Whenever I take a plane to go on vacation, I have a renewed appreciation for my iPad. Its roomy, bright screen makes movies, books and comics look great.
But then I return home, where I rely on a laptop and a phone. The iPad goes in a drawer. Only occasionally, like when I’m taking public transportation, do I wish I had my tablet to read a book.
How often you find yourself in that situation — yearning for a tablet when it is impractical to carry one — should be the central question you ask when considering whether Apple’s $2,000 iPhone Duo, which the company released on Friday as its first two-in-one, foldable tablet phone, is worth your money.
Because that’s the whole point of it. The Duo is a miniature tablet that can be folded up into a phone that fits in your pocket so you can carry it everywhere. To that end, what’s most important to evaluate about the Duo is its usefulness as a tablet. Everything else, including the camera, is secondary.
If having a tablet everywhere is not important for you, stop reading this review and continue enjoying your old-school, rectangular phone. You have plenty of time to think about it anyway. In a sign that this is the iPhone of our K-shaped economy, people eager to have every shiny new Apple thing bought all the iPhone Duos minutes after online orders opened last week. Any orders placed on Friday are estimated to ship in 2027.
I had a day to test an iPhone Duo before its release, so I mostly used it the way I use a tablet — for watching movies, reading books and doing some lightweight work.
My verdict is that commuters and business travelers who spend a lot of time on trains, buses and planes will probably like the Duo, as will avid book readers and people who watch lots of TV. Everyone else may feel frustrated with what is otherwise a funky, so-so smartphone.
Here’s what to know.
The Pros and Cons of the Duo
The Duo’s name refers to two devices. Closed up, it has a 5.4-inch outer screen for people to use as a normal smartphone. It opens up to reveal a 7.6-inch inner screen to become a tablet.
Every foldable phone released in the last eight years has had compromises, and the Duo is no exception. Its 5.4-inch phone screen looks like a cute, dainty device resembling a passport. But when used, it feels thick and stubby, which makes it cumbersome to operate with one hand. While trying to type a text message with one hand, I could not reach some letters with my thumb.
The Duo’s camera also lacks a so-called telephoto lens, which means it cannot zoom in as much as Apple’s other expensive iPhone, the $1,200 iPhone 18 Pro. (This is not a deal breaker because photos taken with the Duo’s camera looked quite good.) More annoyingly, the Duo doesn’t have a face scanner for unlocking the device, relying on a fingerprint sensor embedded in a button on the side of the phone, and it takes longer to unlock.
So the question comes down to how often you would use the Duo as a tablet to forgive the trade-offs, because the device begins to shine when it is opened up to take advantage of its bigger screen.
For watching movies, reviewing photos, reading books and writing emails, the Duo excelled. As an owner of many iPads of different sizes over the years, I found the Duo to be the most versatile and interesting tablet I’ve used.
Watching Videos
As soon as I set up the Duo, I fired up the Amazon Prime Video app to stream some movies and shows. Some videos looked better than others. “The Expanse,” for example, was shot in an aspect ratio that took up most of the Duo’s screen and looked nice. But movies in widescreen, like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento,” showed thick black bars, detracting from the viewing experience.
Still, the screen felt roomy enough to satisfyingly stream videos, which I rarely feel compelled to do on my normal iPhone.
When I got tired of holding the tablet, I simply folded it 90 degrees and set it down as if it were a miniature laptop to continue watching hands-free.
Reviewing Photos
I opened the Photos app on the Duo to scroll through the thousands of photos I had taken of my family, including Homer, a golden retriever, and Max, a corgi. Having grown accustomed to reviewing photos on a phone, I had forgotten how much better they look on a larger screen. I realized I hadn’t noticed details captured in past photos, like a chip on Homer’s tooth.
Reading Books
E-books, which are no fun to read on a tiny phone screen, were a delight to consume on the Duo. Even better were comic books. Graphic novels produced in color looked crisp and vibrant, and the screen’s matted texture reduced glare from ambient light.
While my book reader of choice is still a Kindle, I’d consider a Duo if I wanted to get into the habit of reading more often, because it would become a book reader that I carried with me everywhere.
Getting Work Done
Tablets for years have not been conducive to productivity, but are great for lightweight tasks like email. Apple’s Mail app made good use of the Duo’s software interface. With the Duo folded shut, the small outer screen showed a simple list of emails. With the Duo unfolded into tablet mode, the app adapted to list the emails on the left side and show their contents on the right side.
The biggest plus to productivity is the ease of typing on the larger screen. As a tablet, the Duo is thin and compact enough to easily compose emails and Slack messages with two thumbs, which was very difficult to do with larger iPads.
Bottom Line
Many tech reviewers have dunked on the iPhone Duo’s smaller screen because it diminished the experience of using the device as a normal smartphone. But when the Duo arrives to customers, I expect people will prefer to unfold it for use primarily as a tablet.
This is a new beast and should be treated as such. It may not be as fun to mindlessly scroll through TikTok using one hand with the Duo, but perhaps that means you will end up opening it up to consume deeper content, which would be a win.
While the Duo probably isn’t for me (a person who commutes on a motorcycle and tries to minimize screen time), I’ve been sold on the concept of foldables after testing many in the last few years because they help us get larger screens without adding much bulk.
I’m quite fond of my rectangular iPhone, but wish it were thinner and more compact in my pocket, which would mean it would have to fold up into a tiny square. That feels like the inevitable next step for the quintessential phone.
The post Review of iPhone Duo: A New Chapter That Redefines a Smartphone’s Purpose appeared first on New York Times.
