---
title: 'iPhone Duo Review - "Apple Knows Best"'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vj_AHonNdA'
video_id: '1vj_AHonNdA'
date: 2026-10-21
duration_sec: 988
channel: 'Dave2D'
---

# iPhone Duo Review - "Apple Knows Best"

> Source: [iPhone Duo Review - "Apple Knows Best"](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vj_AHonNdA)

## Summary

This video is a detailed review of the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone. The reviewer explores the device's unique design philosophy, which forces users to adopt a specific right-handed interaction model, and evaluates its performance, screens, cameras, and overall user experience. The review highlights both the innovative aspects, like the seamless app continuity and the matte inner screen, and the frustrations, such as the lack of Face ID and the steep learning curve.

### Key Points

- **Initial Excitement and Skepticism** [00:01] — The reviewer was excited to try the iPhone Duo but questioned how Apple could make a foldable phone appeal to the masses, not just tech enthusiasts.
- **Forced Right-Handed Use** [00:15] — Apple forces a specific way of holding and using the phone, with the dock and all UI buttons positioned on the right side. There is no way to reposition them, and the phone is not designed for left-handed users.
- **No Face ID, Only Touch ID** [00:42] — The iPhone Duo lacks Face ID, relying solely on a side-mounted Touch ID sensor. The reviewer finds this archaic and frustrating, especially after years of face biometrics.
- **The Dock is Locked to Four Apps** [01:23] — The dock on the home screen is locked to exactly four apps, positioned on the right side. There is no way to add more or reposition them, which is a deliberate design choice by Apple.
- **Learning Curve and Stockholm Syndrome** [02:31] — The reviewer describes a steep learning curve that eventually leads to getting used to the phone's quirks, comparing it to Stockholm syndrome, but admits it starts to make sense after a while.
- **Developer Perspective: Apple's Control vs. Android's Chaos** [03:01] — The reviewer contrasts Apple's strict design rules with Android's flexibility, which has led to seven years of inconsistent foldable experiences. Apple's approach forces developers to create a unified experience.
- **The Apple Way: Removing Choice for Consistency** [04:03] — Apple removes choices for both users and developers to create a single, consistent experience that works everywhere, which has value in the foldable space.
- **The Magic of the Opening Animation** [04:30] — The reviewer is amazed by the opening animation, which uses refraction and diffusion to make the front glass appear as a single pane, changing how the device feels.
- **Minor Annoyances: Safari Reach and Accidental Holds** [05:09] — Some interactions remain awkward, like reaching the top of Safari, and closing the phone can trigger accidental long-press actions on the screen.
- **Multitasking and Media Consumption** [06:02] — The inner screen is excellent for multitasking, like viewing a spreadsheet next to a website, and for watching videos, which benefit from the larger screen and good stereo speakers.
- **Gaming and App Continuity** [06:44] — 2D and light 3D games look great on the inner screen, and closing the phone seamlessly continues the game on the outer screen, a feature that often fails on Android foldables.
- **Thermal Performance and Screen Real Estate** [07:38] — The phone has a vapor chamber and graphite pipes for heat spreading, but thermal performance is not as good as the Pro iPhones. The front screen loses about 10% of its usable area to a permanent black bar for the dock.
- **Inner Screen: Nano-Texture and Crease Hiding** [08:42] — The 7.6-inch inner screen has a matte nano-texture that reduces reflections and effectively hides the crease, making it nearly invisible to most users.
- **Nano-Texture Durability and Maintenance** [09:50] — The reviewer shares an anecdote about a candle mark on a MacBook's nano-texture screen that couldn't be removed, but notes the iPhone Duo's screen seems easier to maintain.
- **Size, Weight, and Hinge** [10:55] — The phone is chunkier and heavier than typical slabs, but fits in pockets. The hinge holds almost any angle, is IP68 rated, and is left exposed by Apple's first-party case.
- **Left-Handed Users and Touch ID Slots** [11:50] — The phone is not built for left-handed users, and the reviewer uses all five Touch ID slots to accommodate different holding positions, wishing for more.
- **Camera Control and Typing** [13:15] — Camera Control is less customizable than the Action Button. The split keyboard is good, and the reviewer notes the visible double letters on keys.
- **Camera System: No Telephoto** [13:46] — The phone has a 48MP main and 48MP ultrawide camera, but no telephoto. A cropped sensor provides 2x zoom. The under-display selfie camera is noticeably muddier than the front screen camera.
- **Battery Life and Charging** [14:37] — Battery life is good but depends heavily on screen usage; gaming on the big screen drains it fast. Charging speed is decent.
- **App Optimization and Final Verdict** [15:06] — Fewer apps are optimized than expected, but resizing regular apps works as a baseline. The reviewer concludes this is the best foldable for the average person, despite the learning curve.

