That’s because users are trying to use normally accepted folding methods and not Apple approved proprietary iPhone folding methods.
I am an old IT guy. This was a hard and fast rule: Never buy version 1.0 of anything.
Same goes for the first model year of vehicles
Yup.
This shouldn’t be a 1.0 version of a phone with a folding screen, though, android phones have been doing this for a loooong time now and they are not and haven’t been flaky tech for some time now. I guess you’re right about Apple and this SKU, though. A bit surprising, I’m not an iPhone person but I always expect them to do pretty rigorous QA.
It is ver 1.0 for Apple. Same as touchscreen for laptops. Apple hasn’t done it.
They’re always a few versions behind, but somehow manage to get credit for the “innovation”.
“it just works” has been wrong for so long
It just works
somewhat(Hey, don’t say the last part! >:()Sh.itjust.works
That’s called marketing. And a customer base willing to eat whatever garbage you’re feeding them.
They just call their stuff random names?
Oh this? It’s our dingligongle 5000. No, no it only LOOKS like a USB cable, but see that apple logo?
Don’t they use Samsung displays though? If so I would have expected a similarly matured display vs this but maybe that is no longer the case anymore. It has been well over a decade since I cared about anything iPhone related, so I could be well out of date here
That’s a really good point. However, it looks like the displays aren’t identical. So it could be Apple design decisions or maybe they want a thinner display. Who knows?
Counterpoint: if you want version 4.0 of something. Someone needs to prove it’s viability.
You can buy v1.0, just know it for what it is and only buy in if you can accept the risk.
I never bought a folding phone, but I want one and I appreciate the early adopters.
There are always others who want to be first and have that ‘look at me’ factor. Let them jump and prance through the first few versions while the kinks are worked out.
As a occasional bleeding edge buyer - I disagree with the motive of ‘look at me’. (caveat: This post is entirely ‘look at me’, but I’m proving my point, not desiring attention, and have never even thought about my purchases this way until now)
I had an HTC Magic - one of the very early Android phones - not because I wanted to be cool, but because I wanted the tech and google was still this sort of open, consumer-friendly company at the time vs Apple. That phone was pretty solid compared to the candy-bar or flip phones of the era, aside from battery life, but compared to modern smart phones it was garbage.
I had an OG Rift VR headset (CV1). It did what it claimed, but it was low resolution, clunky, heavy, and unpleasant to use. But now we have Steam’s Frame.
When I was a teenager, working retail at a tech store, I saved up to buy an early LCD monitor. Now you can’t even buy CRTs outside of niche vendors.
I want quality EVs. I never bought a Tesla, but I wanted one before the crazy came out and just couldn’t afford it. Now we have every auto manufacturer making EV options.
I want quality folding phones, but my normal shape phone is still functional and I haven’t needed to buy a new one for a few years. When I do, it’ll probably fold. I’ll be v3 or so by that time, but still showing there’s a desire.
I want to be clear that I’m not disagreeing with your ‘let others work out the kinks’, but sometimes I’m fine with having the first iterations because I want the resulting tech.
Consider this my investment strategy - but instead of personal profit, I’m investing in innovation.
I was an early adopter for mobile phones, and I was so fuckin excited to get one! Bought one of those things that would be a brick today, had a mouthpiece you had to flip down, and an aerial you had to pull up. Back then it seemed like sleek star trek tech. Took it back to the shop because the signal infrastructure just wasn’t there. Stuck with my pager for another couple of years lol
100% this, leave the first generation to the professionals (eg. reviewers) to find all the obvious flaws - then pick up the 2nd or 3rd iteration once they get most of the kinks ironed out.
Anything with a folding screen would also work…
Looks like Apple should have made sure their precision engineered hinge was also accurate engineered.
I haven’t heard an accuracy vs precision joke for years, that’s brilliant :D
Would you make a quality product if you knew that people would buy it no matter what?
Yes, which is one of the many many reasons I’ll never be a billionaire (unless the currency devalues by more than three orders of magnitude).
Hardly matters, the sort of people who buy such a pointless, gimicky and overly expensive phone will keep buying Apple regardless.
I like tech, I think it’s cool, and expensive features almost always become cheap or standard features in the future.
When someone figures out how to do this well, I will definitely want a folding phone. Although I want a phone that folds half the size of a normal phone, not a normal phone size that folds out to a tablet.
Although I want a phone that folds half the size of a normal phone, not a normal phone size that folds out to a tablet.
