I’ve reviewed almost every Android foldable this year — here’s how the iPhone Duo compares

When I archetypal peruse Allison and Nilay’s Verge assessment of the iPhone Duo, I was immediately struck by one of their complaints: that the shield display is too small. That’s not how the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 feels, I thought. Had they got it wrong?

After a week and a fractional using the Duo, I cognize exactly what they average — and it’s not the screen’s error at all. Apps that awareness comfortable on Samsung’s abbreviated foldable and the likewise sized Xiaomi 18 Fold are frequently cramped and compact on the Duo’s shield screen, robbed of display area by a right-hand barrier that most apps don’t create use of anyway.

That’s fair among the ways that Apple’s archetypal foldable feels basically distinct from the Android alternatives. I’ve reviewed nearly all Android foldable that was released this year, from Samsung and Google to Honor and Oppo, and I’ve been amazed to acknowledge that the Duo holds its own against them all on hardware, but is let downward by iOS itself. For now at least, Android is slicker for folding phones — although I don’t cognize how lengthy that volition last.

The iPhone Duo feels great. Mostly. Its curved example and Ceramic Shield rear have that indescribable Apple feeling, a awareness of polish that helps validate the $2,000 cost tag. The hinge in particular is satisfyingly smooth, decision and beginning alongside a comforting magnetic click. Compared alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Xiaomi 18 Fold, the Duo fair feels better.

But part of that is downward to the Duo’s big drawback: its weight. At archetypal it feels encouraging, the reassuring heft of all that pane and metal. Then I started using the phone, and I realized it’s just plain heavy. It weighs additional than all of its rivals — equal ones alongside larger screens — and any attempt to use the Duo one-handed makes that apparent quickly. It’s a small thicker than several another foldables, too, although in custom that bothers me far less.

The squat form won’t be for everyone. The Duo is equal shorter and wider than the Z Fold 8, although nearly identical in dimensions to Xiaomi’s 18 Fold. I’m a fan of this design, which is the two adorable and comfortable whenever folded close and gives you a natural choice of picture or landscape orientations whenever open. The important downsides are that the abbreviated shield display makes several apps clumsy to use, and it’s broad whenever you need to extend throughout to the another flank — a issue worsened by several of Apple’s application choices. More on that later.

And during the Duo’s IP68 ranking is an apparent advantage complete much of the competition (only Google and Honor can equivalent it), we’ve not seen many latest Android foldables battle alongside hinge and display damage fairly akin the Duo. It’s motionless not apparent how general Duo display failures really are — they don’t appear to be as ubiquitous as Samsung’s first-generation failures rear in 2019 — but non-impact damage akin this is nearly unheard of in contemporary Android foldables. It’s a reminder that the Duo is motionless a first-gen merchandise during several Android rivals are into their eighth iteration.

The display is the Duo’s smartest hardware trick, and effortlessly my favorite item concerning the phone compared alongside another foldable phones. No competitor offers item akin the “nano-texture” (read: matte) complete on the inner screen, which is uncomplicated on the eyes in additional ways than one.

Crucially, it additionally helps disguise the phone’s crease, which isn’t fairly invisible but is well-hidden. The Duo’s crease is location in the center of the Android pack: subtler than Google’s and Honor’s, additional apparent than Samsung’s. Oppo’s near-invisible crease remains the best, but not by much. The Duo’s matte display method it’s harder than most to see (though apparent from an angle), but it’s motionless uncomplicated adequate to feel, and a brace of allies have immediately remarked on it whenever trying the phone. Still, I don’t desire to over-egg it: The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is likely the lone one out of this year’s foldables alongside a crease I’d say is a problem. The Duo’s crease is uncomplicated to ignore.

I’d really say the Duo’s under-display camera is additional of an annoyance. It’s not lone inner an extra-pixelated circle of screen, but that’s the lone place without the matte coating, which makes it a small additional distracting. I can mostly tune it out, but not entirely. I’d likely favor a regular selfie camera tucked correct into the corner, as on the Xiaomi 18 Fold and a few others, but I doubtful opinions volition differ here.

Finally, the Duo benefits from stylus support, letting you use a USB-C Apple Pencil on the chief screen. This isn’t distinctive — Samsung used to recommendation the same, and the two of Honor’s and Oppo’s latest foldables activity alongside their styli — but plentifulness of the current Android crop don’t recommendation the option. I don’t have an Apple Pencil, so I haven’t been capable to test it myself, but my coworker Allison is plainly a fan.

