The first iPhone Duo reviews are live ahead of Friday’s launch, and critics are praising the hinge, the nearly invisible crease and the A20 Pro performance. The complaints are equally consistent, with a 254-gram weight, a $1,999 starting price and many third-party apps that have not been updated for the new screens.
Apple’s first foldable has a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer display, with a 48MP Fusion Main camera, a 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera and Touch ID in place of Face ID. It has no telephoto lens and no Action button, and it is eSIM only. Those trade-offs come up in nearly every review.
Critics Agree the Crease Is Hidden and the Telephoto Lens Is Missing
The nano-texture finish on the 7.6-inch inner display gets the most praise. Engadget, TechRadar, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, CNET, Mashable and Popular Mechanics all say the crease is hard to spot when you look at the screen head-on. Creative Strategies calls it the best crease on a foldable but says it is more visible than it looked at the Apple event.
Weight, the missing telephoto lens and Touch ID draw the same complaints across the written reviews.
| Topic | Where the reviews land |
|---|---|
| Crease | Hard to see head-on in normal use, easier to feel than see while scrolling |
| Weight | 254 grams, which is 5 grams more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max and 53 grams more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 |
| Biometrics | Touch ID in the side button, with Apple Watch unlock as the workaround |
| Cameras | Two 48MP rear cameras, with a 2x zoom that crops the main sensor |
| Apps | Apple’s own apps use the inner display well, while many third-party apps still need updates |
| Battery | A full day of use in every review |
| Performance | A20 Pro performs like the iPhone 18 Pro |
Engadget Gives the iPhone Duo an 8.8 Out of 10 and Calls It a First-Class Foldable
Engadget’s Sam Rutherford rated the iPhone Duo 8.8 out of 10. He praised the titanium chassis, the hinge, the IP68 rating and a matte inner display where the crease disappears when you look at it head-on. Side by side with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, the iPhone Duo kept up on image quality and captured better-exposed low-light shots in some cases.
Battery life was a strength, with a local video rundown test lasting 28 hours and 48 minutes. That is about half an hour longer than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, and the phone routinely had 40 percent or more left at the end of a testing day.
He criticized the weight, the price and the apps, since the iPhone Duo is more than 25 percent heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and apps like Telegram leave empty areas on either side of the inner display. Apple has opened App Store submissions for iPhone Duo optimized apps and games.
He also warned that the nano-texture layer can be peeled off if you pick at it, and that unlike Android foldables, the iPhone Duo gives no warning about it during setup. Engadget lists a $49 fee for Apple to replace the layer.
TechRadar Scores the iPhone Duo 5 out of 5 for Performance
TechRadar’s Lance Ulanoff gave the iPhone Duo its Recommended badge and called it a fully realized foldable from a company that waited for the category to mature. The engineering, the hinge and a bright, nearly crease-free screen earned his praise. The A20 Pro beat the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy in the Future Labs Geekbench 7 single-core and multi-core tests.
| Category | Score out of 5 |
|---|---|
| Value | 4 |
| Design | 4.5 |
| Displays | 4.5 |
| Camera | 4.5 |
| Software | 4.5 |
| Performance | 5 |
| Battery | 4.5 |
The iPhone Duo is heavier and more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, and TechRadar says Samsung’s lighter, thinner foldable remains compelling. For Apple fans who have been waiting, though, he says there is no better choice.
He marked the iPhone Duo down for dock and status bar placement that eats into the 5.4-inch outer display, the missing telephoto camera, uneven third-party app support and the lack of Face ID. Battery life came in at around 14 hours in his real-world use and 13 hours in lab testing, behind the 14.33 hours the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 managed.
9to5Mac Says the Foldable Form Factor Is the Future of the iPhone
9to5Mac’s Chance Miller spent a week with the iPhone Duo and came away convinced that the compact, notebook-style design is where the iPhone is headed. He found the outer display more capable than he expected and used it for most errands, then unfolded the inner display at home or at a coffee shop.
