The Verge’s Duo Review: ‘Apple’s Folding Phone Is a Messy, Expensive Good Time’

Nilay Patel and Allison Johnson (also: 26-minute video review on YouTube):

This means almost every time you open the phone you instinctively rotate it, and while it will work no matter how it’s rotated, it’s better to rotate it counterclockwise so the cameras are on top and the volume buttons are on the top left. Over our week of testing, this started feeling more natural, but it’s exactly the opposite of what you’d initially expect. It’s especially odd in Apple’s bumper case, which has a large notch to expose the Touch ID sensor and camera control, and it looks for all the world like it belongs at the bottom.

You might think this is a little thing, but it’s strange to find yourself slightly unsure of how to hold a smartphone. A nontrivial part of the Duo experience is just reorienting yourself to where the volume buttons are as you flip the thing around. When closed, they’re on top of the phone, but if you rotate the Duo clockwise, they end up on the bottom right, and it’s the top button that turns the volume down because they don’t change orientation with the display. There’s a buried setting in iOS that makes the volume buttons reorient themselves as you turn the Duo around; Apple needs to set it so it works right by default.

Completely agree with them on this — it seems inexplicable that with default settings, while holding the open Duo vertically, if the volume buttons are on the right, you press the up button to lower the volume and down button to raise it.

One other thing to get used to is simply unlocking the phone. Touch ID is integrated into the wake button on the side of the phone. There’s no Face ID at all, and it might take a minute to remember that when you stare at your phone for a beat and wonder why your notifications aren’t unfurling. Ask us how we know. But a week is long enough to get used to Touch ID life again, and it’s mostly painless once you remember you’re supposed to be using it.

Completely disagree with them on this — unless you wear an Apple Watch all day every day.

Re: the cameras, they make this interesting aside:

(It would be cool if you could switch the image preview to the other panel to use it halfway open like a waist-level viewfinder, but you can’t.)

This is a great opportunity for third-party camera apps. Imagine using the Duo in the L-shaped laptop pose, holding it at waist level, looking down — like a Hasselblad 500.

Overall Patel and Johnson are fair and astute, but far more positive about the iPhone Duo than me or Joanna Stern. Don’t get me started on The Verge’s 10-point ratings scale, but they scored the Duo a 7/10, and only gave last month’s iPhone 18 Pro an 8/10. Based on this description of their scale, I’d give the 18 Pro a 10/10 (“best of the best”) and the Duo a 4/10 (“mediocre — has multiple outstanding issues”).

★ Friday, 23 October 2026