Today I’m going to talk about the iPhone Duo, Apple’s newest iPhone and, more importantly, its first foldable iPhone.
So how good is it really?
First of all, the iPhone Duo is obviously not just another normal iPhone. Apple is actually pretty late to foldable phones. Samsung and other companies have been making them for years, so Apple is definitely not the first. That immediately makes me wonder: why did Apple finally decide to make one now?
Obviously, part of the answer is probably money. Apple already has the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max as its normal flagship phones, so the Duo gives people something completely different and much more expensive to buy.
And yes, it is expensive.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999.
Two thousand dollars for a phone.
I’m underage, I don’t have a job, and I basically have no income except maybe this podcast, so obviously I’m not going out and buying one. But I can still say that I really want to try it.
The first thing I like is simply how it looks. When it is closed, it looks like a compact normal phone, but then you open it and suddenly you have this huge 7.6-inch display. That is basically the whole point. You get something that can still fit in your pocket but opens into something much closer to a small tablet.
I also like the overall design. It feels very clean and very Apple. The two colors are Night Sky and Star White. I personally like the darker one more. I have always liked phones that are basically completely blacked out. I don’t know why. They just look better to me.
And no, I did not actually go to Apple and beg them, “Please, please make me a black phone. I’m genuinely homeless.” I’m not that guy. But I have wanted companies to make cooler-looking phones instead of giving us the same silver and gray colors over and over again.
So on the design, I think Apple did a pretty good job.
But design alone obviously does not make a $2,000 phone worth it.
The biggest feature is the folding screen. When you open the Duo, you get a 7.6-inch inner display, which gives you much more room for videos, games, reading, and multitasking. You can have multiple apps open at once, which is something that actually makes sense on a screen this big.
That is probably the main reason anybody would buy this phone.
The cameras are interesting too. The Duo has two 48-megapixel rear cameras. Do I personally care that much about phone cameras? Not really. I know cameras are extremely important to some people, but I’m not walking around thinking, “Wow, I really need one more camera.”
Still, having good cameras on a foldable is obviously nice.
Battery life is another thing I care about more. Foldable phones have a huge screen, and huge screens use a lot of power, so battery life matters. Apple says the Duo is designed for all-day use, although this is one of those things where I really want to see what happens when normal people actually start using it every day.
Because right now, the phone has just been announced.
A lot of the real-world testing has not happened yet.
And there are definitely trade-offs. The Duo costs way more than an iPhone 18 Pro, but it does not automatically mean every single part of it is better. For example, the Pro models still have a more advanced camera system, and the Duo gives up some features in order to make the folding design work.
So is this the best phone ever made?
No.
Not even close, at least not yet.
Is it automatically worth $1,999?
Also no.
But is it one of the coolest iPhones Apple has made in a long time?
I think so.
For years, new iPhones sometimes felt like the same basic phone with a better chip, a better camera, and a different color. This time, Apple actually changed what an iPhone physically is. You can argue that Samsung did folding phones first and obviously they did but for Apple, this is still a huge change.
Personally, I really like the idea.
I like the folding screen. I like the dark design. I like having a phone that can suddenly become a much bigger device when you open it.
Would I buy it if I actually had $2,000?
That is a harder question.
Because liking something and thinking something is worth two thousand dollars are two completely different things.
Right now, I think the iPhone Duo looks really cool. But before I call it amazing, I want to see what happens when people actually use it for a few months. How durable is the hinge? How good is the battery in real life? Does the screen hold up? And after the excitement wears off, do people actually use the folding screen every day?
Those questions matter more than a launch presentation. So for now, my opinion is pretty simple: I really like the iPhone Duo, I definitely want one, I definitely cannot afford one, and I am not yet convinced that anybody actually needs one.
We’ll have to wait and see.
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