An iPhone 18 Pro is $1,199. An iPad is $449. If you want both—the iPhone as your primary device and the iPad to handle some work when you’re away from your desk—you'll be spending a total dollar amount that’s pretty close to the $1,999 price of Apple’s first folding smartphone, the iPhone Duo.
So can the Duo’s 7.6-inch screen pull double duty as a phone and a workstation? Does it make sense to shell out a few hundred more dollars for a single gadget that can theoretically handle the workload of two devices?
I wrote my entire iPhone Duo review on Apple’s new handset. I used a note-taking app called Bear, which was mercifully optimized for the Duo’s larger screen. (Read my review and you’ll hear about how most apps aren’t optimized; it could take weeks or months for everything to look right.) But surprisingly, I didn’t hate the experience.
I have run this experiment before on Android foldables and even smart glasses with virtual workspaces, but iOS has its own unique hurdles. Notably, iOS doesn’t recognize a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad by default. Instead, you have to go to the phone’s accessibility settings and enable AssistiveTouch—then you’ll get an iPad-like cursor that lets you navigate the Duo’s interface and select text without constantly reaching for the touchscreen.
Even with the cursor, small tasks like pasting hyperlinks into a written piece or quickly Googling topics for additional research are slower and more cumbersome, so I left those for the end when I moved everything into WIRED’s content management system. Even then, I had to switch over to my desktop for the final touches.
Apple also imposes arbitrary multitasking restrictions in iOS because, well, Apple likes to control how people use its devices. For example, if you open two apps in split-screen mode, you can only view them in an equal 50-50 split. Unlike most operating systems that let you adjust how much of each app you can see by dragging the border in between the windows, iOS leaves you stuck with a view that gives both apps equal screen space. If you want to use the iPhone in portrait orientation and stack two apps vertically, one on the top part of the screen and the other on the bottom, you’re out of luck. In portrait mode, you can only pin video apps to the top with another app below.
One thing Apple did get right is app pairs. You can “pin” two apps together, and they will live in your Recents, ready when you need them. Say you always want to look at your email and calendar together; you can pair them and find them in Recents whenever you need them. (Tap the bar in the middle to lock and save the pair.)
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
My keyboard of choice is an old Seenda folding Bluetooth keyboard that is admittedly not very good. I imagine we'll see an array of compact keyboards hitting the market soon—like Nillkin or ProtoArc keyboards already available now—to cater to workaholics who need to work everywhere. I also used one of Apple's cases, the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand, to keep the phone propped up. You can use various MagSafe kickstands, tripods, or cases with the Duo.
I typed most of the day, but I also had to juggle between apps to respond to coworkers or hop on a Zoom call. Thankfully, the Slack iOS app updated the day before my testing to fully support the iPhone Duo's larger screen and vertical navigation, making it very easy to bounce between multiple conversations in the two-pane view. I still think Apple should add a feature like the iPad's Slide Over, where you can “hide” a floating app off to the side and bring it back in when you need it. It’d be the perfect spot for messaging apps like Slack, WhatsApp, or Messages, and it wouldn’t interrupt your split-screen experience.
Zoom wasn’t optimized for the Duo, though my editor said the video quality from the inner and outer selfie cameras was “really good.” I used the folio kickstand to Zoom on the big 7.6-inch screen until we realized my video was stuck in an awkward portrait orientation, so I laid the phone down on the table and pointed the 5.4-inch outer screen toward my face, which made it feel like a traditional laptop experience.
The app that annoyed me the most was Gmail. Even though Google updated the Google Search app to be compatible with the iPhone Duo early this week, the rest of Google's workspace apps currently look awful on the Duo. I imagine full support will come very soon, if not on Friday, when the Duo officially launches. The two-pane view in Gmail (or any email app) is a game-changer for clearing a bunch of emails when you’re on the go.
By 6 pm, battery life was sitting around 45 percent, which is very impressive. That's with around six hours of screen-on time.
You probably won’t want to replace your laptop with the iPhone Duo. And anyone accustomed to the iPad’s larger screen may feel cramped on the Duo's 7.6-inch canvas. But with a kickstand and the right portable keyboard? Knocking out focused, light work on the Duo is entirely doable. Things will get even more interesting once Apple Pencil support arrives later this year.
But as I packed up my keyboard, I couldn’t shake a familiar feeling. Maybe we’ll realize a single do-it-all device isn’t as great as it’s chalked up to be. Maybe it is better to kick back with a dedicated MP3 player. Or snap photos with a camera. Or write in a notebook. Or work off a laptop.
Speaking of which, did you hear Apple’s making a touchscreen MacBook?