## Transcript

I was super excited to try it. But as I was pulling it out of the box, I had this thought. How is Apple going to pull off a folding phone for the masses? appeal to tech nerds like me, right? It can't just be cool because the
technology. It has to work for millions of normal people, many who've never even seen a foldable phone before. And spoiler alert, I think they did it. I Duo is so good, but the way that they
actually really annoying. It's like a very Apple way to do it. They force you to use this phone in a very particular way. And many interactions are entirely different on this phone compared to like a decade of normal phone use. So, right
off the rip, there is no Face ID. The only biometrics you can use to log into this phone is with the sidemounted fingerprint sensor, the Touch ID here. Now, it works reasonably well, but we've been spoiled with like 8 n years of face
biometrics logging to devices, and it just feels so archaic and primitive. You might think like, oh, who cares? We've had Touch ID devices in the past. Those one is different because it forces your finger to be on the side off the screen.
you'd open the device ready to use it. You'd see this white bar down here and you're like, "Oh, I still have to log in." It's a bit of a learning curve. And once you're in, you have your dock. So these four buttons, like these like
quick access buttons are typically on the bottom of a phone. So it doesn't Android. There's like that dock at the bottom of your screen that would be Well, here's a iPhone that has it, but these are the four buttons, right? Uh
sometimes there's five depending on the phone, but this requires these buttons like the iPhone 2 requires these buttons to be on the right. There is no way to reposition them. Uh, and there's no way to even add more than four. Even though
there's space, it's locked to specifically four. But I think Apple in this exact position. Like, this is the right way to hold this phone. And once you unlock it and you're in, and those four buttons on that dock are
position or your fingers, it's very easily accessible. And Apple forces you to use it like this because they think they know best. This is how this phone is meant to be used. And even like the the volume buttons on the top, like
immediately obvious as to which is volume up or which is volume down. You get used to it all, but that initial like learning curve is quite steep and frustrating, but then after a little while, it just you get used to it. And I
syndrome, but it kind of made sense. I'm like, hey, I kind of like that this is sounds disgusting, but this is just how it seemed because you get used to it and suddenly it kind of made sense. So on the Samsung ZFold 8, the dock is still
on the bottom because I'm just used to pull the edge panel out, there's like a side panel here that you can load up like the easiest access, right? Because your thumb's right there. But the
standard dock is just right on the bottom where it's always been for decade. and I like it there. But then if you think about it from the perspective of developers, so Android developers know that the user base has choice. So
they could place their stuff wherever they want. There's no strict rules because there is no set position that the fingers and thumbs are likely going to be. And the result is 7 years of foldable phones with no real system to
the user experience. But on the iPhone Duo, your thumb's right there. They make you like they force it to be there. The dock is also forced to be there. And then when you open it up again the doc is right there. But then for developers
they are also encouraging or almost forcing developers so that all of the UI buttons appear on that side as well. So apps look and behave a very particular way. So for developers if they build their app in the current SDK their
toolbars and navigation buttons automatically get put into a vertical column on the right. And this is the Apple way where Apple will take away users choices and options and developers choices and options and the result is
just one experience that in theory should work everywhere for everyone. It's a very particular way of using it but in the foldable space it has value because we've seen what seven years of like you know developers and users can
do whatever they want what that leads to. This it's contained but once you're used to it the user experience is pretty smooth. Like you saw this before the animation of like when you open that front glass like this is it still amazes
me. Like it's so simple but it's just it's so cool. Like and depending on the angle that the glass is tilted like depending on the angle that things open it will affect the refraction like the diffusion. So it just looks like it's a
pane of glass but when you open it it's like the thing that you were looking at same with when you close it. And it seems like, oh, you know, it's just a cool animation, but it's it's not just an animation. It changes how you
like Apple's done everything in their capability to remove the friction of using a foldable device because there's inherently friction. Like, you actually But the less you have to move your hand and adjust things around, the better.
Uh, there are some things that I still find a little bit annoying or weird. Like in the Safari app, you still have to like stretch quite far to get to the easier to access from just the right side of the Safari app. Now, another
