Apple’s iPhone Duo is currently in that strange limbo where it’s been announced, it’s available to pre-order, but it’s not widely available yet.
In this period, every issue and bug gets amplified, especially when the device is so different from anything Apple has done before. We’ve seen people declaring they would never buy this phone, as well as lists of reasons why that’s a good decision.
Having had the iPhone Duo in my hands for a little over a week now (not counting my time with a bunch of Duos at Apple’s September event in Cupertino), I got to experience the good and the bad first hand. And, since I switched to the Duo as my primary phone, I can tell you that I haven’t yet encountered anything that would make me go back to a different iPhone.
That doesn’t mean that the issues aren’t real, so let me take a closer look at what the internet says and what the reality is (at least based on my experience with the phone). Oh, and you can also read my in-depth review of the iPhone Duo.
Claim: The FaceTime camera sucks
Is it real? Yes
Can it be fixed? Yes and no
4 megapixels just isn’t enough for a good selfie these days.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
The iPhone Duo has four cameras: A 48-megapixel main camera alongside a 48-megapixel ultra-wide on the back, a 12-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera on the outer display, and a hidden camera in the inner display branded only as the FaceTime camera.
Honestly, the FaceTime camera is bad for taking photos. It has a 4-megapixel sensor, and Apple uses a ton of AI post-processing to make the photos look halfway decent. Sometimes this works well; sometimes the photo comes out awfully plasticky, smudgy, and artificial, but the reality is that you can’t get a great selfie with this camera.
But things aren’t that simple. If the question is, “Can I take great selfies with the iPhone Duo?”, then the answer is an unqualified yes. In fact, the iPhone Duo can actually take better selfies than any other iPhone, including the Pro.
For that, you just have to use the main cameras, even if the process is a little impractical for a quick selfie (unfold the phone, start the camera, turn the phone around, remove the case if it’s in the way, slide on the display for the viewfinder). And there’s also the 12-megapixel selfie camera on the outer display, which is absolutely fine but not as good as the 18-megapixel selfie cameras on other recent iPhones.
The problem with the FaceTime camera, which should realistically only ever be used for video calls, is that it’s just so enticing to use it for selfies. You unfold the Duo, fire up the camera, and see yourself, and everyone else around you, on that large display; it just makes you want to take that selfie right away. Unfortunately, to take good selfies, Duo users will have to consciously skip the FaceTime camera.
Claim: Some apps look bad
Is it real: Yes
Can it be fixed? Yes, and it almost certainly will be
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Get a grip, Google Calendar!
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Apps that are tailor-made or remade for the iPhone Duo look gorgeous. Apps that aren’t fall into two camps. Most of them make use of the Duo’s large inner display, but aside from that, nothing’s really optimized to look better there. And some are the same as iPhone-only apps on an iPad: A tiny version of the app that sits in the middle of the display, which you can resize to get a larger, blurry version.
There are many apps that fall into the latter category. Numerous Google apps are like that: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and so are other popular apps like TradingView or PlugShare. Your local e-banking app almost certainly hasn’t been updated yet.
Put all of that together, and you get a middling experience in which you constantly juggle between beautiful-looking apps such as Netflix and crappy-looking ones such as Gmail.
This is Apple we’re talking about, though. I bet that 90 percent of popular apps will have Duo-ready versions within a month. The only way this doesn’t happen is if Duo sells exceptionally poorly and third-party developers decide it’s not worth the hassle, which, judging by Duo’s wait times, probably isn’t happening.
In fact, from the time I received the phone until the time of writing this text, at least 10 apps that I frequently use have already been updated for the Duo. So yeah, this isn’t going to be a long-term issue.
Claim: The phone is buggy
Is it real: Partially
Can it be fixed? Yes, and it probably will be
All the bugs I’ve encountered during testing appear to be fixed at writing time, so here’s just another photo of the Duo.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Every new iOS and iPhone launch comes with issues, but the iPhone Duo has the sort of bugs that you wouldn’t expect. WhatsApp often gets the camera orientation wrong, both in video calls and when you need to scan a QR code (note: this appears to have been fixed by the time of publishing). Sometimes Apple’s own software gets confused, and something on the display will point the wrong way.
There are also other types of small issues, which aren’t strictly bugs but come with the foldable phone territory. The most common problem I’ve seen is this: You fold or unfold the phone and accidentally touch something, and now you don’t know what you did and why your app is acting weird.
Again, I’m not very worried. Apple is typically very committed to fixing these bugs, especially on a high-profile device like this. It’s not a given, though, and if you’re worried about a buggy experience, maybe wait a month or two before getting the Duo, and see whether the bugs are squashed out by then. Though, considering the device is backordered, you may not have a choice but to wait.
Claim: The hinge deteriorates after prolonged use
Is it real? Hard to tell
Can it be fixed? Probably not
The crease is there. But you have to look for it. In real life, it’s unnoticeable most of the time.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
The iPhone Duo’s hinge works smoothly out of the box, and the crease in the middle of the inner display can be felt but can rarely be seen, unless you look for it. But what happens when you fold and unfold the phone thousands of times (as you certainly will over time)?
YouTuber Tim Pan put the iPhone Duo into a folding machine and folded and unfolded it 10,000 times (and an additional 1,000 times at -4 degrees Fahrenheit) to see what happens. Then, the internet took over and shared just the image of a before-and-after, indicating a dramatic change in the crease’s visibility and depth.
I haven’t folded and unfolded my Duo that many times yet, so I can’t give that sort of first-hand experience. But in the video, Pan says the hinge is still “very smooth” after the test, which is encouraging. As for that “before and after” photo, what I can tell you is that the hinge is already visible on a brand new iPhone Duo if you angle it right and put it under direct light, but that doesn’t translate into real life, where the crease is nearly invisible basically all of the time.
In other words, don’t trust any photo that shows that crease dramatically visible unless you’ve held the iPhone Duo in your hands.
Still, it’s hard to say whether the crease will become an issue after a year or two or three of use. It’s even harder to say whether it will become an issue for you; everyone reacts to these things differently. Anyone buying a new foldable phone, including the Duo, should expect some wear and tear over time.
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