Before I begin on the iPhone Duo, the recently announced foldable iPhone, I have something of my own to announce: I am partially vindicated on the Apple Watch Ultra 4. That is, the form factor remains exactly the same as Ultra 3, albeit with new sensors and new chips. I can wait for both, as what I really want is a slimmer Ultra. We will see.
Now, to the origami elephant in the room: the iPhone Duo, less a folded iPhone and more a half-size iPad mini. Sort of. According to Apple’s own product specification pages (Duo) and (mini), the Duo is about 1.21 inches shorter than the mini, when unfolded, and about .66 inches narrower. This is only marginally smaller than an iPad mini. As a phone, you apparently hold it up to you ear folded (I don’t actually know, because the phone part of the iPhone Duo wasn’t actually shown at all during demos or in photos; one wonders if the phone app is included on the…iPhone) which would mean holding something 1.25 inches shorter than the 18 Pro, and .48 inches wider, up to your ear, which seems only slightly less awkward than holding an iPad mini up to your face to take a call.
Ideally, this new iPhone Duo would seem aimed at folks like me, who carry an iPhone in my pocket and use an iPad mini for browsing, shopping, and very light work. (All serious work is still done on my MacBook Air.) Why not swap both phone and iPad for a Duo? Well, price is a large factor. At $600 for the iPad mini and $1200 for the iPhone 18 Pro (the upgrade of what I have now, just for comparison sake) I still come in about $200 less than the $2000 base Duo. Sure, I have two products instead of one, but let’s look at more pros and cons of two over one.
One is screen size. The iPad mini is bigger than the Duo. It can do most things the Duo can with slightly more real estate to play with (such as for dual apps). Much of the demoing and showing off showed a film playing on the top half of the Duo screen while texting or doing something else on the bottom half of the screen. This isn’t how I watch movies, but to each their own.
Another is camera. The iPhone 18 Pro camera system is much more sophisticated and adjustable than that of the Duo. For filming, I want simple and powerful. This means the iPhone Pro wins over the Duo, even with all the flipping-Snoopy attention getting-whatever of the Duo because the iPhone Pro is mountable on a tripod and, and as I said earlier, even has manual controls over the camera. I’ll just say it: the Duo seems fumbly and I want straightforward for still or video photography. And the videos of people setting the Duo down and walking away to have it “intelligently” take group photos just conjured up images of it getting swiped while I am busy posing with friends. That would be $2k snatched away in an instant and not my idea of fun.
Storage is a wash between all three as all three come in 256 GB or larger capacities.
An Apple Pencil will work on the mini and the Duo, but not the iPhone Pro, but then, I have never wanted to use a pencil with my iPhone. I’ll call this a win for the mini and iPhone because Apple founder Steve Jobs said that if a phone comes with a stylus you’ve already lost (I’m paraphrasing).
I am certain many people will like the novelty of a foldable iPhone finally appearing in the ecosystem, and will love the flippy-foldy fun of it all. Some may even enjoy Pencil-ing it up and using it as a smaller iPad, then slamming the Duo shut to make a phone call (how do you call on one of those anyway?). I prefer to have a phone for what has become phone stuff, and then letting it charge while I play games and browse and buy and watch and read on my iPad mini.
Also? I don’t need a bedside clock. I have an Apple Watch Ultra already on my wrist.
So who is the iPhone Duo for, exactly? Clearly not me.
a simple man 