thing that kept popping up for me is that when I was closing the device, like I would I would press onto the screen to close it. And as I would do it, because I held onto the app or like something on that screen, it would register that
hold. And as I would close it, it would like because of the continuity of the would now see whatever it was. Like just right now, it thinks I'm trying to move an app. Uh, I would do it again. Like I'm I'm holding on to this. I close it
and uh oh, it thinks I'm trying to do a secondary function on the thing. I found software fix, I would imagine. But yeah, that kept popping up for me. Now, the inner screen is great for multitasking. So, you got like a spreadsheet next to a
website or your mail. It takes a couple seconds. It's really intuitive and it's while doing something else. or a video and a game is like it's the most degenerate thing to use for a $2,000 phone, but it works really well. Uh
video is where the Duo really shines. You get a nice big screen and how much bigger it is from a regular slab phone depends on the aspect ratio. So, regular 16x9 content gets a lot bigger, but wider aspect movies, not so much. In
bigger. Uh and the stereo speakers, they're on opposite corners, so you get nice stereo sound, and they do sound pretty good. For gaming, 2D and light 3D titles are awesome on the Duo screen. It's what I think to be like the best
aspect ratio for mobile games. And closing at Midame just works. You're able to transfer it from the inner screen to the outer screen smoothly. On setting that allows you or at least attempts to allow you to do this. And I
Usually, it doesn't work. 3D titles, when you close it on an Android device, like usually the app just closes and you just have to reopen it on the outside are you even closing your screen in the first place? Sometimes when you're
or you do something, you just press in the middle of it because there's sensors "Hey, this guy's closing the phone." It'll just kill the game. It's happened never happens on this thing because it can be closed and you can continue
playing it on that outside screen. Have your titles do have the occasional device like this super thin, well not a lot of surface area. They are running a vapor chamber and apparently
there's like graphite pipes that spread the heat between the two halves. Like there's a lot of stuff going on, but it won't have as good thermal performance as the Pro iPhones. Some thoughts on the screens. So, this front screen is 5.4
saying that this has 90% of the screen real estate of the iPhone 18 Pro, which is technically true, but you lose a ton of screen real estate because of the
right bar. So, if I'm like in any app, this is Spotify, but like you see this chunk on the or the right here, it's like I want to say it's 10% of the screen, it's gone. Every app that you use, uh, it's always there. You're just
looking at black bar and just an unusable right portion of the screen. continuity. As you open up the device, you also have that thing right there. They always want it present. It's not on the calculator app, but it's pretty much
everywhere else. I feel like having one that popped in and out would have been awesome and it would have like given you more screen real estate, usable screen seemingly the price we have to pay to have controls on the same edge on both
screens. The inside screen is 7.6 in and this has that matte finish nano texture and this is nice to touch, but this finish or this texture definitely cuts down on the reflections and it also does a very good job at masking or hiding
that crease down the middle. It is technically still there and you can kind of feel it when you run your finger over it, but it is for all intents and purposes not visible. And I think that most people looking at this will not be
bothered by any kind of like visual artifact or visual line down the middle. It's very hard to notice unless you're like really looking for it. I think the the matte finish, but games look really nice in it. Same with shows, movies. The
colors aren't as poppy as a typical OLED because of that matte finish, but unless I think it looks good. I also think that the nano texture is something more companies, if they can, should adopt as well. Like, it's something that I
the more I use it, the more I'm like, this is the way that foldable should be, interact with that screen. Like, you slide it around. And supposedly this texture makes the screen more durable. Uh, I don't know how much truth there is
test that in just like a week of use. But I will just say from an anecdotal thing, this screen material like the nanoexture, I had a candle that it it
fell on my MacBook and it left a streak on the nanoexture screen of my MacBook Pro and no matter what I did, I tried like alcohol, soapy water, halfozen cleaning products. I could never remove that waxy finish off of that MacBook
screen. Uh, it's just like a little mark that's always there. I think it's like the wax. It rubbed off and it like went into the texture of that finish and just couldn't be removed. But I took that same candle, rubbed it in the corner of
obviously a difference between the two screens in terms of like the actual finish, but I don't know. It seems like this screen is easier to maintain than the nano texture on the MacBooks. The matte finish can look a little hazier
