Literally any phone over $400 can do what the iPhone Duo can

What's so special about the iPhone Duo besides that it's Apple's first-ever foldable iPhone and it represents a mini-revolution for Cupertino? After all, it's the very thing that kicks off John Ternus' reign over Apple now that Tim Cook has left its CEO position.

OK, it was a trick question and the iPhone Duo is a special device in this context. But when compared to its peers and rivals in hardware terms?

We'll find out in some weeks time, as it's officially October now and the iPhone Duo is launching on October 23. We got a limited amount of time with the new handset at its announcement, but our PhoneArena in-depth review is what you and I are waiting for.

Who cares for what

Now, Apple has released the first batch of sample photos made with the iPhone Duo.

As always, I'm happy to check it out right away, but… Apple brags about the very last iPhone Duo feature I care for. I don't buy foldables for their cameras but for their inner display, that's it. Sure, some foldables (all made by brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Honor) have outstanding camera setups while neither the hotter-than-hot Galaxy Z Fold 8 nor the iPhone Duo packs a dedicated telephoto snapper.

But I suspect there'll be virtually zero customers who'll buy the iPhone Duo for its camera setup. Instead, potential buyers will be preoccupied with the overall iPhone Duo experience: does it fold and unfold nicely enough; is the crease deep and pronounced; what's the inner display like; in what way has iOS been optimized for this odd-looking fella? And so on.

Some photos

Apple, however, is drawing our attention to the camera setup on the iPhone Duo. The official Instagram channel of Apple released six photos taken with the first foldable iPhone:


"Commissioned by Apple, shot on iPhone Duo", these images were taken by two photographers: Jake Michaels and Jason Nocito.

And they're pretty cool images, no doubt about it. The colors, the geometry, the background, the poses and the subjects themselves: everything is done by the book and all of these photographs are worth being presented at an exhibition.

But that don't impress me much

Sample photos are a pretty special photo breed. They're made to make you think any photo you take with the iPhone Duo will look like that. This, however, is far from true.

A whole lot more is going on behind these images than the phone itself. Apple can pick the location, the time of day, the lighting, the composition and the models in front of the camera, while professional photographers know exactly how to squeeze the most out of every frame.

The models are all professionally styled, the scenes are carefully arranged, and the lighting is often anything but accidental. Even the backgrounds and colors are chosen to complement the subject and make the phone's camera look as good as possible.

In real life, you'll be dealing with bad lighting, moving subjects, cluttered backgrounds and whatever happens to be in front of you at that particular moment. So while Apple's samples can show what's possible under ideal conditions, I'll wait for our own camera testing before deciding what the iPhone Duo can actually do.

Others are capable, too

I may be pushing it too far right now, but at this point, I believe that virtually any phone costing more than $400 can produce similarly impressive-looking photos when you give it the same perfect lighting, carefully chosen location and professional photographer. The Pixel 10a or some older flagship on a discount will do just fine.

To end on a positive note: it's not that the iPhone Duo is somehow inferior; it's just that the overall camera experience has gone drastically up in recent years.

Let's keep unfolding it:

• The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is thrashing the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the iPhone 18 Pro Max and I couldn’t be happier
• iPhone Duo display confirmed to peel off on purpose
• This Motorola foldable could help me forget the iPhone Duo

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