Hands-on time with the iPhone Duo still leaves me wowed

There are devices you need in your life, others for which you can put together a convincing justification – and then there are gadgets you quite simply want.

I said last month that I was wowed by the launch video for the iPhone Duo, despite it falling very clearly into the latter category for me – and playing with one hasn’t changed that in the slightest …

I had a very un-British reaction to the video for the new device.

I had extremely high expectations for this device yet was still blown away by just how good it appears to be. I’m British; the only time we ever use the word “wow” is sarcastically – but I still had to open this piece with it, without a trace of sarcasm.

This device isn’t the best match for me. To me, an iPhone is about 50% ultra-slim camera, 49% pocket computer, and 1% phone. The iPhone 18 Pro is a better device for my needs. However, I was experiencing extreme levels of technolust for the iPhone Duo. I’m not the target market for the iPhone Duo, but I do, absolutely, unquestionably want one.

I this week got a chance to visit an Apple store to spend about half an hour playing with the new device, and that did absolutely nothing to reduce my technolust.

Gorgeous nanotexture display

The first thing to say is that the nanotexture surface of the inner display is gorgeous, and my quick snapshots don’t remotely do justice to it. Although intended primarily to disguise the crease, I found it a really beautiful screen. When looking at content with a white background, it’s really paper-like.

Indeed, once I’d been looking at it for a while, it was actually quite jarring to fold the Duo and see the glossy screen on the outside – all the more so when it showed reflections which were not at all visible on the inner display.

I honestly think Apple should have used nano-texture on the outer screen too, and even offer it as an option on other iPhones.

Split-screen view

The iPhone Duo of course offers a split-screen view, with a new gesture to invoke it. Even in the very short time I was using the device, I found this almost immediately became second nature. From the home screen you simply drag an app up a little and then either left or right and it snaps into place.

Both apps feel very usable in this configuration, although in my view it would only make sense to use it when you are interacting with both, for example dragging content from one to another, like adding a photo to a note. I’m not much of a multi-tasker and, honestly, most people who claim to be aren’t either. For me the whole point of a phone display this size is greater immersion.

Full-screen use

Most of the time, then, I’d want to take advantage of the iPad mini-like size of the display to give more space to a single app. For some content, like photos, it does rely on a matching aspect ratio to take full advantage of the display.

Other photo ratios get windowed, and look far less impressive.

For web browsing and similar applications, I would personally use it primarily in portrait mode.

Apple’s own apps seem well adapted to this mode. For example, the overlapping message pane in the Messages app, which can of course be dismissed.

For me, the least-convincing use case is watching video, where the aspect ratio simply doesn’t match most of today’s content. For example, this is how Foundation looks in the Apple TV app:

Punch-hole selfie camera

Incidentally, the camera punch hole looks very obvious above, but it really isn’t most of the time. With many backgrounds, it’s barely visible and not remotely intrusive. I had to angle the screen very carefully to be able to really maximise its visibility for this close-up:

I’d say it’s more visible in my other photos than it is in real-life.

Whimsy

Then there are the more whimsical orientations …

I mostly dictate text on an iPhone rather than type it, and can’t imagine anyone would really use the Duo in laptop mode very often, but honestly there’s nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy with the device. It’s in large part a fun thing – even if it is rather pricey as a toy.

Wrap-up on my first hands-on

The iPhone Duo is a beautiful device, and Apple has clearly put a huge amount of thought into both the hardware and the software.

It’s a very pocketable device, and I really love the idea of having a screen size close to that of the iPad mini on me at all times. I mentioned that I’d been using an iPad mini to preview the iPhone Duo experience earlier this month, and the Duo actually feels even better thanks to smaller bezels and that beautiful paper-like display.

Yes, it’s exceedingly expensive, and yes, having the priciest iPhone lack the best cameras would be a huge compromise for me. But while I still don’t think it would be the best iPhone for my needs, I do absolutely, undeniably want one.