Apple's recently launched foldable iPhone Duo and smart home device HomeView have stirred controversy over the experience they deliver. After a week-long trial, tech outlet Daring Fireball described the iPhone Duo as "like an extremely refined prototype, not a finished product I want to buy and carry." On HomeView, it asked "why do we need it" and said Apple's promotional video does not answer that question.
iPhone Duo: cover screen and button design questioned
In an Oct 28 review, Daring Fireball listed several pain points with the iPhone Duo: whether the device is thick and heavy, awkward to carry; whether the cover screen feels small and cramped, with app layouts that are "squat rather than tall"; whether the hardware buttons on the side of the body are "misplaced" for a tablet form factor when the inner screen is open; whether returning to Touch ID frustrates users accustomed to Face ID; and whether third-party apps not adapted to the new screens offer a poor experience.
The outlet said the core question of the review is "how Apple solves these problems," and the answer is "they didn't." The article argued the problems are real and all affect the experience: some are mitigated by careful design and engineering, some may be solved in future iterations, but some are inherent to the foldable form factor and cannot be fixed.
"The name Duo is perfect. It really is like two devices in one. The outer-screen device is the worst iPhone Apple has ever made, a pathetic little chubby guy. The inner-screen device is an excellent, delightful, beautiful tablet whose UI is more iPad than the iPad." — Daring Fireball
The outlet called the iPhone Duo's cover-screen portion "the worst iPhone Apple has ever made," while praising the inner-screen portion highly, saying its UI experience even surpasses the iPad.
Pre-order delivery survey: October and November evenly split
Before the review was published, Daring Fireball on Oct 20 released a non-representative survey of its readers, asking those who had pre-ordered the iPhone Duo when they expected delivery or pickup. The survey ran on X, Threads and Mastodon and received 2,865 responses.
| Expected delivery | Share |
|---|---|
| October | 37% |
| November | 39% |
| December | 10% |
| January | 14% |
The outlet's founder noted that the share expecting October delivery was far higher than he had anticipated, nearly matching November; that fewer people expect December delivery than January reflects Apple's... (the original text is truncated here). He also stressed that his readership is not representative of the public, but on the act of pre-ordering a new-form iPhone priced at $2,000 to $3,200, it may roughly approximate the general public.
HomeView: interesting concept, doubtful need
On Apple's HomeView, Daring Fireball in an Oct 17 article affirmed that the basic concept is "interesting" but raised three initial impressions about the implementation. First, the outlet does not believe anyone in a household would use it for anything other than playing music or podcasts, rather than just using their phone; if so, why not just use a HomePod?
Second, Apple used a three-minute promotional video to simulate a busy suburban family morning of getting kids to school and parents to work, but the outlet found the most absurd part to be "that someone would make French toast for the kids in this scenario." The article also noted the video shows family members taking turns using HomeView and rotating it, but does not clearly show an irreplaceable use case.
"There really is a 'why do we need it' question here, and I don't think Apple's video answers it at all. You have to want it before you'll buy it. Even if you've set up a HomeView, I'm not sure how often you'd use it instead of your phone, or just talk to it the way you talk to a screenless HomePod." — Daring Fireball
The outlet also noted that Apple appears to use "Apple HomeView" as the product's formal name, with the website URL slug apple-homeview/, consistent with its approach to "Apple Vision Pro," while the new HomePod Mini released this week is named only "HomePod mini 2."
What to watch
The iPhone Duo's actual market performance and user feedback, the pace of third-party app adaptation, and whether HomeView can prove its value after official release will be the focus of attention. Daring Fireball's review and survey offer an early-experience perspective, but the outlet also acknowledges that its readership is not representative of the public, and the product's eventual acceptance still needs validation from broader market data.