Apple iPhone Duo - Don't Believe the Anti-Hype

I've been critical of Apple over the years.

Mostly, before I started using the products. That's pretty unforgiveable.

It's one thing to write something off if you've tested it and it's come up short. But to slam something you've only read about or seen other people using... That's poor form, to say the least.

The gist of my general (far too general) anti-Apple sentiment usually revolved around products being too slow to evolve and Apple's habit of playing catch-up with new devices and trying to convince everyone they'd reinvented the wheel.

The Apple Watch was a classic case in point. Other tech brands had been selling smartwatches for years before Apple came up with one.

Trouble is, Apple's version turned out to be better.

So yes, several years ago now, I had a change of heart. I got hands-on with a wide range of Apple devices and quickly realised to dismiss them all in one fell swoop was juvenile and ignorant.

That's not to say I'm suddenly an Apple uber-fan. Hopefully you can still trust me to offer my honest opinion and to judge every device that comes my way on its merits.

That being said...

The iPhone Duo is definitely not the world's first folding phone. Apple missed that particular bus by so far, the bus has been back in the garage and the driver's been home with his feet up for at least 8 years.

So this was never going to be an iPod/iPhone/iPad moment, where Apple shakes up the tech world with something entirely new. Which might, ironically, be why the Duo was so long coming. If you're not going to create the product category yourself, you better damn well have something tasty on your plate when you do eventually arrive at the party.

In the weeks between the launch of the Duo and my review unit arriving I consumed a lot of Duo-based content. I was surprised by the level of negativity out there. Rumours of cracked screens, overheating and sub-par camera performance abounded. It was a bit of a downer.

Until I actually unboxed the Duo and fired it up.

Of course, I almost ruined everything when I saw the 7.6-inch inner display for the first time. I knew it was a breakthrough matte display with a glare-free finish. But I didn't realise when it's switched off, it would look exactly like one of those papery stick-on screen protectors they ship phones with in the box. I'm used to peeling those covers off and moving on. Luckily, I resisted the impulse to do that here - that outer layer is an essential component of the folding Super Retina XDR screen - a screen that's 50% bigger than the one on the iPhone 18 Pro Max.

So let's start with that folding display. It's kind of genius. Not the folding part - I've seen plenty of those before and lately some even leave less of a crease than this one, which is saying something, because the crease on the Duo is pretty hard to detect, especially when viewing straight on. The extremely matte nature of the screen helps with this and I've seen videos of people demonstrating how any scratches don't really show up either - it just feels nice to use too. 

And none of that compromises the brightness, the colour or the clarity - not to my eye anyway. This is a ProMotion, Always On capable display, just like on the Pro-series handsets - which makes this larger space the ideal palette for editing film and video. Support for Apple Pencil with USB-C is on the way too - so a pretty handy note/sketch pad that folds away into your pocket as well.

We've all heard the reports of some Duo screens apparently cracking or otherwise malfunctioning. What can I say? Mine hasn't shown any signs of that sort of thing. Quite the opposite. To me the Duo feels pretty much as robust and durable as any other Apple handset. In fact, the hinge mechanism seems super solid and I like the way it's firm enough to leave the phone open at almost any angle.

The aspect ratio of the unfolded Duo is similar to that of an iPad - and indeed certain other phones and monitors. It's a much better shape for streaming video on and many apps - including Netflix and Apple TV (obviously) - have already been optimised to take advantage. That also means if you half-fold the Duo, leaving one half angled up to face you, the show or movie you're watching will automatically switch around to that half while the media controls then appear on the bottom half. I haven't explained that well but I do a better job demonstrating it in the video below.

Another notable new feature of Apple's debut folding screen is the 4MP FaceTime camera, sneakily embedded beneath the display, peeping out from under a less-dense concentration of pixels. I've tried a few under-display selfie-cams before and they've all been utter rubbish. Not this time. Again, check out the video below for a demo.

After experiencing the camera compromises on the iPhone 16e, 17e and last year's iPhone Air, I have to admit, the photographic performance of the Duo was my primary concern - perhaps even more so than that of the bendy inner display. However, rather than the physical limitations of the single-sensor setups of the aforementioned iPhones, the Duo at least has two. Apple uses the term "Fusion Camera" a lot. The implication is they've somehow managed to squeeze the abilities of multiple sensors into just one or two.

