After using the iPhone Duo for a weekend, I can say I’m very impressed.

Since the era of agentic software development began, I’ve been juggling several devices with different screen sizes:

  • My laptop
  • My phone
  • Something in between. This is still portable, but it’s better for typing and has a slightly larger screen for reading code. After trying several devices, I settled on the GPD Pocket 3.

A small phone that moves seamlessly between my two smallest screen sizes is a game changer.

The Device

I love the shorter aspect ratio of the outer screen. I’ve always felt that the taller screens made iPhones more awkward to hold. The center of gravity is also closer to your hand, so it feels denser but more secure. I find it easier to hold.

I’m right-handed, but I wonder whether this asymmetric, right-biased device will work well for lefties. I used to hold my phone in my left hand sometimes, and that’s awkward now.

The inner screen is not glass, so don’t expect it to act like glass. The crease is sometimes visible, mostly after the phone has been folded for a long time. If you leave it unfolded for a while, the crease relaxes back to a less visible position. You need to learn to accept and embrace the crease.

The matte finish on the inner screen is great for a few reasons:

  • It hides the crease. A shiny screen with a deformed surface would produce more specular reflections.
  • It makes writing with the Pencil feel more like paper. I have a matte iPad for exactly this reason. I’ve never liked writing on slippery glass.
  • It cuts glare. You can read more easily in places that would otherwise wash out the screen.

The hardware is definitely more fragile than a regular iPhone, but you may find that an acceptable compromise. AppleCare goes a long way toward easing that fear.

It’s missing a couple of features, like Face ID and the Pro’s telephoto camera. These may matter less than you think, and they’ll surely be added to a future version. Touch ID still works very well, and Apple has added a way to unlock automatically if you’re wearing an Apple Watch. As for optical zoom, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference, given the 48MP camera and Apple’s computational photography.

The Software

What Apple has done with the OS is well thought out and a joy to use.

Third-party apps are a more mixed story:

  • Updated apps. Only a small number of apps have been updated so far, but they include some of the most used ones. You really only need the apps you use to be updated.
  • Universal apps. Apps that support both iPhone and iPad but haven’t adopted all of the Duo’s idioms, like the sidebar, work fine.
  • iPhone-only apps. Running full screen on the inner screen, these look just as bad as they did when the iPad first came out. You can get around this by using them only on the outer screen or in Split View.
  • iPad-only apps. These can’t be installed at all, which is a huge bummer. I’d love to use Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Pixelmator Pro on the big inner screen, but Apple requires every iPhone Duo app to also support a compact view for the outer screen and Split View. I understand it’s hard to fit all of these apps’ features into a compact view, but perhaps they could support a limited subset, like viewing.

Conclusion

This is an incredible device, especially for a first version, and future versions will undoubtedly be even better. I’ve only had it for a few days, but I already can’t see myself going back to a regular iPhone. A phone and a tablet in one convenient form factor can’t be beat, and Apple’s thoughtful design makes it a joy to use.