You already got a joking reply to this with someone mentioning a regular flip phone, but Samsung does actually make what you’re asking for, the “Z Flip” line of phones, which have been developed in lock step with the more popular Z Fold series. Most recent is the Z Flip8 from this year.
And the Motorola RAZRs
Google and Huawei also make them.
I’m refering to the flip models. I forgot if Huawei still makes them, but Google definitely doesn’t
Supposedly Huawei is just about to announce their next Flip. Their last one came out in October last year. I think they focused on the Fold because they wanted to position it as the foldable iPhone competitor, plus it’s the flagship for their new chipset.
I am going to have to look into the durability of those. I often buy my phone a few generations behind and refurbished.
I’ve had many foldables and I’ve never broken them, and I’m not gentle with them, it’s not in a phone case, and being dropped several times. I think if it was dropped in the open state that might be a problem, but when it’s closed it’s actually protecting itself.
In some ways you’re more likely to damage a traditional phone screen since it’s always on the outside and it’s made of glass and more likely to crack when dropped.
There’s no scratches on mine but it is a fingerprint magnet. That’s what you get for having a plastic screen.
Do you have the one that is half sized or double sized?
If you have the half size one is the small screen useable for most things?
they make those
Samsung Fold and Pixel Fold have been getting it reliable for years now.
But if you want half size, look at the Razr and its like $500 not $2000.
They seem to hold up well enough, but I’m pretty anal about my glasses, screens, and monitors to be clean. And seeing the fold reflect light differently in the middle of the screen would not be a pleasant experience. The punchole cameras are had enough!
It would probably drive me nuts. Everyone told me: you can hardly see it. I do, it’s there, it’s always there and it will always be there.
Pretty much this. We had this multiple times already with different tech. For example “bezelless” phones were desired for years and they kept and kept making them smaller, at some point some manufacturers really forced it in premium models and then some time later it suddenly became pretty much standard.
I bought a refurbished Samsung Fold 5 and I returned it after one week. A phone isn’t something that I should have to babysit.
Precision engineered hype and sales.
99% of the budget went on advertising, 0.9% went on tokens to Vibe code the engineering and 0.1% on manufacturing
No one could have ever seen this coming
3ds FTW!!!
this is like the Samsung Fold all over again…
No it’s like the iPhone 6 ‘Bend Gate’ all over again.
This looks more like a ford pinto situation. It was fine, bean counters tweaked something they thought was inconsequential to make it cheaper, they were not engineers are were wrong and ruined it.
We need the post mortum
Aren’t they the ones making this screen as well? They make pretty much every oled screen in the world.
They are, though this is a different issue than their foldables I believe.
hmm maybe
This is basically a tablet people, get a dam tablet, especially one that isnt 2000 USS. 😑
As an owner of multiple galaxy folds, I really wish people that don’t see the use case would stop treating their opinion as fact.
This is a phone that folds open into a tablet.
Not “basically a tablet”
The apple one is nothing special, its essentially the same as the wide fold 8. (The one i currently use)
I have a tablet. I don’t use it. Because it is heavy, it doesn’t fit in my pocket and i can’t make phone calls on it. All the things that make a phone different to a tablet are present on my “basically a tablet”
I have a specific use case for this phone. It suits me down to the ground. I don’t pretend this phone is for everyone, but i also don’t pretend it is for no one like you have done here.
Sorry to direct this at you, but it really does trigger me when i see this type of comment.
If you don’t see it working for you then just don’t buy one. No need to throw shade because you personally don’t like them.
Personally, I want the Duo because trying to ssh into a server in Termius on my iPhone with my aging eyes is rough. This will give me a tablet’s worth of terminal screen that I can bring with me in my pocket. And if work is paying for it, why the hell not.
There are legitimate use cases. Haters just want to feel superior.
i used to be an iphone user before they went to complete bs on their phones, along with the shady politics. Looks like im triggering the fanboys with them defending a product that basically repeats every year and will break in about 1-2 years, huh?.
I did exactly this earlier when I was demoing my z fold to my nephew earlier today, it’s really nice to also have extra screen real estate for the extra modifier keys.
.ssh/config and tab autocomplete are how I manage. I do the squinting once if I can help it
So i cant throw shade at a company that supports mass consumerism and extreme unaffordable prices, with a product that has basically been the same since the iphone 13-15 but with Ai and a bigger screen?
There has to be more feaaible options than this, especially one that shouls make sense. What is the different than thw iphone 17/18 or a cyberdeck that is the same size but not evem a third of the cost of this phone?
