iPhone Duo Review + Pre-Order Problems with Andru Edwards | Power On with Mark Gurman (Video)

I've had an iPhone Duo for a week. Mark Gurman has a pre-order with a November ship date. That gap ran through most of our conversation when I joined Mark on Bloomberg's Power On podcast as his first outside guest, the week Apple's first foldable ships.

The Duo is wider than any iPhone you've held, and when it's closed, the dock and navigation sit on the right edge of the 5.4-inch outer screen. Mark asked whether Apple made the right call. I think it did, and the apps show why. YouTube Studio hasn't been updated, so its tabs still run along the bottom and it feels cramped. Instagram, which Meta updated the day before we recorded, moves its controls to the side and gives you the full height back. Unoptimized apps float in the middle of the inner screen with two-thirds of it unused, while Duo apps like Apple Music fill it edge to edge. YouTube and TikTok still aren't there.

Touch ID is my biggest complaint. It's built into the power button, and it asks me to try again far more often than Face ID ever has. Opening the phone feels like the future, then the fingerprint reader sends you back a decade. Mark said he's been told Apple already has iPhone Duo 2 prototypes with Face ID and a camera under the outer display, and he expects the fix within two or three years.

Most of the rest is easy to like. The crease is a non-issue, and the inner display is bright. The software reads the hinge angle precisely enough that one game tells you to open the phone to 120 degrees and grades your guess. It's IP68 rated, which Samsung still hasn't managed on its foldables. Battery trails the 18 Pro Max but beats the 18 Pro by a couple of hours.

The camera is why the Duo won't replace my 18 Pro. Everyday photos of friends and family look fine, but there's no telephoto. I took both phones to a Doja Cat concert, and if the Duo had been your only phone, you'd go home disappointed. If this weren't my job, I'd buy the Duo. Because it is, the Duo goes in my pocket and the 18 Pro stays in my bag. Mark and I agreed it needs Face ID and a telephoto to go mainstream, and he called the telephoto a physics problem in a phone this thin.

As for pre-orders, Mark's app didn't let him in until 5:02 a.m., in-store pickup was gone, and his ship date slid to November 9 to 16. He reported Apple was building hundreds of Duos a day, against tens of thousands of a Pro Max, all in China at Foxconn. The plan was a late-November launch in the US and China. Apple moved it up a month and opened it to 70 countries, so each store gets a few units. Mark sees a financial call to pad the holiday quarter and give John Ternus a tailwind, and says Apple could have waited three weeks. I pushed back. Samsung sells roughly 5 million foldables a year and Google about 1 million, and I don't see how any launch date absorbs this much pent-up demand. Mark's reply was that there's no universe where Apple ships 6 million Duos in 2026.

If you're deciding whether a $2,000 phone can be your only phone, the first half of the episode answers it. If you're staring at a November ship date, the pre-order segment explains why. I'll end up ordering a 2TB Star White, no case. Mark is still waiting on his.