---
title: "Apple’s first folding iPhone is heavier, thicker and pricier than Samsung’s"
description: "The $1,999 iPhone Duo narrows the foldable crease to 48 microns but adds 39 grams and a cracking hinge"
author: "Luis Goa"
published: 2026-10-27T14:20:26Z
modified: 2026-10-27T18:56:27Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-first-folding-iphone-is-heavier-thicker-and-pricier--e952b9
language: en
tags: ["apple", "foldable", "iphone", "hardware", "review", "tech"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Apple’s first folding iPhone is heavier, thicker and pricier than Samsung’s

*The $1,999 iPhone Duo narrows the foldable crease to 48 microns but adds 39 grams and a cracking hinge*

By Luis Goa · October 27, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-first-folding-iphone-is-heavier-thicker-and-pricier--e952b9

## In brief

- Apple’s iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB and weighs 254g, 18% more than Samsung’s same-price Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 215g
- Lab testing found the Duo’s crease deepens from 48 microns new to 167 microns after 3,000 folds, about a year’s use
- Ars Technica’s review found folded-mode controls shifted to the right edge make the phone hard to use left-handed
- Apple confirmed inner-display cracks along the hinge on a ‘small number’ of units and charges $999 for out-of-warranty repair
- Unfolded, the 7.6-inch Duo works better as a small tablet than its folded mode works as a phone, per the review

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, weighs 254 grams and is 11.3mm thick folded, according to Apple’s own specification sheet. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, the foldable Apple spent four years answering, starts at $1,999.99 for the same 256GB, weighs 215g and folds to 8.9mm, per Samsung’s own numbers. Apple’s first attempt at a book-style foldable costs the same as the incumbent’s and is 18% heavier.

That comparison matters because Apple’s pitch for the Duo, laid out in [Andrew Cunningham’s review for Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/apple-iphone-duo-review-two-screens-two-experiences-two-thousand-dollars/), is that it solved the problems that have made every other foldable look like a first draft: the visible seam, the bubbly display, the crease you can’t stop noticing. Cunningham, after a week with the phone, concludes Apple got close on the crease and nowhere near on everything else a phone needs to do folded shut.

## The crease, measured

The fold line is where a foldable’s display stack has to bend without the pixels cracking or the surface bubbling. Apple’s fix is two parts: a new display stack under the glass, and a nano-texture matte coating on top, the same frosted finish used on the Pro Display XDR, borrowed here to scatter light so the eye can’t resolve the crease as easily. Lab testing by HTX Studio, cited in [9to5Mac’s review roundup](https://9to5mac.com/2026/10/22/iphone-duo-reviews-the-absolute-best-foldable-phone-but-not-without-compromise/), measured the crease depth on a new unit at 48 microns, about half the thickness of a sheet of paper, with a slope under 0.1 degrees. After 3,000 mechanical folds, run through an automated folding rig, the same crease had grown to 167 microns deep with a 1.24-degree slope, landing back in the range HTX measured on competing foldables after the same number of cycles.

A phone folded and unfolded 8 times a day hits 3,000 cycles in about a year. So the number that matters is not the new-unit figure Apple will show in a keynote, it’s the 167-micron one: Apple narrowed the gap with Samsung and Google’s foldables at the one-year mark, it did not eliminate it. Cunningham’s own impression, writing before any cycle testing, is that the crease is “close to invisible” when the phone is unfolded and being used normally. PC Mag’s video review makes the same point running a finger across the screen: visible under direct light, barely felt, not a dealbreaker in daily use.

