I simply used the iPhone Duo. At the same time as an Android person, I am blown away

Android fanatics have lived with foldables ever since Chinese language firm Royole launched the FlexPai in December 2018. We’ve endured early hinge debacles, catastrophic inner-display peels, and awkward outer screens as firms like Samsung, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Google labored to refine the very thought of a folding cellphone.

Apple has sat quietly on the sidelines whereas Android manufacturers experimented, and whereas the corporate is over seven years late to the class, from my temporary time with the brand new iPhone Duo, it would simply have a winner in its arms.

I went into my iPhone Duo briefing at present having learn the complete spec sheet, and its 254g weight significantly stood out to me. That’s heavier than the iPhone 18 Professional Max (249g), which itself is the heaviest non-folding iPhone Apple has constructed up to now. I anticipated a heavy brick of a cellphone, as all Professional Max iPhones have been, however the iPhone Duo left me pleasantly shocked.

The iPhone Duo feels dense and strong within the hand, however since many of the weight is concentrated in your palm, it doesn’t really feel heavy or unwieldy like a top-heavy, massive cellphone that hangs exterior your hand.

The dense feeling is a good distinction to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, the iPhone Duo’s closest competitor, which weighs simply 201g. The Fold 8 feels mild and flickable (in a great way), whereas the iPhone Duo calls for a bit extra consideration and vitality to deal with. Whereas I wouldn’t dare drop both foldable, the iPhone Duo’s heft gave me extra confidence that it will survive an unintended drop with no case than the Fold 8.

When unfolded, the iPhone Duo could be very skinny and jogs my memory numerous the iPhone Air. It’s simple to see how Apple used the iPhone Air as a stepping stone to achieve the Duo’s design.

Opening and shutting the iPhone Duo requires a little bit of intention, because the hinge feels clean but stable. The hinge mechanism has sufficient stress to permit the Duo to cease exactly at any angle inside its folding vary with none give, one thing that was lacking from the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which might solely cease at totally open or totally closed positions.

I really like that the iPhone Duo has a really satisfying tender “thud” whenever you shut it shut, because of magnets alongside the body edge. You may nearly really feel the magnets working to maintain the show folded shut.

Apple has engineered a superb steadiness, for the reason that cellphone stays simple to open, too. The beveled body has its function to play right here, although I’m not an enormous fan of the sharp left corners (when closed) — I can think about them digging into my palm over long-term use. These corners might have been rounded off a little bit extra, as they’re on the Pixel 11 Professional Fold and the OnePlus Open.

Perfecting the folding motion is the dreamy opening-and-closing transition animation that Apple has proudly created for the Duo. It appeared dreamy on stage throughout Apple’s keynote, and it was simply as spectacular once I noticed it in particular person.

I do really feel the animation might get outdated and overbearing when you’ve owned the Duo and opened and closed it 100 occasions, however the honeymoon interval could be very candy right here. I’ve no doubts that Android manufacturers will copy this transition animation, because it positively provides a contact of opulence to a folding cellphone’s major motion.

The star of the present on the iPhone Duo is the 7.6-inch Tremendous Retina XDR folding show with a 1.42:1 facet ratio, with its near-creaseless design being its greatest spotlight. When considered head-on, the crease isn’t seen in any respect. In reality, it’s additionally very tough to identify at excessive angles, and I might solely observe the crease once I held the Duo a lot farther away and intentionally shifted it to an excessive viewing angle.

A very good a part of the credit score right here goes to the nano-textured matte-finish layer on the folding show, which is relatively ingenious on Apple’s half. The matte layer does a superb job of diffusing mild and lowering reflections, making the crease very tough to identify. It does such a very good job that it makes me jealous that Android manufacturers haven’t considered this answer over the previous eight generations, and I wager it’s one other a type of options they take inspiration from the iPhone Duo for his or her future foldable flagships.

The inside folding show isn’t good, although. When you’ve by no means seen a matte show earlier than, it can take some getting used to, as the colours could look a little bit washed out and fewer punchy than on a shiny, reflective show.

Whereas the crease is virtually invisible, the under-display digital camera on the inside show is much more seen. You may pretty simply spot the shift in show pixel density the place the digital camera is — the close-up photographs you see right here exaggerate the impact, but it surely’s seen to the bare eye as nicely.

I might solely take one picture with the under-display digital camera, and it had the standard softness I’ve seen in under-display cameras earlier than. There’s positively extra testing to be achieved, however the traits are proper on par, so that you’re extra probably to make use of it for informal FaceTime or video calls relatively than selfies or portraits.

The 5.4-inch Tremendous Retina XDR cowl show has the identical 1:1.42 facet ratio. There’s no matte layer right here, so it’s far more recognizable as a typical iPhone show with punchy colours. But, as a result of it’s a new facet ratio for Apple, the corporate has shifted a number of iOS design components to the suitable edge to raised use the display screen actual property, thereby retaining an general air of novelty.

In my restricted hands-on time, I discovered that the navigation components on the suitable edge weren’t simple to achieve one-handed once I held the cellphone in my left hand, and the broad facet ratio doesn’t assist right here both. There’s no toggle in iOS to shift these to the left edge (until I’m mistaken), and I hope that Apple provides them in a future software program replace.

Multitasking for now appears to be restricted to pairs of two apps solely, and that too, solely in panorama orientation on the inside show. It should even be fascinating to see how apps adapt to the brand new folding type issue and whether or not they achieve this higher than on Android.

For now, I’m very excited concerning the iPhone Duo. It’s a paradigm shift second for the iPhone, and with it, it can pull the broader Android market alongside. We’re seeing extra Android manufacturers confide in the thought of broad foldables, and even broad telephones (non-foldable). Prospects additionally appear receptive to the thought of a large foldable, extra so than they’ve been for big book-style foldables and flip-style clamshell foldables. There’s additionally little doubt that we’ll see app builders discover foldable-specific tweaks and layouts, and hopefully, these attain the opposite aspect of the river too.

The iPhone Duo isn’t the primary foldable to hit the market, however primarily based on every thing I’ve skilled with the cellphone up to now, I’m very assured will probably be one of the vital impactful ones. That’s excellent news for Android foldable followers, too, and I can’t wait to see how the Android market reacts to some stable competitors from Apple.