The iPhone Duo is 11.3mm thick closed and 5.2mm thick open, which makes it thinner than the iPhone Air when unfolded. It is also the first iPhone with Split View, and iOS 27 moves the dock and navigation controls to the right side of the screen. He called Split View a productivity boost for pairing Safari with Notes.
Apple rates typical use at up to 24 hours, and the dual-cell battery holds 4,883 mAh. Miller finished a normal day with around 20 percent left while spending roughly 60 percent of his time on the inner display.
Touch ID took the most getting used to, and he found the speakers thinner and quieter than the iPhone 18 Pro and missed the telephoto camera and Action button. At $1,999, he said a traditional iPhone is still the practical purchase for most people right now.
Gizmodo Gives the iPhone Duo an Editor’s Choice Badge After a Week of Testing
Gizmodo’s Raymond Wong said Apple’s decision to wait paid off. Wong credits a barely visible crease, a vari-angle hinge that opens flat at 180 degrees, and speakers that beat the ones on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8. He also dropped the unfolded phone down a few wet steps, and it survived with minor scuffs on the frame and no scratches or cracks on either screen.
Geekbench 7 scores for the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro were nearly identical, at about 4,002 single-core and 10,728 multi-core. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 scored 3,112 single-core and 10,438 multi-core in the same tests. Wong saw 5.5 to 7.5 hours of screen-on time and rarely dropped below 20 percent on a normal day.
On the downside, Wong lists the price, the heaviest iPhone to date, the lack of a telephoto lens, Touch ID and a low-resolution under-display camera. He found Smart Take overrated, and he hit a bug where the T, G and V keys stopped registering along the crease until a restart. Apple’s $129 iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand leaves the titanium sides exposed, so it helps to look at third-party iPhone Duo cases too.
CNET Gives the iPhone Duo an 8.7 and an Editors’ Choice Award
CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti rated the iPhone Duo 8.7 out of 10 and gave it an Editors’ Choice Award. She praised the matte inner display, the IP68 rating and iOS 27 working across both screens without hiccups. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra carry an IP48 rating, which CNET says means keeping them away from fine particles like sand.
In CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, the iPhone Duo finished at 99 percent, ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 at 93 percent. A three-hour streaming test dropped it to 84 percent, slightly behind the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 at 86 percent. With a 67-watt adapter, it charged from 0 to 65 percent in half an hour.
She marked it down for the missing Face ID, the lack of a telephoto camera, ProRAW and ProRes, and an inner FaceTime camera that is not sharp enough for photos. Multitasking is limited to two apps that split 50/50 in landscape, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 handles up to three resizable apps. Left-handed users may also struggle with the controls on the right side.
Mashable Calls the iPhone Duo the Most Exciting iPhone Since the First One
Mashable’s Stan Schroeder said he could not go back to a regular iPhone after a week with the iPhone Duo. He called the matte inner display the nicest he has seen on a phone, and said the crease is invisible unless you look for it. He used it for hours of gaming, side-by-side apps and as a secondary display next to his MacBook.
His biggest problem was unoptimized apps, with Gmail, Revolut and X looking blurry and almost painful to use, and some apps hiding parts of their interface or failing to scan QR codes. Normal use gave him a day and a half of battery life, though a few hours of Diablo Immortal drained it much faster.
The cameras came in roughly on par with the iPhone 17, with low-light shots needing more effort than on the iPhone 18 Pro, and he called the inner FaceTime camera bad for selfies. Apple’s MagSafe Wallet and his MagSafe battery packs hang off the shorter body, and he picked the $129 iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand over the $79 iPhone Duo Case.
Popular Mechanics Calls the iPhone Duo the Best Foldable Phone Yet
Popular Mechanics’ Stefan Vazharov called the iPhone Duo the best foldable phone he has tested and said it feels more polished than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8. He said it has the least visible crease of any foldable he has used, and he credited the hinge’s variable resistance and more than 100 components.
