Does anyone actually want these kinds of devices I wonder? Feels like VR headsets all over again - lots of hype from the manufacturers and obscenely expensive devices, and .... no one wants them or even cares?
I go past a Mac store in London frequently. It is usually very very busy ... apart from their VR headset table that has exactly zero people at it. Its become a bit of a joke for me now to see if there is ever a single customer there. Seems like more than 15billion USD well spent!
devttyeu 13 minutes ago [-]
I have a Duo:
* TouchID (as implemented on Duo specifically) sucks, really hope next gen has FaceID
* Screen ratios make reels-like addictive content less appealing which is great for me
* Inner screen is a game changer for using Agents on the go, absurdly better than a normal phone
I’m keeping mine, the big screen on the go is a completely different level of productivity.
gambiting 7 minutes ago [-]
The stupid thing is, fingerprint unlock inside the screen is a long solved tech. The touch sensors on a modern Samsung or Oppo or Xiaomi are literally instant. Why put it on a button on the side? Just to be different? Or is that a patent thing?
nubinetwork 1 minutes ago [-]
For what its worth, the fp sensor on my laptop is the power button... don't forget to not push down...
Retr0id 28 minutes ago [-]
This article made me realize I'd never consider returning a non-defective product, I wonder why that is.
ricardobeat 4 minutes ago [-]
The UK inherited the EU 14-day return policy, it's great. Especially nowadays when there are a ton of products that you can't see in person at all, only order online.
blitzar 4 minutes ago [-]
Its one of those "what poor people think rich people do" things that doesnt actually send the signal they think it sends.
torben-friis 14 minutes ago [-]
I'm the opposite, for big purchases. I consider the first week or so basically the demo and I'm conscious of the fact that I'm in "returning range".
Hard to do otherwise when everything from reviewers to reddit comments are astroturfed.
wvh 10 minutes ago [-]
Maybe you're like me and give careful consideration to your purchases for several years, going down the rabbit hole and learn to know about the specs, pros and cons better than any salesperson or even the engineers that made it...
teekert 6 minutes ago [-]
Or like me: Eventually you get used to -and learn to appreciate- nearly anything, and you enjoy that process of discovery?
I switch Android/iOS (and once Windows Mobile) every time I get a new phone (which is when it breaks, usually after 5-6 years), it's always a bit of pain, like now I really miss some iOS features (iPhone mini 12 did not survive the humid jungle of Malaysia), but my Pixel 10 with GrapheneOS has some cool things, like a desktop mode! I'm beginning to appreciate the (in screen) fingerprint reader, but indeed, at first I really missed face-id. Overal Android (at least GrapheneOS) is more like a full computer than iOS. Which has pros and cons.
I also feel a switch to KDE/Konveyor coming up after years of vanilla Gnome...
mxkopy 5 minutes ago [-]
The unspoken social contract of “if you don’t like it that’s on you” that companies have an incentive to maintain in their customer service experiences
throw1234567891 19 minutes ago [-]
Maybe you're very amenable, or you have too much money.
Retr0id 18 minutes ago [-]
Maybe a bit of that, but I think I'm just more careful about what I buy in the first place.
marcosscriven 5 minutes ago [-]
By reading articles like this one, for instance?
muppetman 24 minutes ago [-]
Perhaps you don't crave attention as the author does?
gambiting 8 minutes ago [-]
Well that's the other thing - the idea that someone else needs to hear why I returned a phone in 2026 is just.....weird? Is it just hubris? Ego?
ricardobeat 4 minutes ago [-]
Why do you suppose somebody wants to read your comment?
gambiting 11 seconds ago [-]
Touche. I suppose it's because they clicked on the comments section where you read....comments. You reply to the the article or other comments - to me it's a conversation, in a way that posting a blog about why someone returned a phone isn't.
yzydserd 33 minutes ago [-]
The author's first two reasons for return are not liking Touch ID or the outer screen. These are two of my favourite aspects. Each to their own. I like the short screen in particular, having always consciously felt that my focus zone was only a fraction of the slab format.
thrdbndndn 18 minutes ago [-]
Having both would be even better.
My current Android phone (Pixel 7) has both Face Unlock and an on-screen fingerprint scanner. My previous phone (a OnePlus) had Face Unlock along with a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, which was even better.
