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After years of rumors, Apple finally made a foldable: the iPhone Duo. The initial reaction online has been mostly positive—particularly how iOS adapts to the phone and that cool transition wallpaper effect—but it begs the question: How does Apple’s new device compare to the folding phones already on the market?
The iPhone Duo is now competing against the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (which I’ll focus on here rather than the Z Fold 8 Ultra). There are key similarities and differences between the three handsets that suggest whether or not the iPhone Duo will be a success. And having used both Google and Samsung foldables in the past, I have some ideas about what the iPhone Duo needs to get right.
Foldable phones: Weight and dimensions
Credit: Lifehacker
Google and Samsung have been doing this longer than Apple has, and their phones are thinner and lighter than the iPhone Duo. That might make a difference once Apple’s handset gets out into the world, with preorders set to start on Friday, Oct. 16. You can also see here that Apple and Samsung have gone for the “passport” style approach: Displays that are shorter and wider, which means a more tablet-style main display. The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold has the aspect ratio of a standard smartphone when closed, with a main display that’s more square.
Foldable phones: Displays
Credit: Lifehacker
You can see how the passport-style foldable compares to the more traditional foldable form factor in the display dimensions too: There’s a lot more vertical space on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold when all of these foldables are closed shut, which is quite a consideration. If you’re like me, you’ll end up using your foldable closed more often than unfolded, in which case the outer display becomes very important. (But more on that later.) It’s worth knowing that both Apple and Google rely on Samsung to supply their phone displays, as per industry sources.
Foldable phones: Pricing, storage and RAM
Credit: Lifehacker
If you’d like a foldable phone, it’s going to cost you, whichever brand you favor. The iPhone Duo starts a little higher than the competition and goes up to 2TB of storage—something Google and Samsung don’t do. It’s worth mentioning RAM here too: The iPhone Duo has 12GB, the Google phone comes with 16GB, and Samsung offers either 12GB or 16GB in the Galaxy Z Fold 8, depending on the amount of storage you buy. But it’s not an even comparison: The Duo runs iOS, which has different RAM requirements than Android devices.
Credit: Samsung
Foldable phones: Cameras
Credit: Lifehacker
Cameras abound on foldable phones—you need a selfie camera for the inner display and the outer display—and it’s notable that Apple isn’t telling anyone the specs of its inner selfie cameras. Google’s foldable is the only one with a telephoto camera. In the modern era, software processing is just as important as hardware specs, so how the handsets compare on this front is to some extent subjective. It’ll be interesting to see how photos from the iPhone Duo stand up against those on the iPhone 18 Pro, which has a more advanced camera system.
Foldable phones: Other comparison points
The iPhone Duo doesn’t have face unlock as the Google and Samsung phones do, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 doesn’t have the IP68 waterproofing of the iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold (though this doesn’t last). Battery life is a key consideration when picking a smartphone, but the capacity numbers here can only tell us so much. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a 4,806 mAh battery, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 4,800 mAh battery, and Apple isn’t revealing the battery capacity on the iPhone Duo—though it does say you can get up to 44 hours of video playback between charges on the outer display. Software optimization and other factors play a role too, so some real-world testing will be needed for a proper comparison.
Speaking of software, there’s the iOS and Android divide, of course. From what we’ve seen of iOS on the iPhone Duo, it looks like an elegant and thoughtful adaptation, with shifting buttons, split keyboards, a dual pane mode, and some other nice touches—no doubt helped by Apple’s iPad experience. To my eye, it seems like a more fluid experience than what you get on an Android foldable, though that’s not to say you get a bad experience on Google and Samsung phones.
Credit: Apple
What are foldable phones like to use?
Spec sheets can only get you so far, and while the iPhone Duo has made a bold impression based on what we’ve seen from Apple so far, no one has properly used one yet. The true test for whether the foldable iPhone is a hit or not is going to depend on how well it works through all the moments of day-to-day life.
I’ve spent several years using foldable phones from Samsung and Google, and aside from the rather prohibitive cost, the main issue that makes me still prefer standard phone form factors is that, for most of the time, there’s no reason to open up the full display—which means you’re left with a device that’s chunky and heavy, with no real upside. Checking messages on the go, making contactless payments, taking photos: the majority of phone tasks don’t need or suit a tablet-sized screen. That’s what all of these foldables are fighting against. Would you use an iPad to take a photo at a gig, call your parents, or find your way around in an unfamiliar city?
Apple seems to have the software experience right, and the iPhone Duo looks as well crafted as you would expect a foldable iPhone to be—but even if you can foot the bill for one of these, you might find that the cost of using a thicker, heavier, smaller phone isn’t worth it, just so you can occasionally have a bigger screen available. The iPhone Duo actually stacks up pretty well against the foldables from Samsung and Google, but its real competition is going to come from other iPhones.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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