An iPhone 18 Pro is $1,199. An iPad is $449. If you want both—the iPhone as your primary device and the iPad to handle some work when you’re away from your desk—you'll be spending a total dollar amount that’s pretty close to the $1,999 price of Apple’s first folding smartphone , the iPhone Duo .

So can the Duo’s 7.6-inch screen pull double duty as a phone and a workstation? Does it make sense to shell out a few hundred more dollars for a single gadget that can theoretically handle the workload of two devices?

I wrote my entire iPhone Duo review on Apple’s new handset. I used a note-taking app called Bear , which was mercifully optimized for the Duo’s larger screen. ( Read my review and you’ll hear about how most apps aren’t optimized; it could take weeks or months for everything to look right.) But surprisingly, I didn’t hate the experience.

I have run this experiment before on Android foldables and even smart glasses with virtual workspaces , but iOS has its own unique hurdles.…