The iPhone Duo is too damn small

John Gruber: ★ The iPhone Duo

The Duo name is perfect. It truly is like having two devices in one. The outer device is, by far, the worst iPhone Apple has ever made. It’s a miserable fat little thing. The inner device is a splendid, joyful, beautiful tablet, with a UI that out-iPads the iPad.

Cut to me before the reveal:

I think the short outer screen is going to be a point of friction for people, and in a year or two Apple will release one with a larger screen that is more similar to its standard iPhone when folded in half.

I try not to say I told you so too often, but this is exactly what I said would happen. For the first couple weeks that I had the Samsung Galaxy Fold 8, I was honestly pretty let down by it for exactly the reason John states above: it was a baby phone way smaller than I'd ever had. Sure, the inner display was incredible, but you don't always want to use a tablet. Most of the time you want to use a phone, and this form factor necessitates a tiny phone (shorter than the iPhone mini).

This is why my immediate reaction to using the Fold 8 was, "oh, this is why Samsung has multiple sizes". Of course they do! This is certainly a compelling size for some people, but it's not a compelling size for everybody, and I continue to believe very strongly that an iPhone Duo Max is coming sooner rather than later.