The sight of the new iPhone Duo on display this past weekend at the Penn Square Apple Store brought out the Navin Johnson in me. I wanted to shout ‘The new iPhone Duo is here! The new iPhone Duo is here!”
But the store was swarming with customers and I didn’t want to out myself as the ultimate Apple Fanboy that I am. So I calmly walked over to a display table and picked up an iPhone Duo for the very first time.
No one could tell by my stern expression that I was bubbling with excitement.
Because it’s a folding phone, the Duo fit right into the palm of my trembling hand, showcasing apps on a bright home screen. Its size when folded is 3.31 inches wide and 4.64 deep, with display size of 5.4 inches.
The magic happened when I unfolded the Duo into its full 7.6-inch display size. There was a slight blur, and when fully opened the right side of the inside screen looked exactly like the front screen. There was an entirely different set of apps on the left side.
I was curious about what kind of crease there would be down the middle because of the fold, but didn’t really notice it.
Of course, I realize that Apple is not first to the folding phone. Android users have had that pleasure for a number of years. But I’m not an Android user, and the iPhone Duo is Apple’s biggest design innovation since the original iPhone launched in 2007.
This is not an actual product review like that of The New Things from Joanna Stern or Jason Snell with Six Colors, but I did get to play with the device for a couple of minutes.
Here’s what I noted. When I clicked on an Apple News story, it displayed text and photo across the entire width of the unfolded phone. The text was super easy to read.
I also clicked on a sample photo in the Photos app, and it displayed incredibly bright and sharp.
Finally, I clicked on the Weather app — hey, I’m a weather nerd, too — and viewed the weather forecast in a full screen display. OK, maybe it wasn’t any different than what I could see on my own regular iPhone, but it seemed to present important weather stats I needed to know at a single glance without having to scroll.
With that, I folded the phone back to its perfect-for-the-palm-of-your-hand size and put it back on its display holder.
Yes, I’m lusting after a tiny piece of technology that I likely will never actually carry in my pocket. Why? Well, the price.
Oh, the price.
The basic iPhone Duo is priced at $1,999, definitely out of my retired newspaper guy budget. So, I reluctantly walked away.
I did see several of my fellow shoppers actually making iPhone Duo purchases. In fact, the store was so crowded with curious browsers on this first weekend the phone was on display that Apple had two OKC police officers acting as security.
Not-so-bold prediction: The iPhone Duo will be a massive hit for Apple, despite its massive price tag. It will be a bigger seller than even Navin Johnson’s Optigrab eyeglasses holder was.
If you know, you know.
BONUS CONTENT: I learned about a cool ‘Easter Egg’ Apple planted on its Apple Music website. Click on the Apple Music ‘page not found’ page and you will see a replica of the first generation iPod (copy and paste this url: https://music.apple.com/us/jfdsalkfavsd). Though emulation software, the original iPod actually scrolls and plays music from more than 1,000 songs from the late-1990s early 2000s era in which it was release. Such a cool feature. More on the original iPod from Six Colors.
DOUBLE BONUS CONTENT: The Apple Store had a class on the new iOS 27 under way while I was visiting, so I sat in for about 10 minutes and learned some photo editing techniques of which I was previously unaware. #winning