Unlocking a phone has never felt as effortless on my iPhones; after all these years, it continues to be a nuisance. Face ID is fine, but you have to hold the phone right in front of your face (and its angle sensitivity is far less forgiving than on my Android phones, where it recognizes you even at an angle--unlike the iPhone, where you practically have to hold it parallel to your face).
Plus, there are countless situations where you cannot or do not want to pick up your phone from a table just to align it with your face. In those cases, I am forced to type in my passcode, whereas an on-screen fingerprint scanner would be a billion times more convenient.
I am mostly baffled that such a "solved," trivial problem in the Android ecosystem continues to be a topic or a matter of "choice" on iPhones.
bprathamesh2003 28 minutes ago [-]
I prefer touch ID over face ID as well.
devttyeu 20 minutes ago [-]
Have you used the one on Duo? It’s in a weird position, essentially always gets in the way on what you’re doing.
Just feels like a compromise on least bad form factor that apple engineers said was feasible placed at the least bad spot that apple UX designers could come up with.
But that least-bad is still just not great, not “apple great”
bprathamesh2003 13 minutes ago [-]
I agree it is in a weird position indeed. I honestly think apple should make the move to in display fingerprint scanner now.
jb1991 26 minutes ago [-]
May I ask why.
vladvasiliu 21 minutes ago [-]
In my case, I'd like to have both. Face ID works well with a motorcycle helmet, so I don't have to take off my gloves (I can roughly work the phone with the gloves on).
But if I'm in the mountains, wearing sunglasses and a winter coat that hugs my chin and a hat that goes down to my eyebrows, face id struggles. I sometimes don't wear gloves in this situation, so touch ID would be usable.
jonplackett 18 minutes ago [-]
Still waiting for my Duo so I have no authority really but…
Complaining about app support in the first week of release is silly. It will obviously get better very fast. Apple will force developers to make all new updates work well.
gambiting 5 minutes ago [-]
How would they? We've had iPads around for literally forever and there are still iOS apps that start in a pretend phone mode on an iPad. And that's presumably much larger market for apple than the Duo is - why or how would they force developers to support it if they don't want to devote resources to it?
Shank 33 minutes ago [-]
I feel like there are a lot of reviews like this, where people talk about why the phone wasn’t for them, but not the opposite. Why are Duo owners keeping theirs? It’s kind of maddening to only see one dimension of the device.
philippgerard 19 minutes ago [-]
I love mine. The build quality is excellent. The two screens are useful in different environments or for different tasks - quick glance at a message vs reading a book. The large screen especially is a great replacement for my Kindle. Now all I carry for phone calls, photography, music, reading and work (T3 remote to my Mac mini at home) is this one device. Combined with a good dictation software like Aqua Voice it’s a jack off all trades for me. Not returning it anytime soon :)
dansquizsoft 21 minutes ago [-]
I'm keeping mine - its great! Love the short outer screen, the inner screen is nice and large, the titanium build is great, love tent mode and laptop mode. Inner screen is large and its very thin when opened. The speakers are great and the cameras are as well. Idk what other info you need?
johannes1234321 18 minutes ago [-]
An article like "I don't have much of a problem and the folding aspect is cute" doesn't engage in any way and currently there are mostly experimental apps and not yet the absolute killer app.
mattlondon 21 minutes ago [-]
Maybe no one is keeping them?
bprathamesh2003 29 minutes ago [-]
The "which screen do I use this time" decision is what I suffer with the most.
dingdongditchme 32 minutes ago [-]
>I’m not convinced that most apps will adapt well to the Duo
seems like the crux of the matter right there.
wahnfrieden 28 minutes ago [-]
Next year Apple will be culling apps that update without Duo adaptation
globular-toast 33 minutes ago [-]
> I used to think this was a bit boring. I’d get a new phone, restore it from a backup, and then think “what now?” It wasn’t usually appreciably different than my previous phone, and I felt like I missed the pre-iPhone days when I’d switch form factors all the time to try new things: a Sony Ericsson slab phone, a Samsung flip phone, a Nokia with a truly bonkers keypad layout. I even tried a Windows Mobile phone for a spell.
