But in everyday use, I really couldn't feel a difference. So, after 32,000 folds, it felt pretty much the same as day one, which is pretty darn impressive.

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On Friday morning, our teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to experience iPhone Duo and the incredible iPhone line-up for themselves. Apple Stores will have limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers, and we're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers' hands as quickly as possible.

It is expensive, it's full of compromises, and it can be incredibly frustrating to use. Switching from the Duo back to one of our standard slab phones to get something done often felt like a relief. Sometimes you just need your iPhone to do what you need it to do — that's why Apple has been so risk-averse in changing it.

But all of the risk and weirdness of the Duo is also fun, in the way the best early adopter devices are fun. It's incomplete as a product, but complete enough as an idea that you can see where things are going. It's reminiscent of the very first MacBook Air, which took exactly no one by storm — it took a full redesign for Apple to get it right, and then it took over the entire industry.

Coming from the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max that I reviewed last month, I experienced no material slowdown in overall performance on the iPhone Duo. The foldable shares the same A20 Pro chip with the same 6-core CPU, 7-core GPU, and dual 16-core Neural Engine. This is not an iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 Pros situation where the Air has one less GPU core and throttles under sustained performance because it's too thin, overheats, and doesn't have a vapor chamber to cool it. While not as large as the one in the iPhone 18 Pros, the iPhone Duo's vapor chamber, which Apple says helps provide up to 35% higher sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro, does a solid job cooling it down to prevent lag or slowdown when apps really activate all the CPU and GPU cores.

This responsiveness is backed by the single-core and multi-core scores on Geekbench 7, the standard benchmarking app for measuring a device's CPU and GPU's power. The iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro scored nearly identical scores (averaged out over three tests): 4,002 on single-core and 10,728 on multi-core. Similarly, the GPU test also returned nearly the same score: 60,608. I ran the same CPU and GPU tests on the iPhone Duo's closest Android competitor, the Galaxy Z Fold 8. The CPU in its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip only mustered 3,112 on single-core. It fared nearly equal on multi-core with a 10,438 score. For the GPU, the Z Fold 8 scored a measly 17,331 on the GPU test. That puts the Z Fold 8 at 22% less powerful on single-core and a whopping 71% less performant for the GPU.

Much of my time this past week has been thinking about wasted space. Sometimes I questioned Apple's decision to move all the navigation elements of iOS to the right rail—there's so much wasted space in some apps! Then I use an app that uses all that space, and I'm content. That's probably my takeaway. If you want to try Apple's first folding phone, wait a few months for developers to optimize their apps.

Despite the Duo's compact 5.4-inch cover screen, it doesn't feel cramped. I can comfortably do just about anything I would on a bar-style phone, just on a smaller scale. The keyboard is roomy, taking up around half the cover screen, so typing feels seamless and easy. I haven't grappled with any more typos than usual. I tend to stick to the cover display for less-involved tasks such as checking an email, texting, ordering an Uber or snapping a photo.

When I'm doing something that requires more time or effort, I open the Duo to use its 7.6-inch inner display. That includes working in Google Docs, watching a YouTube video, streaming, scrolling through the Photos app or multitasking. Reading is a delight with the Duo's matte display, which feels easier on the eyes, including while outdoors. The under-display FaceTime camera, which virtually disappears when not in use for a call or photo, also makes content look more immersive without a gaping black hole.

I think switching from Face ID to Touch ID has been the hardest thing to get used to on iPhone Duo. I've become so accustomed to just looking at my iPhone to unlock it. Having to deliberately reach for the side button feels like a step backward, even though Touch ID works quickly and reliably.

One benefit I have enjoyed: Touch ID is a lot easier to use when your iPhone is lying flat on a table. Instead of picking up your iPhone to unlock it with Face ID, you can rest your finger on the Touch ID sensor and to glance at your locked notifications.

iPhone Duo also supports Apple Watch unlock. If you enable this feature, you can swipe up on your iPhone Duo's lock screen, and it will automatically unlock if you're wearing your Apple Watch (so long as your Apple Watch has a passcode on it and is unlocked).

I used my iPhone Duo without Apple Watch unlock enabled for the first few days to get a feel for what it's like to use an iPhone with Touch ID for the first time in nearly a decade. Ultimately, I turned on Apple Watch unlock, and it does make the experience significantly better.

• iPhone 18 Pro Max: 17 hours and 31 minutes


• iPhone Duo: 13 hours and 20 minutes


• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8: 10 hours and 6 minutes

I'm a mechanical engineer by background, and the team that the product designers work most closely with are the industrial designers. So, I've been working hand in hand with industrial designers at Apple since I started. And it's an amazing relationship.

I think what's so special about this place is design is at the center of it. Design means everything to us. And what's incredible is our designers, both on the software side and the hardware side, they really understand the engineering. And the engineers have a very deep appreciation for design. And so it's a really powerful collaboration.

The opportunities in the products, that stuff will change. It'll evolve as it does as new technologies come, but the way we work, I don't want that to change.

We do not believe the CMA should require ​Apple to adopt an approach with lower privacy and security protections. We will continue to engage constructively to reach ​an outcome that is in the best interest of our users.

We've seen incredible growth of games coming to the App Store, in general, with more premium games releasing on the App Store this year than last. While many of those are indies, we're also seeing more console and PC franchises coming to mobile, as it is a burgeoning audience for those games.

For an entire generation of players, their very first gaming device wasn't a console or a PC, it was an iPhone with a touchscreen. These users embrace direct touch as their primary controller, making iPhone and iPad the ultimate canvas for indie innovation.

We want to give developers a trusted place to reach users around the world, support them at each stage, and help them build successful businesses. To achieve that goal, we provide developers with flexible business model options. That means a breakthrough phenomenon like Balatro can thrive as a premium download, and it can also find a home as part of the Apple Arcade service. The important thing is that we give developers the flexibility to make the best choice for every game and players the freedom to play how they want.

From day one, the App Store was built to level the playing field for discovery and distribution, so that an indie title can sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest entertainment franchises.

We also provide indie developers with tools and services to break through to new audiences and drive engagement. For example, we just launched Creative Assets. This new feature lets indie game developers tell their game's story in a richer way by showcasing artwork of their choosing in two of the most important places players find games: search results and product page headers.

Technologies like Game Porting Toolkit 4, MetalFX, and our open-source Unity plug-ins dramatically cut the time, effort, and cost required for developers to bring PC and console games to Apple devices.