This is Technology Bytes, episode 185 for September 20th, 2026.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
Today is the third microcast I’ve gotten out of the Surprise and Shine event.
Today is Surprise and Shine Duo, and I’m going to be talking a little bit, or exclusively really, about the iPhone Duo, Apple’s very first folding iPhone.
And so I talked briefly about it in the last show, but I wanted to spend a little more time on it today.
Lots of the things about this iPhone Duo were, you know, kind of leaked to the public.
The name, however, was not, so that ended up being a surprise.
Many thought it was going to be the iPhone Ultra, but it is an interesting phone.
Apple’s not the first one to make the, they call it a passport-style phone just because of the size of the phone when it’s closed and how it opens, kind of like a passport, in essence like a book.
And so there’s, you know, I think Samsung makes one, maybe Google makes one, but now Apple is in the mix.
And as Apple often does, they bring legitimacy to a category of devices by jumping into the market.
So seven years, I think, is what I read, that the folding phones have existed before Apple ever tried to get into the market.
And I think they took their time.
A lot of things that They needed to be ironed out so that the iPhone was at the quality and the, what’s the word I’m looking for, the manufacturability, the how the phone looks, how it works, all those kind of things to work out.
And it is a very attractive phone.
It looks a little funny because while it folds and the sizes are a little bit off.
But the thing is that Apple pays attention to detail.
Crystal had a friend over the other day, and we were talking about the folding phone, and she’s like, Why would anyone need that?
So I just quickly pulled up Apple’s announcement and showed her the part about the iPhone Duo.
And by the time that was over, just a quick, you know, maybe 20 minutes, she was like, Wow, that’s pretty cool.
So Apple has a way of drawing people in.
It’s a very attractive product.
They pay great attention to detail.
One of the things, as silly as it is, is the animation when you open it has just grabbed everybody’s attention.
And people are trying to do, through software or something, to make other things do similar animations when they are open, laptops and other folding phones.
But having it built into the software-hardware combination itself, Apple’s able to do things that many people aren’t.
Not that they won’t be copied.
Apple copies people too.
It’s fine.
But they’ve done some really cool things.
The aspect ratio of the phone when it’s closed is exactly the same aspect ratio of the phone when it’s open.
Those two screens are the same sizes.
Not the same size, it’s the same ratio, length and width.
And so developers can use that to help make it easier to write their app for the smaller screen and the larger screen.
The layout of menus being at the edge because when the iPhone’s closed, it’s a little smaller than normal, try to maintain some of the height by using up some of the width.
Just a lot of different things that they’ve done to make this phone useful.
They’re adding Apple Pencil support later, probably later in the year, I guess.
It’s still almost a month before it comes out.
But they just have a lot of things that they have done to make this phone what they want it to be.
Now developers are going to have to do the same because all of the apps that Apple showed off were either a developer that got an early look at it so they could update their apps accordingly, or they’re Apple’s own apps.
And so looking at app side by side, looking at how an app fills the big screen, different configurations of it half folded, tinted, all this kind of things.
Apple’s apps are obviously built to take advantage of that.
The developers are going to have to do the same, or it’s going to be kind of like the early iPad where it’s like the iPhone apps were just run at two times the resolution or whatever, so they just kind of tried to fill some of the iPad space, but they were really ugly and it didn’t really look very good.
But even in all of that, Apple still has to make compromises on the— Phone itself.
Mostly at this point, you have it in the camera system.
So I talked a little bit about that last week, how I like to think of myself as a photographer, though I’m not very good.
I always want the best camera that Apple provides, and that is not what is going to be in the iPhone Duo.
The variable aperture lens that is on the 18 Pro and Pro Max is not on the Duo.
And there’s some other things that have to take a back seat.
Things like Face ID, that just doesn’t work the way that they’ve built the phone, so they use Finger ID, and the fingerprint, which works well, and they have it on one of the iPad versions.
But, you know, people are talking about in cold environments where you have to wear gloves, then, you know, that fingerprint ID becomes a problem.
So compromises in the camera, compromises in the Face ID and that kind of thing.
Some compromise in the FaceTime camera when the phone is open, that doesn’t seem to be a super good camera under-the-lens camera.
First time Apple’s done that.
There’s compromises in the UI a little bit.
Mostly I hear about it from people who are left-handed, who have held it.
They say this is just built for right-handed people, and they’re a bit out of shape.
But, you know, so there are just things that Apple’s had to do to make this phone to the best of their ability.
There are often, for first-generation stuff, some worries.
The fact is that the pencil that is going to be, Apple Pencil that’s going to be available to use with this phone is not their best Apple Pencil, so that seems like a compromise.
There’s worries about— The crease of the inner screen and what that looks like.
Apple’s made that screen a matte screen to try to hide some of that.
And from what I have read, obviously haven’t held one; it’s not out yet.
But they have done a very good job because of the way they’ve designed that inner screen to do all they can to hide that crease that happens in the center of a folded screen.
That’s just the way it works.
And there’s, you know, worries about longevity.
The hinge, they spent a lot of time talking about the hinge and how good it is and how, you know, what they’ve done to make it to the best of Apple’s mechanical technology ability, and that’s pretty good if you look at any of their other products.
And then, you know, they’ve made it an IP68, I think, rating, and none of the other folding phones are even trying to claim that kind of thing.
And it’s kind of weird when you got a hinge like that, it feels like you could get dust under the screen pretty easily.
The other problem you have is cases to try to protect a phone that’s that expensive and that shape.
So a little bit of worries when you look at the first gen of any product, but this one may be in particular.
The other thing is the price.
It’s starting at $1,999 for the base model, and that’s a 256 gigabyte storage.
You know, I think I’ve used that size phone for a long time.
My current one is 512 because, like I said last week, that’s what’s available when I was standing in the store.
But still, the price is, as far as Apple goes, right in line with the other folding phones, so I think they’ve done a good job there.
Now, many people who know me and know I keep track of Apple stuff have asked me if I’m getting the iPhone Duo.
I still don’t think it’s the phone for me.
You know, if I was Yeah.
Many were no object.
I don’t want the iPhone Duo as my only phone, but it would be cool to have it as part of my repertoire and then be able to also have the 18 Pro Max for its advantages as well.
But there’s no way.
I can’t even afford either one of them by itself, really, unless I, you know, I don’t know, maybe with a trade-in or whatever.
But yeah, I don’t think the iPhone Duo is going to be for me.
If someone wants to buy me one, I’m not going to say no.
But yeah, I think at this point, if I get anything, I will again get the Pro Max of whatever iPhone is out.
In this case, it would be the 18.
So what have they done?
Well, they’ve made a folding phone that draws people to it.
They’ve made a folding phone that makes people want it who thought they never would.
I really think it’s pretty cool, but I don’t think I want it, not in lieu of getting a Pro Max anyway.
So we’ll see how it goes.
It’s still a month away before it comes out, but they’ve done all they can to make it desirable.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes@merigfamily.com.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together, taking another bite of technology.
