The iPhone Duo is lastly right here. Apple’s first folding smartphone arrives seven years after Samsung pioneered the class with the Galaxy Fold. That gave Apple loads of time to refine the {hardware} behind closed doorways reasonably than in public view—and the outcomes present: The Duo is a fairly dang good foldable.
Whether or not your Duo simply landed in your doorstep otherwise you’re nonetheless weighing that $1,999 value, this is what you want to know earlier than unfolding it.
Apps Aren’t Optimized—But
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
The iPhone Duo is a brand new form and dimension for Apple, so lots of your apps doubtless aren’t optimized to point out up correctly on the distinctive 5.4-inch outer display screen or the 7.6-inch inside show. Apple additionally modified how navigational parts seem on the Duo, aligning them on the proper rail as a substitute of centering them on the underside like each different iPhone.
Apple apps, redesigned for the Duo, look nice. Many third-party apps appear like the Google Dwelling app within the image above: a strip down the center with thick, black bars on the edges. A number of main app builders have already optimized their apps for iOS 27.1—Slack, Instagram, DoorDash, and WhatsApp, for instance—however I’ve observed that even some optimized apps like Instagram can nonetheless have damaged user-interface parts. It’ll take time for each app in your library to work completely throughout these new screens.
It may be a very good factor that the Duo is back-ordered for a number of weeks. By the point you snag yours, app builders will doubtless have caught as much as the brand new machine, and also you would possibly get pleasure from a richer folding expertise.
Say Goodbye to Face ID
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
Practically a decade in the past, Apple launched Face ID as the way forward for the iPhone, ultimately changing the fingerprint-based Contact ID. So it may be complicated to listen to that Apple’s first folding telephone does not have Face ID in any respect and as a substitute depends on the older biometric authentication methodology. (Possible as a result of Face ID tech takes up an excessive amount of area within the skinny iPhone Duo.) Contact ID by no means disappeared—Apple has used it on the iPhone SE and nonetheless options it on iPads and MacBooks—however that is the primary time it has returned on a flagship iPhone.