Im not treating anything im saying as fact, just it makes no sense on the price point and mindset of where these phones are going(if you want to call it a phone at this point) . All these phablets do is just encourage consumerism and act less like a phone, i just have a problem with the company and the product, not whoever wants to use it.
You want to use it,cool, thats on you.
I didnt say you can’t throw shade at apple. I don’t buy apple products either. But you weren’t arguing that apple were a bad company. You were arguing that folding phones are basically tablets. Which they are not.
If you want to talk about how shit apple is. I am not your opponent.
I do believe there is a target audience for folding phones but if you had already "multiple of them, you don’t seem to require a device that can truly last (+5 years).
I had a fold 3 for 3 years. Swapped to a fold 6 and gave my fold 3 to my wife who had it for a further 2 years before she traded it in for a second hand fold 5. She is an official convert thanks to that fold 3.
I used the fold 6 for a year before they released the 7 which was super slim and had a wider front screen which was my only real issue with the fold series.
Since my contract has “switch up” i can swap my phone every year if i want. So when the wide 8 came out i swapped the 7 for the 8. I suspect i will keep this one for a while as its the form factor i have wanted since the 3.
The fact that i have had multiple was a testament to how useful i find the phone. It was not a statement about their durability. As long as you don’t treat your phone like shit, it will last as long as you need it to.
I see people with iphones with cracked from and backs CONSTANTLY. I guarantee that is not a person who should be carrying around a £1000 to £2000 information rectangle. The inner screen of the fold and flip are not to blame for careless people.
There are plenty of fold 3s out in the wild, even fold 2s which were not nearly as durable.
5 years for a fold3? I am impressed.
In fairness i replaced the inner screen protector once as it began to peel off in the middle. But yeah, it lasted a long time. But honestly you just need to not throw it around and it is fine.
That’s fair. It still shows how far you can get even with a foldable phone when you are taking care of it. It also shows how long these things are already on the market. Damn, time flies.
Yeah! It hurts my brain to think how many models there are of it already when it felt like 2 decades waiting for the first working folding phone after samsung showed off its flexible screens.
I’m happy you fit the niche.
I don’t. I agree with them that for the price of the folding iPhone, I already have an iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and can take calls on all three of them. I dont care if my iPad is heavy because I have two more portable devices
You’re almost the perfect use case lol. The whole point of the fold is for people that have or want both a phone and a tablet, but only want to carry one device.
I don’t currently have an iPad. My wife does and I end up using it a lot. I want an iPad mini for the times that I want just a bit bigger screen, but I’ve held off because I don’t want another device.
So I’ve got a duo on order. 90% of the time I’ll probably have it closed. The other 10% of the time it’ll serve the use that I use my wife’s iPad for but will have my setup instead of her layout that I’m not used to lol.
I never really understood the appeal of these.
They are nifty tech but new black rectangle that does the same shit as the last black rectangle has long ago stopped interesting me.
I now just get medium priced black rectangle every four or five years and ignore everything in between.
Along with the increased prices, its mind boggling to me that people want to pay rent prices for a stupid phone that aint gonna last 2 years.
Thats how a phone should be, hence i went to android cause of that. Tired of Apples BS
I’m with you in spirit, but phone can last longer than two years, especially if you change the battery.
I lost my USB-C port a long time ago, so I got a contact charger and syncthing…
These phones though dont have batteries you can change out, unless you break the phone just to open it.
I mean, ok? The flagship androids cost the same or more and have less support lol. They literally don’t last nearly as long as iPhones.
Oh im definitely not forgettung android and how crazy they have gone too with their phones.
Just only difference between them and apple ,at least i can tinker with an older device or get something degoogled.
I do kinda agree, I could see myself getting some use out of a fold style phone, but I am definitely not the target audience.
But I could see a lot of smaller benefits for a flip style phone. Having a smaller square even if it is chonk, would be easier to store while cycling or running, or even just putting it in my backpack pockets. Would I be willing to fork over that much money… Probably not, I would most likely get something like a fair phone
But why tho? A modern phone will be more than enough to cycle or run with. A bigger map is of no use when zoom exists.
Because having the smaller profile in your pocket, but being able to fold out to watch content on a higher screen is completely different than zooming….
Sure you can zoom in on a YouTube video, but why? You’re just getting a nose or something instead of the video.
The fold is for when you do most of your stuff on the small screen, but want the big screen for certain things and don’t want two devices to do it. Which is the perfectly valid use case.
