Apple’s $1,999 foldable makes writing and multitasking more viable on a phone-sized device, but restrictive input and split-screen features leave serious work unfinished.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, is pitched as a device that can replace both a handset and a small tablet. That claim matters because, at $1,999, it sits in the same price territory as buying a flagship iPhone and an iPad separately. Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 in the US, while the iPad begins at $449, so the Duo asks buyers to weigh convenience against flexibility and cost, with Apple also offering trade-in and upgrade incentives for some customers, according to MacRumors.
In practice, the larger 7.6-inch display does make serious work more plausible than it would be on a standard phone. The reviewer used Bear, which was already adapted well to the wider canvas, to write the entire piece on the device and found the experience better than expected. Even so, the software still shapes how usable the Duo feels as a work tool. iOS 27 has been rebuilt to respond to the foldable format, shifting controls to the side of the display, rearranging the Dock, and adapting the interface as the phone opens, closes and changes angle, but that redesign does not remove all of the platform’s constraints.
One of the biggest limitations is input. iOS does not natively treat a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad like a desktop system would, so users must enable AssistiveTouch in accessibility settings to get a cursor that can navigate the interface and select text. That helps, but it still leaves small jobs, such as inserting links or doing rapid background searches, slower than on a laptop or desktop. The reviewer therefore left the fiddly finishing work until the end, then moved into WIRED’s content management system and, ultimately, back to a desktop for the final polish.
Apple’s multitasking approach is also more restrictive than many users would expect. On the Duo, side-by-side apps are locked into a fixed 50:50 split, rather than allowing the divider to be dragged to favour one app, which makes the feature less flexible than iPad Split View. Portrait use is also limited: the system does not support stacking two standard apps vertically, except for certain video layouts. Apple does, however, appear to have made one practical improvement with app pairs, which can be saved and recalled from Recents, allowing frequently used combinations such as mail and calendar to reappear together.
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