6 iPhone Duo highs and lows that defined my day-one experience

Outside bad, inside great

When you have the fold folded, it’s not a great experience. Even with the home row and controls on the side, it’s the smallest iPhone display in many years, and most apps just aren’t formatted for the odd shape. Unless you’ve been clinging to your iPhone 13 mini all this time, you’re likely to find that even optimized apps, which put their controls off on the right edge to allow more vertical room, are frustratingly small.

If you are an iPhone mini diehard, the screen won’t bother you, but the massively fat and chunky form factor will. What good is a small screen when the phone is so thick and wide that it’s definitely not going to fit in the pocket of a pair of tight jeans?

The actual display quality is fine, and so is the outside selfie camera. But that outside screen is for quick-hit info checking, firing off a short reply, dialing a phone number, or asking Siri stuff. That said, there is one huge benefit: the keyboard. While it takes up like half the vertical space, the extra-wide shape makes the whole keyboard a lot larger and easier to use. It’s even wider than an iPhone 18 Pro Max keyboard, and the extra few millimeters really help.

However, the inside display is a delight and makes me want this same nanotexture treatment on all iPhones. It has a lovely paper-like feel to the touch and seriously cuts down on glare, while still remaining bright and sharp. Granted, blacks aren’t as deep as on a glossy screen, but it’s still very good, and the trade-off is totally worth it for all the glare (and crease) you don’t have to deal with.

When using the inner display, the Duo feels super thin and light, comfortable and easy to use. The more time you spend with the Duo unfolded, the more you love it.

A status bar and Dynamic Island upgrade

Without a camera cutout in the middle of the display (inside or out), Apple moved the Dynamic Island to the upper right corner. It surrounds the front camera when closed, and just pops up out of nowhere on the inner display.