iPhone Duo is worth admiring, but most of us should wait for gen two

Is it possible for a phone to be the best thing Apple has made in years and still not be the one you should buy this Friday? We think so. The iPhone Duo is exactly that kind of product: impressive, a little early, and priced like it knows it.

The facts are simple. Apple opened pre-orders for its first foldable on October 16, and it goes on sale October 23. Apple's own newsroom post describes a 5.4-inch outer display and an inner screen 50 percent larger than the one on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, with a dual-battery design and an A20 Pro chip. Reviews landed this week, and one complaint keeps coming back: apps that haven't been updated, as MacRumors notes, show up letterboxed with thick black bars.

Apple was right to wait, and the hardware shows it

Apple arrived late to foldables, and for once lateness looks like a strategy rather than an excuse. The early verdicts are warm: CNN's review is headlined "The iPhone Duo is Apple's coolest phone in years." The specs back up the enthusiasm. Folded, it's a pocketable phone; opened, it's the thinnest iPhone ever, with a 7.6-inch inner display and Split View multitasking built into iOS.

That matters because the biggest question about any foldable isn't whether the screen bends. It's whether the bend gives you something a regular phone can't. Running two apps side by side, with Siri open next to what you're doing, is a real answer. We think Apple has found its pitch.

The software isn't finished, and you'd be paying to beta test it

Here's where we part ways with the hype. A new screen shape is only as good as the apps built for it, and on day one many aren't. Apple has invited developers to submit apps built for the Duo, but that is a starting gun, not a finish line. MacRumors expects plenty of third-party updates "in the coming weeks" and says compatibility will be "largely fixed" in a few months. We'd take that as a fair forecast, and also as an admission: right now, some of your daily apps will look awkward on a very expensive device.

Black bars on a phone this expensive aren't just an annoyance, they're a hard sell. The good news is that this problem fixes itself with time. Waiting a few months costs you nothing, and by then the phone you buy will be a better phone, because the software around it will be.

The price makes waiting the rational move

Pricing is the second reason for caution. In the US, Apple's newsroom puts a 24-month lease at as low as $57.99 a month, before taxes and trade-in credit. In France the phone starts at €2,339 for 256 GB and climbs to €3,839 for 2 TB, according to iphon.fr. One Reddit post from the announcement mentions a $1,999 starting price, but we couldn't confirm it from a firmer source, so treat it with caution. Either way, this is firmly premium territory.

Paying a first-generation premium is a poor trade for most people. First-gen products carry the cost of everything the maker learns afterward: hinge refinements, software polish, probably a better price once competition and volume settle in. That last part is our prediction, not a fact.

There is a group for whom buying now makes sense: people who already know they'll use Split View every day, who have a trade-in worth real money (Apple lists credits from $175 to $885, and up to $1,200 through carrier deals on eligible models), and who don't mind a few rough edges. For everyone else, the calculation is easy.

Our verdict

Admire the Duo, read the reviews, and go try one in a store once the apps have had time to catch up. But don't pre-order out of FOMO. Apple was right to wait for the hardware to be ready; you can afford to wait for the apps and the second generation. If you buy now, you're paying extra to be early. In our view, that's rarely a great deal.