Apple iPhone Duo Unboxing and First Impressions

It's Apple Day. We got the new, the hottest. It's the hottest thing that Apple's released in a while. I don't know if that's going to be supported by sales figures. I don't know about supply and demand. Like, is there even a lot of this thing out there? Is the supply constrained? Either way, it feels like the hottest. Anecdotally, I have people that are approaching me saying, What about the folding iPhone? What about the Duo? So the Duo is finally here. It's available at retail which means we've got it and we've actually got it in a couple of different colors And look at those little boxes, I said to Will, can you imagine a pallet full of these or a truck full of these because these things are not cheap you could stack a bunch of value with a truck full of those, I was looking at the Canadian prices on the Canadian side you're getting at the top tier top spec you're getting close to five grand, five grand, five grand, oh I know what type of face you make when you think about spending five grand on a phone but like it's a weird taste to it almost tastes like chewing on some chickpeas you know what I mean, Will, you should eat your chickpeas fiber protein it's a great spec I got the light one and the dark one and there was limited availability because we were looking for base models but we actually ended up with one five twelve and one one terabyte so this one here that's the pricier of the two so slim on the unboxing front what can I say I've been using folding phones for a very long time obviously not from Apple because it didn't exist there were moments in time where I wondered if Apple would ever do it but here they are joining the party as they usually do in no rush to join the party because they would say we were waiting to do it right everyone else was doing it wrong you've been waiting for us because we do it right that's how they sounded their keynote presentation right no we do it right thank you for waiting for us we do it right they tend to wait for things to mature a little bit and let's be honest this tech with the folding screens and stuff it's improved they've gotten slimmer more refined so whatever apple's jumping in right now but it'll cost you it's gonna cost you big money so let's unbox both of them let's pull four tabs they're still untouchable on the unboxing front everything always goes according to plan look at this I guess when you're ripping margins like they are, you can afford the ultimate in packaging. They do not skimp on these pull tabs. Look at these things. Lovely experience. I don't know about the environment. See, they say, please recycle. It's all paper, but then I'm like, yeah, but you had a manufacturer to put the glue and over-engineered package, it had to be this thick. Yeah, it did because we're Apple and it's the experience. And then this is another area, by the way, that Apple does special, which is zero friction on the remove, on the lid removal. but it goes back to the tabs. If you engineer the tabs properly, you can have the confidence to have a loose lid fit. So I'm not doing one of those actions. How many times have you seen me do that before? Huh, Mo? Like that. I don't have to do it, I just look at that. Boom, pop, lovely. Woo! So Mo tells me they wanna call this Night Sky. Night Sky. I think most people are gonna call it what, black? No, it is in the package. Yeah, of course, there's nothing, you got a cable. The real question is when do they stop giving you the cable? That's the real question at this point in 2026. No SIM tool, no stickers. A paper reminder that you no longer need a SIM tool because you no longer have a SIM card. Let me know in the comments, how much longer are we gonna get the cable for? Are we gonna be cable-less by 2030? Here is the white one. It's kind of a more subtle, almost chalk-like white that they've got, very matte finish. Star white. It's a space theme to it. SpaceX. SpaceX, it was like the Tesla presentation. It was like, was that for Tesla or was that for SpaceX? What do we watch? I don't know. This part better be smooth too. I think it is gonna be smooth. A lot of companies screw this part up where it starts ripping. Nope, see, Apple doesn't screw it up. Clean, man, clean, clean. Apple doesn't screw it up. They go as attention to detail. Damn, that's how matte it is. You guys gotta understand, it's my first time looking at it. You didn't see me at the event. My first time looking at it, seeing it. It's quite matte, the display, and I am not gonna complain about that. I know how this works. You will lose a little bit of contrast. I'm not gonna complain, but you can see how big of a difference in reflection there is. That's the difference. See that? I mean, it's reflecting straight white compared to the display there, which you can get that soft glow when it's reflecting light. Hinge, first hinge experience. It's weird, there's a few little dust particles there. Okay, hmm, hmm. Engineering, I can see a tiny little hinge gap. It's one of those ones where the dust particles aren't gonna be scratching up your stuff. Camera module, slight ramp, nothing too crazy. Avoiding major wobble, I'm a fan of. what about in the open state now well yeah we're in wobble city i don't think you're gonna use it like that passport style phones they're the hottest thing this is the hottest aspect ratio 2026 that's what people are looking