The iPhone Duo’s refined hinge, crease-resistant display and strong battery life impress early reviewers, but its thickness, Touch ID and uneven app support reveal the compromises of Apple’s first foldable.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, will reach buyers on 23 October, and the early verdict from international reviewers is clear: it is an exceptionally ambitious piece of hardware, but one that still bears the familiar compromises of a first-generation device. Reporters who were given early access describe a handset that feels carefully engineered, unusually refined in the hand, and technically bold, even as its software and camera system still show the limits of a new product category.
The strongest praise has gone to the physical design. Reviewers highlighted the polished titanium frame, the glass finish and the book-like shape, as well as the 7.6-inch internal OLED panel, which uses a nano-texture coating that cuts reflections and makes the crease far less visible. Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, said the interior display was the device’s standout feature, while the Swiss technology journalist Rafael Zeier called the hinge the best of any folding phone he had used. The Verge also noted that Apple has managed to secure IP68 dust and water resistance, a notable achievement for a foldable device and one that helps address a long-standing concern about durability in the category.
That said, the design brings trade-offs. Folded shut, the Duo is substantially thicker than an ordinary iPhone Pro Max, making one-handed use on the outer 5.4-inch screen more awkward. Apple has also replaced Face ID with Touch ID in the side button, a change several testers saw as a step backwards in daily convenience. Arun Maini, who runs the Mrwhosetheboss channel, criticised the repeated need to press and hold the button, while Brownlee said Face ID would be one of the most missed features for switchers. On the software side, iOS 27.1 introduces a more polished split-view multitasking system, but third-party app support remains uneven: some services, including Netflix, Instagram and select weather apps, have already been adapted, while many others still appear as small centred windows or with black borders. The Verge’s Nilay Patel said the device feels “unfinihed” in a way that exposes the limits of apps not built for the wider format.
Performance appears more convincing in other areas. Apple has fitted only two rear cameras, a 48-megapixel main sensor and an ultra-wide lens, so there is no dedicated telephoto camera. Reviewers say the main camera performs well in daylight, helped by the A20 Pro chip, but becomes less impressive in low light and at heavy digital zoom. The 4-megapixel selfie camera hidden under the inner display has also drawn criticism for softness. Even so, the external screen can be used as a viewfinder for portraits shot with the main camera, a feature Brownlee jokingly called “Spouse Mode”. Battery life, by contrast, seems to be a strength: the roughly 4,900mAh cell is said to last a full day comfortably and, with lighter closed-phone use, can stretch to around a day and a half. For now, the consensus is that the iPhone Duo is less a mainstream recommendation than a preview of where Apple wants foldables to go: impressive, costly and still clearly aimed at early adopters willing to accept rough edges in exchange for novelty.
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