The primary array on the Duo features a 48MP "Fusion Main Camera" - which is also capable of 2x optical telephoto shots. The good news is, there's also a 48MP Ultra Wide - the very same one as on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. This combination has proved more than satisfactory. Sure, the zoom is limited - but at least it's there. Likewise with macro shooting and all the clever portrait tricks Apple has absolutely mastered over the last few years.

You can still shoot cinematic video with spatial audio and remaster those videos with a host of editing tools that get more sophisticated, yet more user friendly, with every iOS update.

We'll come back to the iOS shortly, but while we're talking cameras, there's one more to tick off; the so-called "Centre Stage front camera" - the selfie-cam on the outer display.

That's right. I haven't even mentioned this screen yet.

Described as, "passport sized," the 5.4-inch Super Retina display is not as weird to use as I thought it would be - primarily due to the bespoke iOS that moves the permanent shortcut icon tray from the bottom of the home screen to the right-hand side, thereby keeping the rest of the screen more or less in the usual aspect ratio so the layout of icons and widgets feels more familiar than I expected.

Given folding phones offer the option of using the primary camera for selfies, by previewing what you're shooting on the outer display, I've never fully understood why there's a selfie-cam on that screen at all. Yet there is one on the Duo - a very good one too; a 12MP Centre Stage sensor that offers features like dual capture and ultra-stabilised video.

The great irony here is, I've hardly used the outer display at all. Which is quite the opposite of pretty much every other foldable I've ever tested. As cool as folding screens may be, I'm so conditioned to using a phone a certain way, I often hardly feel the need to open up a foldable because I can do what I need to do on the external screen.

On the other hand, with the Duo, I reckon I've been using the inner display at least 85% of the time. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, the case. My Star White review handset (also available in Night Sky) arrived with a choice of two different cases; the iPhone Duo Case and the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand. Cases for foldables have always been a challenge. I mean, how do you cover something that folds?

Until now, the general consensus has been a clumsy, two-piece affair consisting of a clip-on back panel with a hole for the camera module and a next-to-useless clip-on frame that protects three of the four edges of the outer display. These are usually held on with the help of sticky strips on the inner edges which all sounds janky and fiddly and essentially means you can't take the case off and put it back on as you wish.

That's what the iPhone Duo Case is like. And it's thick. And it's plasticky. So un-Apple. And I won't be using it.

Conversely, the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand is a masterstroke. 

It brings together everything Apple has learned from developing MagSafe accessories and everything it has done with iPad covers. It doesn't clip on. It doesn't have sticky strips. It uses magnets. It's slim. it's elegant. It's durable. And it covers the external display entirely - just like an iPad cover does. That doesn't mean you can't use that screen. It just means you may as well use the foldable screen as it's no harder or easier to get to than the outer one.

The second reason I've gravitated more to the inside display is I just really like it. It's a good size, there's no reflection and the crease is unnoticeable. It's a shame not every app has been optimised for it yet, but I'm sure they will be fairly shortly - hopefully that'll sort Duo-specific bugs like the settings controls disappearing on the Kindle app or some web pages bordering on being unusable with Arc Browser in landscape mode.

Obviously, Apple's own Books and Safari apps work seamlessly... but those aren't my preferred options.

These kinds of minor teething issues are typical of a first-generation device and if they're all I have to worry about, I can definitely live with them until they're remedied.

As opposed to cracked displays and poor camera performance - which I haven't experienced at all, so for the time being, I'm treating such reports as online beat-ups.

I was surprised it took Apple so long to come out with its own foldable. I've been even more surprised by how good it is, on debut. All the cameras have exceeded my expectations, the displays are both stunning and the user-interface isn't far off from being great. Battery life is good, performance from the A20 Pro is faultless and the device feels fully formed, reliable and durable.

Is it worth more than four-thousand dollars? Don't be ridiculous. No phone is. But is one of this year's greatest phones? Absolutely.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Apple iPhone Duo.