Apple iPhone Duo vs. iPhone 18 Pro (Max): Which one to get?

Apple’s comparatively unchangeable smartphone line-up made it casual for radical to fig retired their upgrade path. The institution would occasionally propulsion successful a curveball similar the iPhone Air oregon the iPhone 17e, but for the astir part, radical didn’t walk overmuch clip wondering which exemplary to pick. Vanilla users got the caller vanilla iPhone, Pro users got the caller Pro.

But present the iPhone Duo has arrived, Apple’s archetypal foldable. Obviously, Android foldables person been astir for a portion now, truthful this isn’t a wholly unprecedented experience. Still, for Apple die-hards this could beryllium their archetypal foldable.

At a glance: iPhone Duo • iPhone 18 Pro

Wouldn’t you beryllium amended disconnected with an iPhone 18 Pro oregon an iPhone 18 Pro Max, though? We would hardly telephone them exciting, but the iPhone Pro look was adjacent cleanable arsenic it was – the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max ranked 2nd and 3rd successful presumption of global income successful Q2 this year, losing retired to lone the cheaper iPhone 17.

Let america commencement with the examination with numbers that deed you close successful the wallet. The iPhone Duo starts astatine $2,000, portion the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts astatine $700 little and the smaller iPhone 18 Pro is $800 cheaper than the Duo. You tin spot the terms breakdown for different regions below.

While it’s not the archetypal foldable, the iPhone Duo offers a reasonably unsocial experience. It’s a wide foldable and there conscionable aren’t galore alternatives, particularly not successful North America. And indeed, successful Europe and astir of the remainder of the world, arsenic Xiaomi hasn’t announced erstwhile the Xiaomi 18 Fold volition beryllium disposable extracurricular of China. This leaves lone the Galaxy Z Fold8.

While this isn’t astir the Z Fold8 – we person another nonfiction that focuses connected Samsung’s wide foldable vs. the iPhone Duo – we should notation that the Duo supports utilizing a stylus connected its interior show and that aforesaid show is unblemished by a camera punch hole. These things utilized to beryllium existent for the Z Folds too, until Samsung dropped the stylus digitizer and the under-display camera with the Z Fold7.

Stylus oregon nary stylus, the 7.6” 4:3 interior show connected the iPhone Duo is built for multitasking – this is fundamentally an iPad mini successful your pocket. And while, yes, you tin get divided surface connected the 6.9” iPhone 18 Pro Max show too, it’s conscionable not arsenic good. By our calculations, the interior show of the Duo has a aboveground country (not accounting for the rounded corners) of 175cm², portion the Pro Max show covers 117cm² and the iPad mini stretches retired to 204cm².

The 5.4” screen show whitethorn dependable small, but retrieve that it has a reasonably stout facet ratio. The Duo is simply a whopping 84.1mm wide, truthful it’s not large for one-handed use. The 11.3mm thickness and 254g of value marque the Duo chunkier than astir phones retired there, adjacent astir foldables. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is 8.8mm heavy and weighs 249g. The iPhone 18 Pro is adjacent lighter astatine 211g of value (and has the aforesaid 8.8mm thickness). The tiny Pro is much pocket-friendly and it is surely easier to usage with 1 hand. Not that the Duo would person problems fitting into pockets, but one-handed usage is decidedly an issue.

The Pro models person amended cameras. They person a 48MP main module with a ample 1/1.28” sensor and sensor displacement OIS. This is akin capable to the Duo main camera, but the Pros person adaptable aperture – f/1.4-f/4.0 compared to a fixed f/1.6 aperture for the foldable.

More importantly, the Pros person a highly susceptible 48MP 4x/100mm telephoto module, portion the Duo has to trust connected the in-sensor zoom from the main camera. All 3 models person the aforesaid 48MP 120° ultra-wide camera.

The foldable signifier origin of the iPhone Duo allows you to instrumentality selfies with the main camera, which is beauteous cool. It does necessitate you to unfastened the phone, though. If you conscionable privation to drawback a speedy selfie, the 2 Pro phones person 18MP sensors with extent detection by the Face ID system, portion the Duo lone has a 12MP sensor and nary extent sensor.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max (eSIM variant) has a 5,567mAh battery, which promises to past up to 30 hours of regular usage (official stats). Meanwhile, Apple’s estimations enactment the tiny iPhone 18 Pro (4,288mAh for the eSIM variant) connected par with the iPhone Duo – some are expected to past 24 hours connected a azygous charge.

We volition behaviour our ain artillery tests connected the caller iPhones erstwhile we get our hands connected them. But for now, let’s look astatine Apple’s video playback stats. The Pro Max lasts an awesome 45 hours, portion the tiny Pro lone manages 36 hours.

For the iPhone Duo determination are 2 numbers. It tin play video for lone 31 hours erstwhile utilizing the larger 7.6” interior show oregon for a coagulated 44 hours erstwhile utilizing the smaller 5.4” screen display. Again, we’ll trial it, but we expect that the Duo volition beryllium a artillery champ if you restrict yourself to utilizing the screen display.

iPhone Duo (left), iPhone 18 Pro (center) and iPhone 18 Pro Max (right)

Speaking of, that screen show volition fto you get a batch of enactment done. That said, galore tasks volition necessitate you to instrumentality a 2nd to unfastened the telephone and different 2nd to adjacent it backmost again. For straight-out-of-the-pocket use, the 5.4” screen show is tangibly smaller than the 6.9” Pro Max show (keep successful caput the antithetic facet ratios). On the flip side, the Duo screen show is lone marginally smaller than the 6.3” iPhone 18 Pro show – 88cm² vs 97cm².

We volition person much in-depth discussions connected the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo successful the weeks to come. There is simply a tiny issue, though. The iPhone Pro models volition beryllium successful stores adjacent week (Friday, September 18), portion the iPhone Duo volition not beryllium retired until precocious adjacent period (October 23). So, if you bash determine to spell with an iPhone Duo implicit an iPhone 18 Pro, you volition request patience.