for now apple's in the game people are gonna talk about it more it's gonna be more widely adopted and people go what are you talking about it's normal my phone folds even samsung who was at it forever they're like okay fine passport style new aspect ratio we can do that too apple and actually this is a kind of a good moment for a comparison little thicker little shorter compared to samsung which is interesting low button volume rocker one nice thing this is sturdy in this mode like holding like this obviously a little slippery so big it's actually quite a large power button we have our camera control and then we've got our volume up top and wow so different what they chose to do on the inside with this matte ish display now you're probably wondering about the hinge they've hidden it but i think it helps going with this somewhat matte finish, satin finish, okay let's check out the white one, so bigger difference than the color is probably gonna be the color of the frame, so here we have this polished silver frame a little more jewelry-esque I suppose interestingly, a satin finish along the hinge but then the polished finish everywhere else matte white on the back, you guys tell me which one of these do you prefer, would you be going for the white or the Starry Night, it's pretty pretty cool. Listen, it's kind of nice. I will say, however, that just the open and close comparatively with these polished edges and the lack of an edge, it's rounded, which is nice when you've got it like this, but during the actual opening portion, it's slightly more slippery than the ridges on the Samsung. Now, speaking of accessories for the device, this episode has been sponsored by Ridge and their power banks and wallets. Some style points here because this doesn't look like every other power bank, I'll tell you that. So MagSafe, this one is Phantom. Over here we have Basecamp Orange, Atomic Purple, and Neon Tiger. iPhone dual cable, braided cables built in, lightning as well. So everybody's covered. Power button down here on the bottom. 71%, we can see on the digital display. Let's try this out here, MagSafe, solid. Ooh, little indicator, we are charging. Look at that. Smooth, ooh, with a kickstand also. It actually props it up off the surface. So it's actually just resting on the power bank. You've seen an AirTag, but they don't fit super great into a wallet, especially if you're into a slim wallet or a Ridge wallet, which we're gonna get to that next. Okay, so I've seen these before, but they would just have a built-in battery and eventually would die and that'd be the end of it. This one is rechargeable. There's a button on it as well. When you go to ping this thing, if you've misplaced your wallet and you open up Find My, That's the noise it'll make. So it's loud and it'll keep beeping so you can find it. So let's see how it all fits together now in the universe of Ridge and the MagSafe wallet. This one is called Phantom. I've also got Dark Cherry, which is kind of in this territory. Like, check that out, okay? So you could go with the double Dark Cherry purplish tones. Presto, Tesla card, Costco wholesale card. Belongs to Moe, by the way. Yeah, I didn't know you were an executive member. Push the card out that you need, show up at Costco with your executive membership and then slap the entire thing via MagSafe onto the back. All right, so if you guys want to check out any of these new products from Ridge, the power banks, the new wallets, these things are the perfect pair for your 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, or even the new iPhone Duo. Head over to ridge.com slash unboxtherapy or just click the link down in the description to check it out. Now, the other thing you can do to kind of increase your target point when it comes to like gripping the edge. I mean, this has been the case for folding phones since there's been folding phones. You put a slender case on there, like later case, which of course you've heard about in the past, what I've done, and here you can see, we've got the wonderful blue on blue. What I've done is I usually install the back portion like this. I tend to leave the front plate off and then that gives me a better ridge to grip onto when it comes to opening and closing and a little bit of protection and a little bit more friction when it's in the pocket. So you get the texture of course that later case is famous for and it doesn't slide out of the pocket of your shorts As easily as if you just had the slick glass back and your camera section also gets protected So it's up to you You can do the full installation or the partial installation and this is the way the full installation looks actually But even in the case of the full installation you still get a good grip point because of the large cutouts You could use both portions It's not seamless along this edge and you would still have a better grip point and also this material is just grippier Than the aluminum and of course with folding phones They're already a little bit chunky and I think you're going to want to avoid putting a chunky case on top of that You're going to want to put something that maintains the user experience as close as possible to a no case scenario And this really does that so that's the leather case and it's available in a couple different colors So not just the blue but there's also the classic and a number of other varieties and