Apple’s first foldable is fast and polished — but iOS still needs to catch up

Early reviews praise the iPhone Duo’s performance, battery life and seamless phone-to-tablet design, while warning that its high price and uneven app support remain significant compromises.

The first wave of reviews suggests Apple’s iPhone Duo is arriving as a familiar kind of first-generation foldable: technically impressive, expensive and still awkward in places. According to early coverage compiled by MacRumours, the device will go on sale on Friday, with reviewers broadly agreeing that it feels more polished than most first attempts at a foldable phone, even if its compromises remain visible. Tom’s Guide said the handset has the kind of transition between phone and tablet modes that makes the format feel coherent, while The Verge described it as a product that is “expensive, compromised, and yet fun”. WIRED, by contrast, urged buyers to wait for developers to optimise more apps before committing.

Much of the software discussion centres on how well iOS adapts to the folding design. WIRED reported that many third-party apps still do not fully use the width of the inner screen, leaving black bars at the sides in some cases. The publication also noted that Apple has shifted key navigation controls to the right rail of the interface, which can feel wasteful in smaller or poorly adapted apps. In practical use, however, CNET said the outer 5.4-inch display is more capable than its size suggests, with a comfortable keyboard and enough room for routine tasks such as messaging, checking email and ordering transport. That same review said the 7.6-inch inner panel comes into its own for longer sessions, including document editing, video playback, photo browsing and multitasking.

Several reviewers focused on the hinge-related trade-offs, particularly Apple’s decision to replace Face ID with Touch ID. 9to5Mac said that was the hardest adjustment, even though the fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable. The publication noted one advantage: unlocking the phone while it lies flat on a table is easier than with Face ID, and Apple Watch unlock can smooth over the change for users who enable it. CNET also praised the under-display front camera for making the inner screen feel more immersive, since it avoids the visible cut-out that usually interrupts the panel.

Performance appears to be one area where the iPhone Duo makes a stronger case for itself. Gizmodo said the phone’s A20 Pro chip delivered no meaningful slowdown compared with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and that Apple’s vapour chamber cooling kept the handset responsive under load. The same review said Geekbench 7 scores for the Duo were essentially on par with the iPhone 18 Pro, while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 lagged well behind in graphics testing. Tom’s Guide also reported similarly strong benchmark results, reinforcing the view that Apple has brought flagship-class silicon to the foldable category without obvious throttling penalties.

Battery life is another encouraging sign. Tom’s Guide said the iPhone Duo lasted 13 hours and 20 minutes in a standard web-browsing test over 5G at 150 nits of brightness, placing it well ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 in the same run, though still behind the iPhone 18 Pro Max. In everyday use, the publication said the handset retained a useful amount of charge by the end of the day, suggesting that Apple has avoided the battery compromises that have often affected foldables. Photography remains a partial question mark, however, because the Duo ships with dual 48-megapixel rear cameras and no telephoto lens, leaving more camera-focused reviews from PetaPixel and others to fill in the gaps. Overall, the early verdict is that Apple has built a foldable that is fast, well made and genuinely usable, but still dependent on software catching up with the hardware.