On a Friday in late October, Apple places its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, into the hands of ordinary buyers, and an Evening Standard critic who spent weeks with it has come away impressed. He finds in it a folded-in-half answer to a long-standing question: whether a pocketable device can offer the room of a tablet without the compromises that earlier foldables imposed. Some habits must be relearned, from a fingerprint sensor where a face once unlocked the phone to a dock that now runs down the side, and the most expensive iPhone yet asks buyers to accept a few trade-offs in exchange
Apple's iPhone Duo Review: A Foldable Built to Take the Category Mainstream
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On a Friday in late October, Apple places its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, into the hands of ordinary buyers, and an Evening Standard critic who spent weeks with it has come away impressed. He finds in it a folded-in-half answer to a long-standing question: whether a pocketable device can offer the room of a tablet without the compromises that earlier foldables imposed. Some habits must be relearned, from a fingerprint sensor where a face once unlocked the phone to a dock that now runs down the side, and the most expensive iPhone yet asks buyers to accept a few trade-offs in exchange for its open, seamless screen. Whether the wider world of apps rises to meet that screen will decide how fully the promise is kept.
Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, goes on sale on Friday, 23 October, and it has already become the most talked-about handset of the season. Pre-orders sold out within minutes, and reports suggest delivery dates are edging earlier as Apple ramps up production. It is also the most expensive iPhone the company has made.
The Evening Standard's tech critic, who saw it at its September unveiling and has spent weeks testing it, calls it a revelation and perhaps the device most likely to take foldables mainstream. Open, its 7.6-inch display has bezels so thin it feels bigger than it looks, and the inner screen reformats so that whatever you were viewing outside lands in the same place inside.
The adjustments are real. The dock now runs down the right edge, and unlocking relies on Touch ID in the side button rather than Face ID, which the reviewer missed often. Still, the hinge opens easily, holds at several angles, and the nano-texture finish with its supporting plates makes the crease nearly invisible. The cameras involve trade-offs, with no telephoto lens, while speed is never a concern.
Software is the uneven part. Some third-party apps look fine outside but sit marooned in the middle of the inner display, and Apple's portrait zoom is a stopgap. Apple's own apps, with side-by-side multitasking, shine. The reviewer concludes the Duo is imperfect and expensive, yet it delivers the extra screen space a pocketable phone was meant to offer. What remains to watch is how quickly developers catch up.
Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, goes on sale on Friday, 23 October, and it is already the most talked-about handset of the season. Online pre-orders sold out within minutes, though there are reports that delivery dates are creeping earlier, possibly as Apple ramps up production. It is also the most expensive iPhone the company has made.
The Evening Standard's tech critic was among the first to see the phone when it was unveiled in September, and has spent the last few weeks testing it. His verdict is that it is a revelation and the device most likely to take foldables mainstream. That is one reviewer's judgment, but he sets out what he tested: setup, the learning curve of a two-screen design, durability, how many apps behave on both displays, speed and battery life.
Open, the display measures 7.6 inches, with bezels so thin that it looks bigger than it feels. He likens the phone to an iPad mini that folds in half. The shape is chosen so that, like a sheet of paper folded in half, the aspect ratio stays the same whether the phone is open or closed, so content looks consistent either way. When you open it, the inner screen reformats so everything you were looking at outside sits in the same place inside.
Some things will take adjusting to. The dock of four icons that appears on every home page now runs down the right edge rather than along the bottom, a consequence of the wider, shorter display. The reviewer found it unbalancing at first but got used to it quickly. Unlocking is a bigger change: the Duo uses Touch ID, not Face ID, with the fingerprint sensor built into the side button, as on the iPad Air. Apple's reasoning is consistency, since the phone unlocks the same way whether it lies open or closed. The reviewer missed Face ID a lot, though owners with an Apple Watch can set it to unlock the phone when it is on their wrist and nearby.
On build, he calls the Duo immaculate. It has a titanium frame, Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and the original, drop-resistant Ceramic Shield on the back. The hinge is easy to open, unlike many earlier foldables, and can be held at several angles: flat, with one half vertical and the other horizontal, or standing like a tent. In that position StandBy, the clock display iPhones show while charging, activates even if the phone is unplugged. The inner display has a nano-texture finish, like the iPad Pro's, which cuts reflections and hides fingerprints. Together with supporting plates and other materials Apple built into the screen, it makes the crease invisible.
The cameras are a trade-off. Although it costs more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Duo has two rear cameras, a main and an ultra-wide, both 48 megapixels, against the Pro's three. There is no telephoto; the main camera can give a 2x optical-zoom equivalent by cropping into the centre of the sensor, which drops resolution to 12 megapixels. There are two front cameras as well. One sits hidden under the inner display, is lower resolution and is meant for video calls, so nothing interrupts video you are watching. The second screen also brings new tricks: open the camera on the inner display and turn on the front screen, and the person being photographed can see themselves and pose. The same setup lets you take a selfie with the better rear camera, using Camera Control to zoom. A feature called Kid Cue plays cartoons starring Snoopy on the outer screen to catch a child's attention.
Speed is not a concern: the Duo has the same processor as the iPhone 18 Pro and handles both screens as well as any other iPhone. Software is more uneven. Developers are scrambling to update apps for the new screen, and some, such as the BBC News app, look fine outside but sit marooned in the middle of the inner display. Apple's workaround is to turn the phone to portrait, where a zoom icon expands the app to fill the screen, but the reviewer says it is no substitute for properly optimised apps. Apple's own software fares better. You can grab an open app on the inner screen, swipe up and hold, and place it on the left or right, then fill the rest with a second app. Calculator, Calendar, Timers and Health look tremendous, and Safari can open two windows side by side.
The reviewer concedes the Duo is not perfect, takes some getting used to and is expensive. Even so, he argues the extra screen space in a pocketable phone is the point of a foldable, and Apple has delivered it. What to watch next is how quickly third-party apps catch up with the inner display.
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