the iPhone Duo is no exception.” The site did stress, however, that the Duo is not for everyone. PC Mag was very complimentary in its summing up. “The iPhone Duo overcomes Apple’s late start by delivering the best hardware, performance, and battery life of any foldable phone on the market,” the site enthused. Tom’s Guide described the Duo as “the best designed foldable yet with the most polished, intuitive and fun software experience.” Gizmodo added that “phone hardware and software are genuinely exciting again, which is something to celebrate.” We’ll end with a note of caution from Wired. “This is often the case with first-generation products,” the site wrote, “but it may be prudent to wait for the Duo 2.”