The new $2000 iPhone Duo folding phone has received a generally favorable response, with reviewers praising its build quality and form factor, but also identifying some real compromises. After reading more than a dozen reviews, and spending about an hour using the phone at an Apple store, I have some opinions and recommendations that I thought I’d share. I would also recommend you read the reviews of others that have had more time with the product to get more in-depth details. This one is the best of the bunch:
https://daringfireball.net/2026/10/the_iphone_duo
Here are my conclusions:
- The Duo is perfect for those wanting to carry a small iPad with them all the time and have acccess to a larger screen that’s more useful for watching videos, reading books, using spreadsheets, reading content and enlarging the type for easier reading and surfing. It more than doubles the standard iPhone screen area.
- In a just released video we learn that Apple’s construction, dust resistance, prone to bending are essentially no better than Samsung’s latest design, and in one case, worse. Apple’s advantage is mainly the addition of a matte-finished layer on the inner screen to better mask the fold line. The Duo’s other advantage will be better software to make optimal use of the two displays.
- The Duo’s front screen, used with the phone folded closed, requires some change in habits from the way we use our current iPhones. Unlocking the phone uses fingerprint sensing – not the easier face detection, the buttons and frequently used icons are moved, and the screen is wider and squatter. So expect a learning curve and several things to be a bit more cumbersome than with current phones. It’s simply a tradeoff that comes with the tablet mode.
- Other things you will give up from your current iPhone include the loss of the telephoto lens, a heavier phone, and about double the cost. Whether you should buy it comes down to how the benefits outwiegh the losses that are important to you.
The simple question to ask yourself:
Is a so-so iPhone + an iPad mini + $1000 – tele-lens + more cumbersome > your current iPhone?
One option is to keep your current phone and consider the Duo as an expensive tablet and use both. The carriers have just introduced a way to use your same phone number on two iPhones, although not at the same time. For $5-$10 per month, you can move the number between two iPhones by changing a setting.
My personal choice? I’d love to see Apple introduce a new iPad mini that folds in half and eliminates the soutside display, like the images below:
I’ve never been an Apple fan and this won’t move that needle, but Phil’s observations about necessary behavior modification strike me as spot on.
I had a Samsung ZFlip3 (their 2nd or 3rd gen “standard” portrait flip smartphone) from 2022 until earlier this year. It developed a crack and bubbling at the fold in the first six months but worked fine otherwise until battery decay forced a change. I switched to a Motorola Razr in June and have been thrilled so far; the fold is still immaculate and shows no sign of the Samsung’s flip weakness that had already begun after just three months. I had no allegiance to Samsung so moved to Motorola hoping for the best; the hardware seems great but the software is…okay. Moving to a flip smartphone required some adjustments, and switching brands required more adjustments. I have no idea what kind of adjustments are needed for Apple users, but just know that the behavior modifications will take some getting used to (in my case they’re more than worthwhile).