// WIRED US/UK — MOBILE & WEB
Apple iPhone Duo Review: Is It Worth It?
It's a little hard to review the iPhone Duo. I've been toting Apple's first folding smartphone for the past week, and several apps I've tried to open on the sprawling 7.6-inch screen look awful. Thick, black bars on the sides, with a phone-sized app in the middle of this tablet-like display. But you likely won't encounter this problem once the Duo is in your hands.
In the past day, a handful of apps I use regularly updated to add full support for the iPhone Duo's screen sizes and vertical user interface elements. 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.
Developers need to target the iOS 27.1 software development kit (SDK) for full Duo compatibility. That will take some time. But it is a little maddening that some app developers, who for years have never seemed to care about optimizing their app for Android folding phones, are so quick to embrace Apple’s fold. Slack, for example, never offered the two-pane view of its desktop app in the Android version, but it's on the Duo. C’est la vie. Hopefully, Apple’s entry into foldables will result in a “rising tide lifts all boats” situation and Android fold lovers will get to enjoy those optimizations.
The iPhone Duo's Standby mode turns on when the phone is propped up via a kickstand.
The iPhone Duo arrives seven years after Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold. In Apple tradition, its first entry into an existing category feels fully mature; the Duo has significantly less jank than the first few generations of its Android counterparts. The infamous crease—where the phone folds—is hardly visible thanks to Apple’s display stack and clever use of a matte-finish nanotexture screen. The phone is IP68 dust- and water-resistant (though avoid taking the Duo to the beach, as sand is notoriously detrimental to phone hinges). The software experience, barring the unoptimized apps, feels carefully considered.
Apple has also landed on the right shape, months after Samsung realized it following seven years of narrow, somewhat awkward book-like folds. The wider, shorter “passport” design feels better than what’s come before in this category. The 5.4-inch outer screen is still big enough to be useful, and the hinge glides open gracefully and stays put at various angles. The hardware feels polished.
That’s not to say Apple has completely trounced the competition. I still appreciate that Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold8 is super lightweight at 201 grams, as the iPhone Duo’s hefty 254 grams (heavier than an iPhone 18 Pro Max) can get tiring after extended doomscrolling. I don’t love the fact that, when closed, one side of the Duo has angled corners and the other is curved—the Fold8 looks better in that regard. Touch ID also takes a little getting used to after years of relying on Face ID, mostly when you’re holding the Duo with your left hand and you suddenly have to authenticate an app or purchase with your right hand. (It can mercifully auto-unlock if you're wearing an Apple Watch.)
Apple also tightly controls the multitasking experience. If you have two apps split-screen on the Duo, Apple won't let you resize one app to be slightly bigger than the other like you can on Android. Here, a 50-50 split is always enforced. You can't add a floating third app when in split-screen either, even though Apple has offered a similar capability on iPads for years. (The exception is video apps—you can have them float in picture-in-picture mode.) In portrait orientation, you can split-screen only with a video app; Apple won’t let you stack two apps, something Android has enabled for years.
That rigid software philosophy extends to basic input handling, too. I am typing this review on the iPhone Duo using a compact folding keyboard with a tiny attached trackpad. The trackpad works OK, but I could only get it to work after turning on AssistiveTouch in iOS’ accessibili