He notes that the iPhone Duo is the only foldable with a titanium frame and hinge cover, and that it matches the IP68 rating of the standard iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 lines. Battery lasted a full day, but he did not end days with nearly 50 percent left as he did on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. With a 60-watt adapter, it charged past 50 percent in under half an hour.
The only cons were the missing telephoto lens and Face ID, and Touch ID took him less than a day to get used to. He also reports that a pre-order placed today will not arrive until the end of January 2027, and that Apple Pencil support is coming in an iOS update within weeks.
Creative Strategies Says the iPhone Duo Is a Joy to Use
Analyst Max Weinbach of Creative Strategies said the iPhone Duo is the first phone in seven years to make him smile every time he opens it. He praised how fast and smooth it is to fold and unfold, with no lag or app reload when switching between screens. He also prefers the two-app limit on Split View, since it gives each app more room and gives developers fewer layouts to build.
Weinbach explained that the nano-texture is etched into the polymer cover with laser lithography, which he says puts a micro-lens over each pixel to keep contrast and sharpness. The apps he tracked went from almost none optimized to nearly half updated during his six days of testing, and he expects most of the rest to arrive within days.
He did find iOS buggier than normal, with random respring events, misplaced UI elements and a Safari URL bar that disappeared. The phone warmed up under load, but the vapor chamber kept it from throttling. Equity research he read puts Apple’s supply chain targets at 11 million to 17 million iPhone Duo units over the next year, compared with roughly 18 million foldables sold to date across the whole market.
YouTube Reviewers Split on Whether the iPhone Duo Is Ready for Most People
The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Allison Johnson call the iPhone Duo one of the messiest first-generation products Apple has released in a long time, and say most people should not buy one yet. They think it is at least another year of refinement away. Their main point is that the outer screen is not useful enough, so you want to open the phone constantly, while apps are not ready for the bigger screen.
They add that the matte display mostly hides the crease, although you can still feel it, and that the battery and camera compromises are real.
Marques Brownlee calls it polished but rough, and describes it as a $2,000 way to get a 120Hz OLED iPad mini that fits in your pocket. He says people who mostly text and scroll social media should probably skip it, and so should iPhone filmmakers who want the best cameras. His biggest software complaint is that Apple adds a delay to every Touch ID unlock, so the phone pauses on the lock screen before it opens.
He still finds it a fun phone once you get past the learning curve, and he expects far more apps to be optimized by the time new orders arrive.
Mrwhosetheboss is the most skeptical of the group. He points out that the iPhone Duo costs $700 more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, weighs about 20 percent more than the iPhone 18 Pro, and has more room for wear and tear than a bar phone. He also found that its weight makes it pivot on its own on many MagSafe stands when it is open.
His advice is to go for it if you have used foldables before and still want one. If you are new to foldables and would otherwise buy an iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max, he steers you toward those instead.
Brian Tong says the iPhone Duo surprised him and calls it one of the most polarizing products Apple has made in years. He rates the crease as the best he has seen on any display, and after a full day of shooting photos and video he still had 15 to 20 percent battery left in the evening. His complaints are the volume button placement, Touch ID and a dock that reduces usable screen space, and he plans to revisit the phone in two months for a final verdict.
iJustine spent a week filming with the iPhone Duo, following the first impressions she shared in September, and says the portability won her over, since she can answer texts and play Pokemon Go on the front screen, then unfold it to edit and go through photos. She will miss the telephoto lens she uses on the iPhone 18 Pro Max for shooting content, and she notes there is no Face ID. Battery life was hard to judge because the phone was on constantly, but she never felt she had to hunt for a charger.
MrMobile’s Michael Fisher compares the iPhone Duo to the original iPad in 2010 and says the foldable lives or dies on apps, the same thing that made the iPad. His chapters cover the cameras, which he calls compromised but good quality, app optimization and whether the $2,000 price is justified.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB and goes on sale October 23 in Night Sky and Star White.
