The first media reviews for the iPhone Duo went live on Wednesday, October 21, two days before Apple’s first foldable arrives in Canadian stores and on doorsteps on Friday, October 23 (if you’re one of the lucky ones).
The crease is the first thing everyone wanted to know about, and the answer is mostly good news. Nearly every reviewer says the nano-texture matte coating on the 7.6-inch inner display hides it in everyday use, although you can still feel it and spot it at certain angles.
Weight is the most common complaint, since the Duo comes in at 254 grams, five grams more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Reviewers also flagged the cramped 5.4-inch cover screen, Touch ID in place of Face ID, no telephoto camera, and third-party apps that haven’t been updated for the new shape yet. That should take some time as developers rush to update their apps.
Battery life held up better than most expected from a first foldable. Tom’s Guide got 13 hours and 20 minutes in its web surfing test, more than three hours longer than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 but well short of the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s 17.5 hours. Engadget recorded 28 hours and 48 minutes of local video playback, and Gizmodo‘s Raymond Wong saw 5.5 to 7.5 hours of screen-on time. The Verge was less impressed, saying the Duo gets hot and “doesn’t seem ready to last a full day of heavy use.”
The verdicts mostly land in the same spot: a beautifully built first-gen iPhone that most people don’t need yet. WAtoday‘s David Swan said, “I’d wait a year for the second generation.” The Verge called it “one of Apple’s messiest first-generation products in a long time,” and CNET‘s Abrar Al-Heeti wrote that it “took its time getting here, but it’s made quite an entrance.”
In Canada, the iPhone Duo starts at $2,999 CAD for 256GB of storage, with the 512GB model at $3,299, 1TB at $3,899 and 2TB at $4,799. When American reviewers call it a $2,000 phone, they mean the US$1,999 starting price, so the Canadian sticker stings a little more (like a lot more). Apple opened iPhone Duo pre-orders in Canada on Friday, October 16, and launch-day stock sold out the same morning, with new orders on Apple.ca pushed out to February 2027 delivery.
If you want a look at retail units outside of a review, the first iPhone Duo unboxing videos leaked days early, and we’ve also compared iPhone Duo prices at Rogers, Telus, Bell and Freedom if you plan to spread the cost over a contract.
Here’s a roundup of iPhone Duo reviews from around the web.
Are you picking up an iPhone Duo this Friday, or waiting for the second generation?
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