Apple’s first foldable has arrived, the better part of a decade after Android laid the groundwork for the form factor. iPhone Duo reviews are here and, while it sounds like a lot of the same problems that plague Android foldables still exist on Apple’s first-gen release, there’s certainly a level of polish there – and I’m not talking about the $9 cloth.
Ahead of the first shipments arriving for customers later this week, the avalanche of iPhone Duo reviews has arrived today and, with it, the first look at what it’s like to live with Apple’s first foldable.
Starting with our sister site 9to5Mac, of course, Chance used the iPhone Duo for a week and walked away “convinced that this form factor represents the future of the iPhone.” His in-depth review hits on every key aspect of this device, but his ultimate conclusion boils down to this being the future of Apple’s smartphones because the form fact “just makes sense” and that there’s “something special about a compact, notebook-like iPhone that unfolds into a tablet-like experience.”
Looking at iPhone Duo reviews from the perspective of someone who’s been using Android foldables as their daily driver for over half a decade at this point, I can’t help but look at Apple’s first attempt and see the foundation it’s building on, but also the places where Apple’s inherent polish comes into play.
One big part of that seems to be the inner display. The nanotexture matte finish sounds like a big deal, with it making the crease visually not a problem. It’s still there, Chance stresses in his 9to5Mac review, but you “almost never” notice it visually unless you’re looking for it – just like most Android foldables. He adds that you’re more likely to feel it than see it.
The app situation clearly seems to be running into the same early problems as Android foldables hit. Apps simply aren’t optimized for a radically new form factor yet. That’s what pushed Android foldables into the “phone that turns into a square tablet” trend they were stuck in for years, despite brands like Oppo and Google coming up with this iPhone Duo form factor way before Apple was a part of the conversation. Apple has the same problem, and it’s not going to be fixed overnight.
That said, it’s clear that it’s going to get cleaned up much quicker. WIRED‘s review opens up mentioning how “in the past day” key apps including “Instagram, Threads, Slack, and even the Google app now have navigational icons on the right rail instead of the bottom center, and the app content is better laid out to make use of the larger screen.”
“Mr Foldable” himself, Michael Fisher, explains in his review how apps that are not optimized are rough, comparing it to the early days of iPad, but that some key players are already stepping up. On top of that, smaller devs are building apps clearly inspired of this new form factor. “Tiny Computers” looks absolutely delightful.
David Imel mentions that “you can scale things up and they work, but they do look silly” in regards to unoptimized apps, and also makes a good point – not everything is going to get updated. iOS apps that aren’t actively maintained anymore are always going to be a mess on this device and, frankly, the scaling features Apple gives you make everything look way worse than an unoptimized app on an Android foldable has ever looked.
Look at the options you get for the yet-to-be-optimized Google Maps. Michael Fisher points out how it still doesn’t take up the whole display and that, if you rotate the phone, it just sends you back to square one. Sounds bad!
Apple’s new sidebar UI, which I still think looks funky, is personally my biggest fear as these wide foldable form factors take over, not because it’s a bad idea – Fisher points out that he actually loves it – but because Android apps will probably take a whole lot longer to adopt it. Seeing where things are starting out on the iPhone Duo, yeah, I’m sticking with that take.
That outer display, too, seems to be a hang up. The Verge says that “most Duo owners will find that the cover display is simply too small to use all the time.” That’s a problem I ran into a bit with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its similar shout and stout form factor, but Apple’s device is even smaller, so I’m not shocked to hear this.
That same review makes a case for Apple’s app split, saying that “the problem with the Duo is that the outer screen isn’t useful enough, so you want to open it all the time,” while saying that “the problem for most Android foldables is that the inner screens aren’t that useful so there’s no super compelling reason to open them.” I’m not sure I agree there – larger canvases and multitasking alone have sold me on a foldable for years – but seeing so many iOS apps going all-in on the new screen size certainly has me feeling a bit envious.
Another review that caught my eye was from Joanna Stern, where she puts the iPhone Duo “through hell.” There are two things of note here. First, Joanna puts the Duo through over 32,000 folds on top of normal daily use, and the hinge unsurprisingly holds up well. Android brands have laid an incredible foundation here, so even if Apple took its own route, the technology is clearly up to par here for a strong foldable hinge.
But also pointed out here is a problem that’s been on every single Android foldable I’ve ever used – the iPhone Duo gets warm. Joanna calls the device a “hand warmer” and, apparently, Apple said this was business as usual for the device’s heat management. I was curious if the thicker design of Duo would help alleviate this one, but it seems Apple is dealing with the same issue. It’s a lot harder to cool two halves of a device, and you feel that heat more when there’s more usable space on the device.
Virtually every review mentions how hefty the iPhone Duo’s hardware is, too. This is a problem that Android foldables have been chipping away at generation-by-generation, and that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the poster child for. Smartphone weight continues to be something you don’t notice until it pushes over the edge and, while we’re not at Pixel Fold levels, iPhone Duo is very much at that edge.
Based on these early reviews, Apple didn’t reinvent the foldable, but it’s clear there’s a level of polish on the iPhone Duo that was lacking on Android foldables. Apple has a vision for its foldable and, while it’s tripped up on a few things on attempt #1, it’s undeniably a good start.
What’s next for Android foldables? I look forward to seeing exactly that…
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