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. Ooh, I don't 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

It almost tastes like chewing on some chickpeas. You know what I mean? Well, 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 1512 and one 1 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, Mo? 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 going to 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 to manufacture

you 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 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 want to call this Night Sky

Night Sky. I think most people are going to 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 cabelless 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. No, 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 mad it is. You guys gotta understand, it's my first time looking at it

You can see me at the event. It's 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. 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. What are you talking about It normal my phone folds Even Samsung who was at it forever they 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 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 duo capable braided cables built in

Lightning as well. So everybody's covered. Power button down here in the bottom

71% we can see on the digital display. Let's try this out here

Mag safe, 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 will 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

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 wanna check out

any of these new products from Ridge, the tower 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 unbox therapy, 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 gonna wanna avoid putting a chunky case on top of that

You're gonna wanna 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 later case. And it's available in a couple of 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 18 Pro, 18 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 not a big deal to me i mean i was using right hand side dock back on mac way back in the day and it easy actually to reach in one mode since it 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 in 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 wanna reach for the Samsung real quick

and just catch my bearings here. Oof, 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 got to be the weakest camera. Oh my God. Is that real

This camera's horrible. Well, this is like a, 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 could 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, 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 is 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 going to pony up And I think a lot of people are going to 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

the most 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, 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 going to 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've got your gambling app open on the other page

I don't know what you do in 2026. Maybe not the loudest

All right, the 18 Pro Max sounds better, for whatever that's worth

It's louder, it sounds better, it has more low end. It is Pro Max time, the other Pro Max

I mean, this is loud, but it's more like just right in that mid-range

This is the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, coinciding very close to the launch of, obviously, the iPhone 18 Pro Max

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 wanna watch next, or if I wanna 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 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 gotta 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 later 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