The iPhone Duo is far from perfect as a first-generation product, but it is a strong enough entry that will single-handedly lift foldables from passing fad to serious category for anyone.

Apple has a habit of entering a market much later than its competitors then defining it . While it's too early to say if that's the case with iPhone Duo, it is clear that sometimes different can be enough to break the mold.

Foldables first entered the market in 2019 as overpriced hunks of fragile plastic . While Android manufacturers have a better handle on build quality and feature sets in foldables seven years later, they still feel like incomplete experiments.

With that version of the foldable market on my mind, I was confused as to why Apple would bother with such a compromised device. The problem is, I was expecting Apple to release something like what already exists on the market.

Instead, Apple went its own way .…