you can get this on the site right now the details will be in the description now I should also mention and this is the case on all new later case variants we've got the integrated mag lock embedded and extremely strong now so this will be for iPhone 15 pro 15 pro max and this will be integrated on the duo as well the other difference now is dock on the right hand side which that's not a big deal to me I was using right hand side dock back on Mac that's way back in the day and it's easy actually to reach in one-handed mode since it's a little bit wider device having you know your quick selections close to your thumb no problem there and then the same thing is true on the inside of the device as you can see on the right hand side if you keep scrolling you get to your widgets you get to your app library one of the biggest improvements you get out of a folding phone is keyboard stuff so like this typing experience you know when you quick brown fox it hmm okay so i'm kind of anti-split on this i almost want to reach for the samsung real quick I can just catch my bearings here. That one feels unbelievable. Okay, I'm gonna tell you what's going on right here. I don't think I wanna use the split on either of these with this new form factor. I think typing in this orientation is actually my favorite, but this device is a lot lighter than the iPhone Duo. So it kind of plays in, especially if you do choose to type this way, I have less top heaviness to it. This is good, that's really good. It's heavier, it's definitely heavier, but there's a reason it's heavier. I think the components, like it's thicker, it feels a little more rigid. And also, you know what Apple did with this display, with this coating, getting this in my hands, I would say that is my biggest takeaway and biggest pro, is that's a good move. Now, that's coming from a guy who orders the anti-glare, been an anti-glare type of guy since the old days. I have been willing to give up a little bit of saturation or contrast in exchange for less reflectiveness, even when I've had the option. So you gotta take that for what it's worth, but this really feels so much more like a finished product because of this anti-glare. It is a bit odd when you move from the exterior display to the interior display because they aren't matching, but if you can get beyond that, I mean, this does feel like the play because now it looks a lot more like a traditional display as opposed to a foldable display just because of that finish. Now, of course, you can still see where that front-facing camera lives, you know, below display right over here. Now, this has gotta be the weakest camera. Oh my God, is that real? This camera's horrible. Oh, this is like, it's a painting. I mean, I guess I didn't have super high. Come on, is that real? Yeah, the under display is still just trash, like, unfortunately. But you know what? It'll work for video conferencing and you have so many cameras on the device that who cares, I guess? because I can just go like this and then I'm here. Much better photo. Look at the detail. Let's get real crazy. Forget it. Who's even using front facing cameras? That's crazy. Why would you do it? Check the one X. You kidding right now? Blue steel right there. You kidding right now? I'm gonna go to 4K and I'm gonna go to 60. This is 4K 60 vlogging. Oh, people are gonna be doing this. People are gonna be doing it. 4K 60 vlogging. That should be easy enough to do. Yeah, people are actually gonna do this. Hate to break it to you, get ready, public. Get ready in the public to have to watch people doing this because now they have this wonderful viewfinder. Like you don't even really need it, that's what's crazy. Ergonomically, this is a lot better. It's chunkier, it's easier to grab onto and hold. I say you just do this because guess what? You're in frame and you don't even need to see that preview. Let me get closer with the one. Wow, macro stuff with the one. It's good enough on a phone like this. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, you're making a bit of a compromise camera-wise. Is that what's moving the needle? Like, why are people spending this much money on this thing? It's for the folding aspect. It's for the content consumption. Obviously, watching video, productivity, split screen. There's a flex factor to it, too. I mean, let's be honest. This is obviously the new iPhone. You're out in public. That guy has got the new iPhone versus the last number of generations of iPhone where it wasn't immediately obvious that you were using the new iPhone. I mean, I actually think Apple owes some credit to the original brands for basically carving out the category, offering insight, because I think for these components to become more refined, like these super slim folding displays and all the successes and failures that other brands have gone through by being early in the space, and then Apple gets to come along when some of these things are a little bit more evolved and a little bit more advanced. but this does feel like a refined version within the folding category and the biggest component in that part of the conversation is the way this display looks and feels it is the fact that they were able to minimize the appearance of the crease as much as they did this isn't my best chance at giving you some crease stuff some crease a little bit of fingerprint now i did watch a couple of videos on