GoKawiilApple's just-announced iPhone Duo represents its most radical reimagining of the smartphone, perhaps ever. With Samsung now on its eighth generation of foldable phones, and other competitors multiple generations into their own foldable lines, the iPhone Duo is the first Apple device with a screen that bends shut.
Samsung, which manufactures parts for the iPhone and made that folding screen, preempted the Cupertino colossus by launching the Galaxy Z Fold 8 last month in August. While the Z Fold series has traditionally been a tall and skinny device that opens up into a nearly square display, the Z Fold 8 is instead short and squat, taking on a profile that has been called "passport-style." (The taller candy bar-style didn't go away, but was renamed the Z Fold 8 Ultra to justify a price increase.) That's not-so-coincidentally the same form factor Apple chose for its inaugural folding phone, which means the two devices are positioned in the market as direct competitors.
Samsung seems to have struck gold with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, its passport-style foldable. Yesterday, Samsung reported that the phone and its larger sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, are outselling last year's Fold 7 by 30 percent in the first month of their respective life cycles. Of course, the iPhone Duo is expected to be a juggernaut, and may make Samsung's numbers look downright cute when the dust settles. It's got a stacked spec sheet that takes clear aim at Samsung.
If you've decided this is the year you'll finally fold for a foldable, there's a solid chance these are the two smartphones you'll waffle between. So, here's how the two of them stack up in every way that matters. While we'll need time to test the iPhone Duo before rendering a final verdict on it, we held up its spec sheet side-by-side with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 to see how the two compare.