iPhone Duo Review: The Good, the Bad & the Surprising

Quick summary: I’ve lived with the iPhone Duo, Apple’s foldable, as my daily phone, and this is my full review. The build, the battery and the gaming experience impressed me. The cameras, the unlocking and app optimization held it back. My verdict: it can be a daily driver, but it isn’t ready for prime time for everybody yet.

Key takeaways

• Build quality and hinge: excellent. The hinge holds multiple angles and feels high quality.
• Battery life: the best I’ve had on a foldable recently, roughly 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. with about 10% left.
• Performance and multitasking: great, and Apple’s side-by-side view is really well done.
• Cameras: good, but my Galaxy Z Fold 8 beat it on color, clarity and microphones.
• Pain points: a keyboard that sometimes gets stuck, slow speech-to-text, a so-so fingerprint unlock, and apps that aren’t optimized yet.
• Verdict: most people should wait, unless you’re an iPhone person who really wants a foldable now.

Build quality and hinge

Build quality has been very, very good. I haven’t had any issues, and my phone hasn’t broken. The hinge is really good: you can open the phone at multiple angles, and it sits closer to the tight side without feeling stiff. It feels very high quality every time you open and close it. (People always ask, so yes, I’ve been using a Benks case on it. It’s linked below.)

Front display

Coming from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the iPhone Duo’s tall, skinny outside display was an adjustment, but it’s very similar to what you get on the regular Z Fold 8. It’s not anti-reflective, which some people will like and some won’t. It looks great, it was bright outdoors, and it was completely fine for day-to-day use.

Inside display

This is the main reason you’d buy this phone, especially if you’re an iPhone user who has never had a screen this big. Multitasking on it is awesome, gaming is really cool, and you can even use an Apple Pencil on both the front and inside displays if you buy one. Turn it sideways and it almost looks like an iPad mini.

Some people have reported issues like the screen popping or the crease getting bigger. For me, the crease was not really an issue at all, and outdoor visibility and brightness were good.

Battery life and charging

For any foldable I’ve used recently, this has the best battery life, way better than Samsung’s foldables. I was getting from 7 in the morning to basically 11 p.m. with about 10% left, and standby time is incredible. Apple did a great job optimizing it for day-to-day use.

Charging was fine. I didn’t notice it getting hot, and wired charging was fast enough that a quick top-up from around 10% to 40% would get me through at least another half day.

Performance and multitasking

Performance is amazing. Apple’s side-by-side multitasking, and adding and removing apps inside it, is excellent. You can’t resize the windows, and Samsung does more with multitasking in other ways, but honestly I wish other companies would copy exactly what Apple did here and then keep all their extra options on top.

Apps that aren’t optimized yet

You mostly notice this on the inside display. A lot of AAA games don’t fill the full screen at first, although you can expand them to about 80 to 90 percent. A lot of Google apps aren’t optimized, and DoorDash still looked weird when I checked. That’s not really Apple’s fault, and it’ll get better.

The keyboard bug

My biggest pain point is the keyboard sometimes not going away. I either have to close the app or rotate the phone to see what I need. That annoys me more than unoptimized apps.

Typing and speech-to-text

Typing on both displays is fine, and I like that you can split the keyboard on the big screen, something Android can also do. But speech-to-text was just okay. It was slow and often missed the first couple of words, so I’d have to go back and redo it.

Cameras and speakers

The cameras are pretty good, but next to my Galaxy Z Fold 8 they didn’t hold up. The Fold 8 beat it on color, clarity and definitely microphones. If you’re coming from a Pro Max iPhone, the cameras might disappoint you. Foldables often don’t get a company’s best cameras, and that’s what you get here: better than okay, but not amazing.

The speakers are awesome. Apple’s speakers on the MacBook Pro and iPhone are great, and the Duo lives up to that. They’re fairly loud and sound really good.

Gaming, video and reading

Gaming is absolutely amazing as long as the game is optimized, and it’s one of the main reasons to buy this phone. Video has slight black bars, but you can zoom in, and the wider aspect ratio makes it a great entertainment device. Reading and browsing are a pleasure, and books look amazing.

Unlocking and the Apple ecosystem

Unlocking was just okay. The fingerprint sensor was either too slow or sometimes not reliable enough. An Apple Watch helps, but it was still an annoyance for me.

If you’re all in on Apple, with the Watch, AirPods, MacBook and iPad, everything connects quickly and your iMessages show up everywhere. As an Android person on a Windows PC, I couldn’t easily text from my computer. The Windows link app doesn’t handle group messages or sending files with an iPhone, and I need both to be productive. If you don’t care about messaging from your computer, that won’t bother you.

iPhone Duo vs. Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Z Fold 8 feels more refined and complete. It has better cameras, and performance is similar. It’s the eighth generation, and it just works. The iPhone Duo also has a bar on the side that never goes away and makes the usable display smaller. If you’re an iPhone person, sure, get the Duo. But if you have an open mind, I’d say get the Galaxy Z Fold 8 because it’s ready for you in more ways right now.

Price and verdict

The price is fine and competitive with the market. But I don’t think the iPhone Duo is ready for prime time for everybody, and I think most people should wait. It can be your daily phone without major issues, but if you’re coming from Android, the unlocking, the ecosystem gaps and the little annoyances add up. After a couple of weeks I was ready to go back to Android, and I’m back on the Z Fold 8 Ultra now.

If I weren’t a tech reviewer, I’d probably return it. Since I am, and since I actually like it, I’m keeping it, and I’m excited to see where Apple takes it. It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later.

Links from the video

• Buy the iPhone Duo at Best Buy
• Benks iPhone Duo cases (code GREGGLESTV)
• My favorite phone grips from OhSnap