When we published our review of the iPhone Duo , I got a lot of hopeful questions from my fellow Mini fans who took note of the cover screen’s Mini-ish 5.4-inch size. “Is this… a small phone that turns into a tablet?” they asked. And I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no. The Duo is not the small phone we’ve been looking for.

I wish it was. I like a small phone. I own an iPhone 13 Mini that I refuse to surrender, even though it barely lasts a full day .

But the Duo is thick and heavy. You will feel its weight every time you read an email, scroll Instagram, or put it in your pocket. It is a dense phone, and after a week with the Duo, my 13 Mini feels almost comically light. Like, can this be a real phone? Surely not.

Thanks to its wider format, the Duo gives you a bigger keyboard compared to the Mini.

The Duo’s front panel is also quite a bit wider than the 13 Mini — 84.1mm compared to 64.2mm — which makes it much harder to reach your thumb all the way across like you can with the Mini.…