There is some context to lay out before I say anything about a foldable form factor. If you don’t need added screen real estate, this is not a form factor for you, and it likely never will be a convincing one without that demand for a bigger screen. I come from an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I chose the Pro Max only because it was bigger than the Pro but still more portable than an iPad mini. So my focus is primarily on how the Duo fares against a combination of a phone and a tablet.

Most of the apps I use aren’t ready for the inner display yet. Some, like the Roborock app, have broken UIs; others work normally inside the compatibility window, a centered frame with empty space around it. Developers got Apple’s kit as a beta only a few weeks before launch. Still, Apple arrived at least 7 years late to foldables, and I would imagine Android has paved its foldable UI conventions by now, so I’m not particularly convinced converting an existing app is a struggle on its own. Some apps may need a UI redesign, as Apple’s Duo-optimized kit lines toolbars and tab bars up vertically, but that doesn’t stop a developer from pushing a build compiled with the iOS 27 SDK, which fills most of the inner display. It’s not perfect, but it’s still better than pre-27’s iPadOS-like scaling.

At any rate, my eBook apps don’t support the inner display. Korean apps, aside from super apps like Kakao, don’t either, which is amazing when Galaxy foldables, from a supposedly Korean brand, pioneered the form factor; quite a lot of these apps don’t even support tablets to begin with. By contrast, one stargazing app from the UK, a niche in its own right, showed up as updated, so I gave it a go, and it works. It’s a great way to use a bigger screen outdoors without giving up portability.

The nano-texture finish on the inner display felt more anti-glare than the anti-smudge or anti-fingerprint layer some coverage made it out to be. It does hide the crease well, but as anyone who has been offered an anti-glare option on an Apple product before knows, that’s not quite the point. Anti-glare comes with that specific non-glassy, almost paper-ish texture, which is already a compromise if a device only lives indoors. And the part that matters: OLED performs far better in a darker room, but smartphones don’t stay in one, and by extension, neither do foldables. The trade-off is not as drastic as some claim.

Then there’s the hinge. Some owners are reporting inner displays cracking along the fold, and Apple’s response, a generic acknowledgment of an issue on “a small number” of units, gives no cause and no real figures on how widespread it is. I wouldn’t put much thought into it. There is a difference between having a weakness and having a failure point. Antennagate’s “holding it wrong” was a failure point: it happened during day-to-day use, and its weakness was the location of the antenna. Finding a weakness alone doesn’t suffice; it has to be reproducible in everyday use. Bendgate is a good example: a structural weakness at one point, but was it enough to reproduce across all devices?

Context is often what’s missing from Duo criticisms, and the weight of a first-gen foldable is another good example. For average consumers, especially prospective iPhone buyers, the choice is between bar-type iPhones and the Duo. Against the iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Duo is only 5 grams heavier, with roughly 50% more screen unfolded. Against an iPad mini, it’s slightly smaller but nearly 40 grams lighter than the previous Wi-Fi model, and still a gram lighter than the new one. Folded, its outer screen is iPhone mini-sized, yet no one would call it a mini that’s over 100 grams heavier. It’s ultimately a question of screen real estate. If you want the bigger screen, that’s what the 5 grams buy. If you want the lightest possible, there’s the other extreme, the iPhone Air, and if you want a lighter bar-type phone, there are the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

The new form factor also loses some hardware compatibility, most often with MagSafe accessories: so far, my MagSafe card wallet and my MagSafe grip-stand hybrid have both turned out incompatible, both new form factor issues. I don’t know whether a card wallet could fit those dimensions, but compatible grip-stands already exist. Touch ID takes some time to get used to again, though moving from Face ID is less of an issue. What troubles me most is that there’s no guarantee where the sensor will be. Unfolded, the Duo can be used in any orientation, so Touch ID could be up, right, left, or bottom, depending on how I’m holding it. My guess is that Face ID is inevitable, and that Apple may opt for two Dynamic Islands, one inside and one outside, to reintroduce it in Duo 2 or Duo 3.

Conclusion: If You Want the Screen on the Go

Is it worth it against buying an iPhone and an iPad mini? I have run those numbers before, but I think the core question behind the proposition is whether or not you want that added screen real estate on the go. If you don’t need it, or don’t mind splitting it across two devices, I simply do not recommend it. However, if you want the mobility of carrying an iPad mini with you, there’s a good chance this would work.