There's being late to the party, and there's totally blowing off the invitation and just showing up whenever you feel like it. Unfortunately, that has been Apple under Tim Cook. Even though John Ternus has taken the helm, all the new releases this fall were still developed under Tim Cook's oversight. And the one last halo product to be released from his term at Apple is its first foldable iPhone: the iPhone Duo.
Just about every single mobile phone company has been innovating in the foldable space for years. It was back in 2019 when Samsung first introduced their Z-Fold. Yes, it has been seven years and in that time Samsung has released eight iterations of their foldable with each one making vast improvements. Other companies followed suit, but there has always been one big problem: all the foldables before the iPhone Duo ran Android. If you wanted to stay in the relative security of the Apple ecosystem, you were out of luck, until now.
Samsung released their ZFold 8 in August and it is very similar in form factor to the Duo. Reviewers have noted that the iPhone Duo is thicker and heavier than the ZFold 8. That's something to keep in mind. The Duo is heavy. It's not a phone that will disappear into your pocket, but again it's a lot better than trying to jam an iPad mini down your pants. The iPhone Duo also does not have FaceID. TouchID is back, so if you like the fingerprint sensor, the Duo is your jam.
The iPhone Duo will ship at the end of October and starts at $1999. If you do the math, you can get yourself an iPhone and an iPad mini and still have plenty left over.
If you have been waiting for a foldable iPhone, then the Duo may just work for you. Just keep in mind that this is a first generation product. Future foldables aim to be lighter, hopefully smaller, and maybe can be FaceID enabled. For right now, much like the Apple Vision Pro, I see this as serving a niche audience.
To learn more about the iPhone Duo, visit: https://www.apple.com/iphone-duo/ | 