this and apparently as well if you use cosmetics hand lotion or I think makeup I saw it can actually embed itself in this finish in a way that makes it a little difficult to clean so that's something worth noting it's impressive it's expensive it's really expensive I was looking at the prices and I was just like man who's gonna pony up and I think a lot of people are gonna just not even consider it just because of the price that just feels like 2026 man like everything feels pricey and getting pricier but i think people might hold off in general what do they do i don't know you wait for second gen try to pick up first gen on a discount or maybe you're just happy with what you've got or maybe you think this is the coolest thing ever and all of a sudden you're about to spend the life savings on it which probably if you were a part of Mo's financial planning program you would not do he would say i do not have the risk tolerance for such a thing no right here right here right here say it right here let's go let's go right here does it work with a pen or no this works this works fine you could definitely do this it's actually quite smooth it's a beautiful sound actually listen to this disclaimer i'm not necessarily recommending you do this i'm scared of the etching when i saw the makeup get trapped in there i don't think you're gonna be scratching it in any negative way but it's all brand new so i don't think this is necessarily apple approved but this appears to work this is a generic like amazon pen with a soft tip on it you know the multitasking thing is kind of real maybe you have a browser window and you've got your notes on the right hand side ai to run your life and then you're you've got your gambling app open on the other page like you know i don't know what you do in 2026 maybe not the loudest try the 18 pro max sounds better for whatever that's worth it's louder it sounds better it has more low end it is the other pro max i mean this is loud but it's more like just right in that mid-range i mean this is loud but it's more like just right in that mid-range if you're wondering about aspect ratio for a typical 16 by 9 video in landscape this is what you end up with so fairly slim black bars obviously you can crop and get rid of them and probably not chop off too much of the content and then if you're in portrait like this well obviously there's huge black bars here but if i minimize i get a lot more content below it so whatever i might want to watch next or if i want to check comments or whatever like i can again do more than one thing that almost fills the display small frame around it and you've got a stand i mean this is what another one of the unsung folding phone things is that it's a stand and the stand isn't just useful for content consumption but also for content creation because guess what i have a tripod for my camera and this is kind of like your alarm clock mode so you can sit this on your bedside table or on your desk you can have a clock calendar and you can also have an alarm go off in which case it will glow on the table well anyway listen i think it's pretty cool i've been a fan of folding phones since forever since as long as they've existed and i'm glad apple's doing one do i love the price absolutely not nobody does there's not a single person that's like hey i love this price am i surprised by the price no not really either because these things have been expensive from every manufacturer and let's be honest we all expected that to be the case with apple as well ultimately now what it's going to come down to is what people think that it's worth i mean some people are obviously going to buy it that's another thing maybe a folding phone still isn't the proper choice for absolutely everyone including people who might be harder on their gadgets who might work a certain job where their stuff is more exposed and that's the case again with any folding phone they tend to be more fragile slightly more things that can go wrong with them but some of the decisions here are compelling to me mainly the way that they've developed this interior display with this particular coating or film or however they've achieved this scattering of light to create this matte finish that is the achievement of the device in my opinion of all the different things that i could possibly evaluate you guys let me know is it interesting to you is the price just it's not non-negotiable you won't even consider it or has it done enough to capture your interest and ultimately your money today or maybe down the road maybe you got to finance this people must have to finance that anyway listen if you do pick one up i got the right case for you it is of course the leather case available now check the description for the details and lastly thanks to Ridge for sponsoring this episode pick up one of these chargers totally compatible not just with the Duo but also with all your other MagSafe stuff and your wired stuff because this one has two cables built in you can get crazy with your color of choice go for the neon tiger or play it safe and get a more neutral color if you choose to and obviously famous for the MagSafe wallets as well look at the way those things just slap on they're also compatible with the Duo and it's not just your phones this will also do your Apple Watch it has a tiny little groove there wow that's way more than that's charging doing that crazy