Early reviews of the upcoming iPhone Duo are in, and the results are generally positive. But certainly not always.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone is winning praise for its clever design and big inner display, but reviewers disagree about whether it is worth its $1,999 starting price.
Read on for a variety of comments from people who’re hands-on time with the iPhone Duo.
Reviewers react to iPhone Duo
The iPhone Duo is the first iOS device with a foldable display, combining the portability of a conventional iPhone with a much larger screen. It offers a 5.4-inch outer display for everyday tasks and a 7.6-inch inner one for watching videos, browsing the web and multitasking.
After the device was announced in October, it finally reaches customers on Friday, October 23. Reviewers have had a week to test it.
‘A first-class foldable’
Engadget gave the iPhone Duo 8.8 out of 10 stars, and its review offers plenty of praise:
“iPhone Duo has sidestepped most of the growing pains a new class of gadget might normally encounter. The result is a foldable iPhone that features an exquisite design with highlights that include a beautiful main display, a tough titanium frame, great battery life, solid cameras and excellent performance.”
Read the full review on the Engadget website.
‘Late to the foldable party, but it steals the show’
The iPhone Duo earned 8.7 out of 10 stars from Cnet, and its review is a mix of positives and negatives:
“Foldable phones offer a breath of fresh air in a stagnant industry, and the iPhone Duo is no exception. Details like the matte inner display, under-display inner camera and smooth transitions between screens give the Duo a premium feel that helps to justify its high price tag, at least to some extent. The sleek, durable build proves you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other, while the passport-size design adapts naturally to whatever you’re doing. In a sense, Apple has validated the design, even if it didn’t spearhead it.”
Read Cnet‘s full review
‘Yes, it was worth the wait’
The iPhone Duo earned 4.5 out of five stars from TechRadar, and its review is quite upbeat about Apple’s first foldable:
“The Apple iPhone Duo arrives as a fully realized folding smartphone from a company that, perhaps smartly, sat back and watched a category stumble, grow, develop, and solidify into a desirable form factor. As such, it avoids most of its predecessors’ missteps while delivering exquisite engineering, a vibrant, virtually crease-free screen, and a compelling design.”
Read the complete review on TechRadar‘s site.
‘Lots of apps aren’t optimized (yet).’
Along with all the praise, there’s also criticism. Among the most frequent complaints about the iPhone Duo in these early reviews is one that developers are already rushing to fix: third-party applications are not yet optimized for the new screens.
“Because the Duo is Apple’s first foldable, there are a ton of apps that haven’t been optimized yet to run on a device like this,” notes the Engadget review.
“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,” said Wired.
iPhone Duo reviews: Compromises
The folding design forced Apple to sacrifice some premium features, and these come up in all the iPhone Duo reviews.
It has two rear cameras rather than the more powerful camera systems found in Apple’s Pro models. The lack of a dedicated telephoto camera is a particular disappointment in a phone costing nearly $2,000.
Another compromise brought up in the reviews is replacing Face ID with Touch ID. Some buyers may welcome the return of fingerprint recognition, but anyone accustomed to unlocking an iPhone simply by looking at it will need to adjust
Go visual with iPhone Duo video reviews
Apple loaned iPhone Duo units to some of the more prominent influencers, and they produced video reviews.
NEW VIDEO – iPhone Duo Review: It's Real First Generation Fun! https://t.co/1jJt58zXN8 pic.twitter.com/IEzUsiwELr
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) October 21, 2026
iPhone Duo review: https://t.co/iCjYa8nPBT
— iJustine (@ijustine) October 21, 2026
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
