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iPhone Duo review roundup: The same problems Android foldables face, but with Apple’s polish
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!