iPhone Duo as All-Day Workstation: A Wired Hands-On Report

A Wired reporter spent a full workday writing on nothing but Apple's iPhone Duo, the company's first folding smartphone, to test whether the $1,999 device can replace a phone-and-iPad combo, according to the publication's hands-on account published Oct. 22, 2026 (Wired).

Why test the Duo as a laptop replacement?

Wired's Julian Chokkattu framed the experiment around the device's price against buying separate Apple hardware: an iPhone 18 Pro lists at $1,199 and an iPad at $449, a combined total close to the Duo's $1,999 sticker, the review notes. The question, as Chokkattu put it, was whether "a single gadget that can theoretically handle the workload of two devices" justifies the premium over buying both separately.

What did the reporter actually write the review with?

Chokkattu wrote the entire iPhone Duo review on the Duo itself, using the note-taking app Bear, which he said was "optimized for the Duo's larger screen" — the foldable unfolds to a 7.6-inch display, according to Wired. He paired the phone with an older Seenda folding Bluetooth keyboard, which he described as "admittedly not very good," and one of Apple's own iPhone Duo Folio cases.

Where does iOS get in the way of real work?

The review's biggest friction points trace back to software, not hardware. iOS does not recognize a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad by default, Chokkattu wrote; getting a cursor requires digging into accessibility settings to enable AssistiveTouch. Even once that cursor appears, he said tasks like pasting hyperlinks or quickly searching topics for research were "slower and more cumbersome," so he saved them for later in the process — and ultimately still finished the piece on a desktop computer for final edits.

Multitasking is another constraint Wired flagged. Apple's split-screen mode on the Duo locks users into an even 50-50 window split, with no ability to drag the divider to resize either app, unlike on other operating systems. In portrait orientation, the restrictions go further: only video apps can be pinned to the top half of the screen, with no option to stack two non-video apps vertically.

Did anything about the Duo's software work well?

One feature drew a straightforward endorsement in the review: app pairs. Users can pin two apps together — email and a calendar, for instance — so they appear bundled in the Recents view whenever needed, with a lock option to save the pairing. Chokkattu called this one of the things "Apple did get right."

What's the outlook for using a foldable phone as a full-time workstation?

Wired's review anticipates more accessory options arriving to support this kind of setup, pointing to compact keyboards already on the market from Nillkin and ProtoArc as examples, with more likely to follow for people who want to work from a folding phone rather than carry a laptop or tablet. The review does not address pricing or release details for those third-party keyboards beyond naming the brands.

For readers tracking how major phone makers are packaging AI and software features alongside new hardware, Wired's sibling coverage on Meta's AI-focused subscription plans offers a parallel look at how companies are bundling services around flagship devices.