Taking a modern large screen phone on a run can be a pain in the ass. Why get a small phone and a small tablet when you can have a small phone that unfolds into a small tablet when you want it to?
It’s not using it for directions, it is tucking it away in small pockets. I have a cycle computer while cycling, so putting my phone neatly and securely in a zipped pocket would be nice. But can’t do that currently as the phone is too tall (pockets too small?)
Similar with running, doesn’t fit is a zipped pocket all that well cause too tall, so have to throw it in a “food” pocket instead.
That’s simply absurd. I’m sorry but you’re just inventing needs now. Get an arm band. They’re specifically made for phones. And foldables are generally bigger than regular phones with a few exceptions, and even then they’re super thick, not really saving you anything.
Did you miss the point where I said it was small benefits of having a flip style phone? Thickness is typically not the issue, but just how tall phones are is starting to get troublesome in small annoyance ways.
Get an arm band? I don’t really want to be running 30km with an arm band thanks. Or cycling 300km with one either. The small bits of comfort are kinda important(not $1200 worth it though).
It’s weird, I saw the demos and you don’t even get significantly more info on the screen because you go from awkwardly-shaped profile view to landscape view so everything just gets stretched to the side.
A tablet can’t fit into your pocket. I’ve been using folds for the past 6 years and I’ve been very happy and can’t go back. Never had one break its screen either. 2000 USD being an insane price for one on the other hand, I can agree with.
The other interesting part to me is that most iPhone users have gotten used to using faceid. I know not everyone likes using it but it is the standard use for iPhone users. The Duo doesn’t have face ID, and switches you back to having to use touch ID on a side button like on an iPad. (I assume because they couldn’t figure out a standardized position that would work well when you are rotating/folding/unfolding whatever to that could consistently work well.
Gotten used may not necessarily mean they like it though. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a plus point for them. Heck, for me, I find the Z Fold’s power button fingerprint sensor a plus point compared to the in-screen sensors on the regular phones.
It must be spectacular because it has a stamped logo of an Apple.
It’s literally the same price as all the other folding phones. Being Apple is irrelevant.
Sure, you can say $2000 is too much for a phone. I’m inclined to agree. But this is clearly the market price for a foldable phone across the board.
Not sure how it is where you live but the Samsung Fold 8 Ultra where I live are 300 SGD cheaper for the base model compared to the Duo. And that’s from Samsung directly, if I get it from a reseller, I can get it for almost 1000 SGD cheaper.
Yup. I think the old Pixel Tablet has a few years of Graphene support left. That’s seems like a good option at a much better price point, but check me on those EoL dates.
I’m so glad I never fell for this gimmick. The tech looked sketchy from the beginning.
When the screen is fully floppy, that’s when Im in. Flexible electronic paper exists. Why not in a phone?
Probably because that stuff would fail if you carried it around in your pocket with your keys and folded it 8000 times, too.
I’m sure you’d get more than three days out of it…
If you’re talking about eInk, the refresh rate and color fidelity are unacceptable for an apple device. There are eink phones on AliExpress, though. Just don’t expect apple-level quality.
And while Moebius uses a plastic substrate, Carta and Kaleido use glass and can be pretty fragile. My Boox reader’s display cracked when I worked it out of its case.
It could be e-ink, but I was talking more about the paper properties.
For people who don’t watch video on mobile, an e-ink display would be great. I just wish there were more options.
Just seems like such an obvious issue to spend so much money om
I had some issues with a Fold3 and had it replaced for some micro-cracks showing down the middle of the crease, but now I’m beating the shit out of a fold 7 and it’s been perfect for a year so far.
apple got something wrong with the hinge design here, you’d think they’d get it right after holding off on folders this long though.
Apple is slow on everything and manages to act like they’re top shelf.
To be fair, being behind the curve and then coming into the market and refining that Model T into a Rolls Royce is a time honored business model. But the tricky part is to come out with an actual Rolls Royce without a hiccup.
Apple missed the mark here.
These Folds are built like tanks (relative to the complexity). The engineering is really impressive.
Finally a massive flaw that apple can’t lie about or hide from the public, like they usually do. What is sad is they’re already about 3-4 years behind Android in releasing a foldable device and they still somehow fucked it up
it’s folded 10,000 times by an expert Japanese phonesmith before it reaches the consumer. It does make it a little brittle but do you want a phone that’s not been properly broken in? It’s just the price you pay for tradition and brand loyalty.
So the maximum number of folds it could take was 10,006. Unlucky.