ambient light, like you have to bump the brightness a little bit. And because thermal limits, you probably can't maintain that peak brightness outdoors as long as like a typical slab phone. Uh, okay. In terms of like the size and
weight, this is definitely a little bit chunkier of a phone and because of the thickness, it can feel a little bit heavier. It fits fine in pockets, but calls sound good on it. Reception is good. It's just always strange to hold
like a wider device to your head, but uh, it's the nature of a passport-shaped foldable. Now, in terms of the hinge, this is a very cool hinge. So, it holds basically every angle you could throw at it. Uh, I think you can get to like you
get pretty wide, wider than a a Zfold 8. Uh, but this is a hinge that's also IP68. It's a very dust and water resistant hinge. I think Apple's so out that even their first party case doesn't even cover it. If you want full
hinge as well. And that thing doesn't have like springs or moving parts. It's just one piece that covers that back. Now, using this phone in Apple's like prescribed way does give you a very fluid user experience. The learning
lack of Face ID is actually super frustrating even after you've gone used apparent. This is not a phone that is built for left-handed people. There's no way to adapt it to like proper left-hand use. You would have to be like, you just
have to get used to manipulating your phone with your right hand as a left-handed person. Like, you know what? Another thing I just I should mention, normally when you have Touch ID on an iPhone, I would normally register two
maybe three fingers at most. But on this one, I've used all five slots. And I wish I could have more because like you'll open the phone in many different ways. is like if you're holding with your left hand, you can use your middle
finger to unlock it or maybe your index finger to unlock it and then your thumb want to register it. But then I've also found that when you have it mounted on like a if it's charging or something and on Mag Safe and you want to you want to
would just grip it with a different there were like another two slots because it's just this is the thing with Touch ID that's in one spot on a asymmetric device, right? You just wish
I just wish I had Face ID. Oh my god. Um, okay. But yeah, not for left-handed anymore, which is something I miss because I used to launch Claude all the time with it. They do still have camera control, but this is not going to be as
customizable uh as the action button, at least not without using like shortcuts volume buttons I was talking about before, the right one is volume up. This one is volume down. Uh, and it allows you kind of like maintain that as you
open and close it. The typing is like most foldables where you have the split I've seen Apple do a visible double letter like that. There's G's on both ones where you could just like move your finger, but no. Yeah, this is a good
keyboard. And yeah, it types like you would quite yet, but it is supposed to be two cameras on the back. There's a 48 megapixel main and a 48 megapixel
ultrawide. There is no telephoto. There's like a cropped sensor that gives you 2x. You can stand it up while it's half open to take photos and stuff. It's ton of utility for certain people, but I personally would never use it. It does.
It's got perfect functionality. It's just I wouldn't use it like this. It is you're looking for. Uh the selfie cam on the inside is under the display and it's noticeably muddier than the one on the front screen. It gets less light data
because the sensors underneath that pixel grid. Unfortunately though, this is probably the camera that most people would want to use in terms of selfies on this thing because you get this nice big screen to work with. Uh if you're doing
this screen, but unfortunately you are getting the worst image quality of the terrible. It's just it is slightly worse. Battery life seems pretty good. It depends a lot on which screen you use, but if you use the big screen at
a game, it drains really fast. Uh charging speed is pretty good. And you Now, in terms of apps and stuff, there are fewer apps that I thought would be running on this and like updated at this point in time, but I just feel that
all of the kind of this is how you very quickly. So, at the very least, you could just resize a regular app so it is like the kind of worst case scenario. It's like the laziest way to take
advantage of what a bigger screen device could do. But the more robust and just like purposebuilt apps look really nice on this thing. All right, this is, as premium foldable. It's like a hundred bucks more than the Fold 8. Apparently,
when the pre-order is open on Friday, these things sold so well that the ship pretty crazy. Now, I think foldable phones need to be tried. If something just go pick one up and just be like, test it for a week and just see if it
to do because everyone's going to be like what you actually do, how you do those things, and like do you actually entirely different on it. And like anyone any video that tells you
otherwise is just blowing smoke out their ass. Uh this is super super subjective and it very personal to everybody. Okay. Uh I will say that of the foldable phones I've used, this is I think this is the best one in terms of
like the actual experience of what the average person would want out of a phone. Okay. There you have it. That's the iPhone Duo.