I wonder how many thousands the author has spent chasing the dragon.
lnsru 30 minutes ago [-]
There is always at least one guy in the room flashing newest phone. Maybe author is one of them.
throw1234567891 21 minutes ago [-]
The guy's business is a mobile app. Difficult to blame him to know what his app feels like without ever touching one.
albert_e 26 minutes ago [-]
I never bought a flagship phone until very recently but I did switch (budget) phones and still remember the excitement of trying brand new phones with very different physical and software features. I also remember recent (Android, in my case) phone upgrades feeling meh after setting up new phone.
tucnak 24 minutes ago [-]
How did this advertisement land the second spot on HN with 6 points in 30 minutes? The typography on this blog-ad is really disgusting; it provides no character, opting for font-family -apple-system, Roboto, etc. (in this order) and whenever it tries to actually do something, it defines subheading paddings in pixel values which have been perhaps randomly determined. You can really tell this blog CSS wasn't created by AI, for it would do a better job.
rvz 22 minutes ago [-]
The majority of reports of people reporting issues with their Duo are due to the early defects found in the phone [0].
Yet another reason why it makes sense to never buying the first version of an Apple product [1], since previously:
> "But once again as I said before, don't buy the first version of an Apple product."
This was Apple's first foldable iPhone. If the price wasn't enough of a deterrent, then the defects should now be even clearer to wait until Apple fixes them in the next version.
If the extremely low odds of buying a defective one, that has full support from Apple to replace it at no cost (like they should), concerns you, then you should play the lottery more often...
georgestones 26 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 10:03:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I go past a Mac store in London frequently. It is usually very very busy ... apart from their VR headset table that has exactly zero people at it. Its become a bit of a joke for me now to see if there is ever a single customer there. Seems like more than 15billion USD well spent!
* TouchID (as implemented on Duo specifically) sucks, really hope next gen has FaceID
* Screen ratios make reels-like addictive content less appealing which is great for me
* Inner screen is a game changer for using Agents on the go, absurdly better than a normal phone
I’m keeping mine, the big screen on the go is a completely different level of productivity.
Hard to do otherwise when everything from reviewers to reddit comments are astroturfed.
I switch Android/iOS (and once Windows Mobile) every time I get a new phone (which is when it breaks, usually after 5-6 years), it's always a bit of pain, like now I really miss some iOS features (iPhone mini 12 did not survive the humid jungle of Malaysia), but my Pixel 10 with GrapheneOS has some cool things, like a desktop mode! I'm beginning to appreciate the (in screen) fingerprint reader, but indeed, at first I really missed face-id. Overal Android (at least GrapheneOS) is more like a full computer than iOS. Which has pros and cons.
I also feel a switch to KDE/Konveyor coming up after years of vanilla Gnome...
My current Android phone (Pixel 7) has both Face Unlock and an on-screen fingerprint scanner. My previous phone (a OnePlus) had Face Unlock along with a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, which was even better.
Unlocking a phone has never felt as effortless on my iPhones; after all these years, it continues to be a nuisance. Face ID is fine, but you have to hold the phone right in front of your face (and its angle sensitivity is far less forgiving than on my Android phones, where it recognizes you even at an angle--unlike the iPhone, where you practically have to hold it parallel to your face).
Plus, there are countless situations where you cannot or do not want to pick up your phone from a table just to align it with your face. In those cases, I am forced to type in my passcode, whereas an on-screen fingerprint scanner would be a billion times more convenient.
I am mostly baffled that such a "solved," trivial problem in the Android ecosystem continues to be a topic or a matter of "choice" on iPhones.
Just feels like a compromise on least bad form factor that apple engineers said was feasible placed at the least bad spot that apple UX designers could come up with.
But that least-bad is still just not great, not “apple great”
But if I'm in the mountains, wearing sunglasses and a winter coat that hugs my chin and a hat that goes down to my eyebrows, face id struggles. I sometimes don't wear gloves in this situation, so touch ID would be usable.
Complaining about app support in the first week of release is silly. It will obviously get better very fast. Apple will force developers to make all new updates work well.
seems like the crux of the matter right there.
I wonder how many thousands the author has spent chasing the dragon.
Yet another reason why it makes sense to never buying the first version of an Apple product [1], since previously:
> "But once again as I said before, don't buy the first version of an Apple product."
This was Apple's first foldable iPhone. If the price wasn't enough of a deterrent, then the defects should now be even clearer to wait until Apple fixes them in the next version.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/26/iphone-du...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49631052