Ars Technica likes the $1,999 iPhone Duo as a small iPad but not as an iPhone. Here is what its review says about the fold, cameras and missing Face ID.
Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham reviewed Apple's $1,999 iPhone Duo and landed on a split verdict, published Oct. 27: he enjoyed it as a small tablet and struggled to like it as an iPhone. Ars doesn't attach a numeric score, so the verdict below is the outlet's, not ours, and we haven't tested the phone ourselves.
What Ars liked
The big win is the fold itself. According to Ars, the seam between the two halves is "functionally invisible" most of the time, and the review calls it a clear step up from most Android foldables. Opened up, the inner screen grows from 5.4 inches to 7.6 inches, and Cunningham compares the experience to an "iPad Nano."
Ars also praised the split-screen multitasking, where each half of the display behaves like its own iPhone. Performance gets a thumbs-up too. The A20 Pro, Apple's first 2-nanometer phone chip, landed in the ballpark of Apple's claims in Ars' benchmarks: roughly 20 to 30 percent faster on CPU and 40 to 50 percent faster on graphics than the A19 Pro.
Where it falls short
Most of the complaints are about using it folded, as a phone. Ars says the Duo feels squat and cramped in one hand, and that it is heavy and thick enough to be tiring. There is no Face ID. Touch ID sits in the power button instead, and there is no customizable Action Button. The review also says the design is built around right-handed use, with the dock and app controls pushed to the right edge, which a left-handed friend found extremely uncomfortable.
The cameras take a hit as well. Ars describes the system as roughly equal to the standard iPhone's, with 48-megapixel main and ultrawide sensors and no telephoto lens. The camera under the inner screen is visible almost all the time, and its roughly 4.4-megapixel output looks noticeably worse than the 12-megapixel outer camera. The review adds that the Duo costs nearly twice as much as an iPhone Pro while carrying a weaker camera system.
Cases, apps and screens
Apple also sent a $79 case and a $129 Folio with a kickstand. Ars found the kickstand useful for tablet mode, but the opaque cover blocks the camera and flashlight when folded back. On software, many apps have added Duo support within days of launch, though early buyers should expect plenty that haven't.
Cracked screens have been the phone's other story. Ars says it did not run into breakage during testing. We covered the teardown findings separately.
Our take
This is a review of a $1,999 first-generation product, and the useful part is how clearly Ars separates the two jobs. If you mostly want a pocketable tablet, the case for the Duo is stronger than the price suggests. If you want a better iPhone, Ars says it isn't there. Our read: wait for a version with Face ID, as the reviewer himself suggests, unless you already know you want the tablet half.
Related reading
Picture credit: Apple