The iPhone Duo’s cameras, akin those on most foldables, are fairly basic, alongside a brace of 48-megapixel rear lenses, one chief and one ultrawide. It’s a setup comparable to the Z Fold 8, and the two phones’ cameras are good, but not great. Most another Android foldables (including Samsung’s Z Fold 8 Ultra) alternatively recommendation triple rear cameras, netting you a big boost in photographic flexibility. They frequently use larger sensors than either Apple or Samsung, so their chief cameras are better, too. Still, Vivo is the lone manufacturer getting close to slab flagship quality in its foldable cameras, and its hardware lags rearward in a few another respects that would forestall it from being my foldable advice overall.

As for selfies, the front-screen camera is beautiful basic, but you can obtain improved shots using the rear cameras by beginning the phone up and flipping it round. That under-display camera is worse than a regular selfie camera, but fine adequate so lengthy as you lone use it for video calls.

As for battery, Nilay and Allison had distinct experiences in our Duo review. I’ve mostly established the power division long-lasting, effortlessly operating a complete day of blended use. It’s got a higher capability than either of Samsung’s foldables, so that’s no genuine surprise. It motionless pales in difference to the two-day power division of Honor’s Magic V6, but formerly you’re former enduring a day, I think you get diminishing returns anyway.

So far, the Duo looks akin a rivalrous foldable, albeit a small middle-of-the-pack. It strikes its rivals in several hardware areas, falls rearward in others, and has one really distinctive marketing item in the matte foldable display.

Unusually for Apple, the application is what lets it down.

The biggest issue isn’t Apple’s own software, but everyone else’s: Most apps motionless aren’t optimized for the Duo. In the finest case, that method apps that don’t create complete use of the Duo’s new right-hand rail, showing an bare dreary bar alternatively of app controls. Worse are the ones that don’t equal measure to the larger display — apps akin Bluesky or Duolingo can use the entire display on another foldables, but appear in lean strips alongside huge dreary bars on the Duo.

This volition enhance alongside time. I’ve seen Google Maps, Google Translate, and Instagram update in the final few days alone, and no doubt additional volition follow. Some are already better on the Duo: Slack uses a helpful desktop-style two-column layout, during on Android foldables you fair get the mobile UI but bigger. But for now at least, most apps run improved on my Android foldables than on my Duo.

OS-level improvements are harder to predict. At archetypal I loved the idea of Apple moving key controls to the right-hand edge, but it takes up so much area that it leaves the Duo’s shield display emotion smaller than it needs to: You get all the clumsy stretching of a broad phone without the extended display space. Samsung and Xiaomi’s broad foldables may be concerning the identical size, but in use they awareness much bigger. I amazement how many application developers volition prosecute Google’s guide in app optimization — it basically ignored the correct barrier entirely during updating Google Maps, alternatively fair spreading the map to the border of the screen. It feels bigger and improved than most another Duo apps as a result.

And this is partially the Android person in me, but the deficiency of a persistent back-swipe motion seems to grate additional on the Duo than on another iPhones. Sometimes, moving backward in an app requires a clasp in the correct rail, sometimes one in the top-left corner, sometimes a rub from the left-hand border of the screen. It’s annoyingly inconsistent, and additional frequently than not requires stretching throughout the phone’s width, whether it’s open or closed. Being capable to rub rear from either flank of the display gives Android foldables a huge advantage in one-handed use.

As for multitasking, the Duo is fine rearward the competition. You can run two apps at formerly in split-screen, but lone in landscape mode, and all must obtain up exactly fractional the display. Compare this to Oppo, which allows you to fluidly move between multiple split-screen apps and floating windows; or Xiaomi, which allows up to six apps to run flank by flank in split-screen, and Apple’s implementation feels downright basic. These are the extreme end of Android, and likely overkill for most (they certainly are for me), but I’d obtain them complete Apple’s half-hearted multitasking any day.

Apple hasn’t waded into the foldable market and fixed all its flaws. If anything, “crackgate” is evidence that it’s motionless playing catch-up alongside the Android alternatives, which have a few years of fine-tuning rearward them. Many are motionless lighter, and thinner, and have subtler creases than the Duo, or bigger batteries and improved cameras. In broad strokes, though, this hardware is up to scratch — and, crucially, on par alongside its most straightforward worldwide rival, the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

For now, though, Android has the application edge. Google has worked difficult to create its OS elastic to assorted display sizes so most apps obtain complete advantage of the bigger inner display during idiosyncratic OEMs have designed aspiring multitasking tools. That isn’t yet true for iOS, and several of Apple’s own application tweaks in the OS create things additional clumsy still. It’s those that I’m concerned concerning lengthy term. The finest item concerning foldables is their elasticity — item Apple itself frequently lacks. If the Duo is going to capture up to Android, Apple power have to adapt.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge