iPhone Duo first impressions: a tale of two screens, and more
The Apple fall launch event, which usually happens in early September and witnesses the
launch of new iPhones, alongside faithful companions like Watch and AirPods, had a different energy this time. The excitement was palpable, and I could feel it even while watching the livestream from my living room couch. The event marked the very first launch led by new CEO John Ternus, who took over the reigns from Tim Cook just a few days ago. That wasn’t the reason for the buzz though… the event also marked the debut of Apple’s very first foldable smartphone, strangely called the iPhone Duo.
Yup, Apple is late to the party, as most other smartphone brands already have offerings in the foldables space, and some, like Samsung have been in the foldables business for about 8 years now. But when Apple does something, the world sits up and takes notice. The iPhone Duo has elicited strong reactions and for good reason.
Table of Contents
Design and displays: familiar, but very different
Lay your eyes on it at you”ll see a compact, D-shaped device (maybe Apple should’ve called it D2 instead of Duo, just saying), with the black one looking more sedate than the white. Those are the only two hues it’ll be available in.
Pick it up, and you’ll notice the workmanship Apple is known for — the device feels very well put together and exudes premiumness. The frame and hinge feature Grade 5 titanium, while Ceramic Shield protects the front and back. The Duo (calling it just that without the iPhone prefix sounds odd) boasts IP68 water and dust resistance, making it the only other foldable in India with that rating apart from the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold to do so.
The passport-style device sports a 5.4-inch display on the front, with a selfie camera sitting in a punch hole on the top right. The device opens up, with the display showing a mesmerising fade-out animation, to reveal the main display that measures 7.6-inches across. The inner display has a nano-texture coating that cuts glare, and you’d barely be able to make out the crease, if at all. The nano-texture coating makes the screen feel like paper, and Apple is even adding support for the Pencil. So that should make the iPhone Duo a compelling option for artists, creative professionals, those who love handwritten notes, and others who need to annotate documents… but prefer a pocketable device.
At first glance, it looks like there’s no front-facing camera on the main display, till the time you launch the camera app, switch to selfie mode, and the under-display shooter reveals itself. With up to 3,000 nits peak brightness and wide-angle OLEDs that promise better viewing angles, the Super Retina XDR main display does look extremely capable. And that should make it great for entertainment and gaming.
And when you fold it back, you’ll notice how smoothly the hinge works and the satisfying click sound it makes when the two halves come together.
A lowdown on rest of the hardware
There’s a dual battery, which is par for the course for most book-style fladables I think,
promising a full day’s worth of usage. It can be charged 50% in 20 minutes, as per Apple.
There’s wireless charging too, and Apple has even managed to integrate magnets to enable
MagSafe charging — another feature the iPhone Duo shares with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
For shooting, you get a pair of dual snappers on the back, comprising a 48MP main and a
48MP ultrawide sensor. There’s no telephoto on offer. And while I’m on the subject of features that are noticeably missing, let me also tell you that the iPhone Duo doesn’t feature Face ID, and instead relies on a Touch ID fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button on the right. The telephoto camera and Face ID would be two features iPhone users would miss the most on this device I think.
With the new 2nm A20 SoC under the hood, Apple is promising up to 20 percent gains in CPU performance, 40% in GPU prowess, and a 2x faster neural engine, as compared to the A19 Pro chipset that powers the iPhone 17 Pro series. So the Duo definitely packs more than enough grunt for the day-to-day stuff, no doubt. The device also boasts the new C2 modem, promising better connectivity and efficiency. Worth mentioning that this phone only accepts eSIMs and doesn’t have a SIM tray, so you won’t be able to use physical SIM cards.
The software play: makes it unique
Hardware is just one part of the story, though- one half of this Duo, so to speak. The other bit is software, and that’s where Apple has done quite a few interesting things… like that opening animation I mentioned before. While overall, the usage of the Duo should theoretically be similar to a regular iPhone when closed and an iPad Mini when open, (with a matching software experience), there are a few things Apple has done differently here. The dock for instance, which is normally located on the bottom of the screen on iPhones, has now been pushed to the right.
Multitasking on the main display is also handled very intelligently, so you basically just swipe up from the bottom of the screen when an app is running, and drag it to either side to split the screen. Another app can then be launched on the other side. Two apps can be run side by side in this manner, and you can even drag and drop content between the two, if supported.
App pairs can also be made simply by tapping on the little ‘handle’ in the middle, and you can come back to the same pair of apps later via Recents or by tapping either of the app icons. It’s all very fluid and seamless, at least on first-party apps and a few others Apple showcased. Hopefully third-party app developers will pick up the cues from Apple and ensure their apps run well too.
Using the Books app to read an eBook not only gives you a Kindle-like experience but the page-flipping animation is also very cool. I also love the Netflix app which has been custom-made for the iPhone Duo. The interface has received a makeover to suit the aspect ratio, and there’s a new video preview feature that lets you scroll through previews just like Instagram Reels.
Another interesting feature is Standby, which basically turns the device into a bedside clock. The iPhone Duo doesn’t need to be connected to power to activate Standby, and all you need to do is to just open it up partly, prop it up in tent mode, and Standby appears. In the same scenario, if you switch the orientation to vertical and then place the phone half open, Standby moves to the inner display, with one half of the screen showing the clock and the other half showing your photos. Of course, this is just from the demo I saw, and I’m sure there would be options to customise this the way you want.
And while I couldn’t check this out myself, I’m told that if you’ve propped up the iPhone Duo on your bedside in tent mode and the alarm goes off, the inner displays emit a gentle orange glow with increasing brightness to wake you up. Can’t wait to try that out for myself. There are other tiny things in the UI which specific to the Duo, and in that aspect, the software feels fresh. For example, the way the signal and Wi-Fi indicators are placed looks interesting. There’s even a Flex mode on offer, which works on a few apps and displays additional options and controls when you have the decide propped up laptop-style.
In terms of the base platform, the Duo runs iOS27 which brings with a ton of new features and improvements, including Siri AI, a cleaned up Clean Up feature (pun intended), and lots more.
Closing thoughts
Based on my limited time checking out the iPhone Duo, I can say that for me, the takeaway is how Apple is using the device’s form factor and folding capabilities to elevate the user
experience via the UI. The Netflix app, the multitasking features, the little things that help make Standby so useful and interesting, even small things like the folding animation, all combine to make it a compelling device. I confess I went into this demo session expecting an iPhone that can fold, but what I experienced is a different beast, one that promises to be a handy everyday companion.
As far as the Rs 3 lakh price tag is concerned, I admit it’s heart-stopping, but there are two ways to think about it: One, I’m sad it costs 3 lakh. And two, I’m happy it doesn’t cost 4
lakh. (Referring to the starting price of course). I choose to go with two, given how prices have been going North. The iPhone Duo will be available in India a few weeks from now, and that’s when I’ll get a chance to try it out properly.
