Hands-on with the foldable iPhone Duo

The first foldable iPhone is finally here, and following its announcement, we got the chance to try the phone for ourselves. We’ve long been told that Apple would make a foldable iPhone once the tech was good enough — has it been worth the wait?

It definitely feels like something different. The inner screen has a decidedly matte finish that handled even some glare from the windows above the hands-on area well. The folding mechanism is smooth, and even IP68 rated, and the crease is almost impossible to find with my finger. The 5.4-inch outer screen looks petite by modern slab phone standards.

The real show happens when you open and close the phone — rather than just switching one screen off and lighting the other one up, there’s a gradual transition that happens and it looks as if the contents of the screen come into focus as it moves toward its final position. It’s a pretty nice touch. I also saw the phone positioned in laptop mode with Netflix on the inner screen, displaying controls on the bottom half before fading them away. There’s also the usual tricks in tent mode, where you’ll get StandBy even if you don’t have the phone plugged in. I’m very curious to see what that does to battery life.

Over the last decade, Apple has been variously reported to be developing traditional book-style folding iPhones, smaller flip phone variants, and even larger foldable iPads, before it eventually settled on its final form factor. While early rumors suggested it would be like having two iPhone Airs side by side, the 1.4:1 aspect ratio is squatter, closer to a passport book when closed. That makes the 7.6-inch internal screen wider and better suited for watching videos in landscape than other foldables, but great for reading long scrolling pages or multitasking in portrait.

The dual main camera setup shoots 48-megapixel photos and includes a 2x optical zoom. It’s largely the same as the iPhone 18 Pro, but lacks the variable aperture.