[![Apple iPhone Duo Review: A Big, Beautiful, Powerful iPhone With Some Twists | Lab Report](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ThQgZxGFKZg/hqdefault.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThQgZxGFKZg)

PC Mag’s video review of the iPhone Duo, testing the hinge, crease and camera over a week of use. Video: PCMag · YouTube

## A phone built for one right hand

Folded shut, the Duo’s screen is 5.4 inches on the diagonal, shorter and wider than a standard iPhone screen, because the device is built from a 7.6-inch panel folded in half rather than stretched vertically. That proportion forced Apple to move the dock and most in-app controls from the bottom of the screen to the right edge, iPad-landscape style. Cunningham found this change makes the phone’s interface actively worse for anyone who isn’t holding it right-handed: the volume buttons sit on the top edge in folded mode, oriented for a landscape iPad rather than a portrait phone, while the Touch ID sensor has migrated into the power button on the device’s upper-right corner, the only position where one-handed authentication is even possible. There’s no Face ID on the Duo at all, the first time since 2017’s iPhone X launch that a current iPhone has shipped without it.

The right-edge dock still only fits four icons, the same cap as a regular iPhone, despite occupying a strip of screen wide enough that Cunningham, who has “fairly large hands,” found it a stretch to reach with his thumb. A left-handed tester he brought in rated the dock’s reach as uncomfortable even in brief use. None of this is a software bug Apple can patch out: it’s a tradeoff built into folding a 4.64-inch-wide panel in half and keeping the same aspect ratio Apple has used since the iPhone X.

## Good tablet, mediocre phone

Unfolded, the Duo becomes a 7.6-inch tablet, not far off the 8.5-inch iPad mini, and this is where Cunningham’s review turns positive: the dock returns to the bottom of the screen, apps get room to breathe, and the seam is genuinely hard to notice while scrolling or watching video. What he can’t stop noticing instead is the under-display selfie camera, a pinhole visible from most angles even when the screen is lit, which he says he finds more distracting day to day than the seam itself. His verdict, after a week on the device as his primary phone, is that he struggles to name a single respect in which the Duo, folded, beats an ordinary iPhone; unfolded, as a small tablet sitting next to a laptop, he likes it.

## The hinge Apple is still troubleshooting

Reviews measuring crease depth in a lab turned out to understate the problem. Within days of the October 23 launch, owners began reporting visible cracks and dead-pixel lines running along the inner screen’s fold, as covered earlier in a [report on the Duo’s hinge](https://rews.cc/a/apple-s-2-000-iphone-duo-meets-its-own-hinge-and-some-screen-12ed80). Apple published a support article, number 148588, with troubleshooting steps, and told [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/apple-responds-to-user-reports-of-broken-iphone-duo-screens.html): “We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units. If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement.” Apple did not say how many units are affected or define “small.” An inner-screen replacement outside the one-year warranty costs $999, roughly half the phone’s starting price. iFixit’s teardown, reported by [Macworld](https://www.macworld.com/article/3269038/iphone-duo-hinge-issue-whats-wrong-with-apples-folding-phone-and-how-to-fix-it.html), points to the hinge’s center bar possibly failing to drop low enough as the phone closes, putting stress on the display-cable gap right where the cracks appear.

The table shows the gap in blunt terms: Samsung’s foldable, on the market since 2025, is lighter, thinner in both states, and carries bigger screens than Apple’s, at essentially the same launch price, as [an earlier look at Samsung’s pricing against Apple’s reference point](https://rews.cc/a/samsung-s-1-900-foldable-has-a-2-000-apple-reference-point-e397f0) noted. Apple’s titanium frame and A20 Pro chip buy it a tighter crease and the usual iOS ecosystem lock-in, not a lighter or thinner device.

What’s missing from every review published so far is a large-sample failure rate for the hinge crack. Apple’s “small number” is a marketing phrase standing in for a statistic the company hasn’t released. The figure worth watching over the next few months is the one Apple won’t volunteer: how many of the 254-gram, $1,999 units sold since October 23 come back cracked, and whether the fix is a hinge revision or just more careful handling instructions.

## See also

- [iPhone Duo Technical Specifications](https://support.apple.com/en-us/148588) — support.apple.com · Apple's official spec sheet for weight, dimensions and displays
- [Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones](https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-galaxy-z-fold7-raising-the-bar-for-smartphones/) — news.samsung.com · Samsung's own announcement with Z Fold 7 specs used for comparison