Ever since Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo last month, almost everyone who has seen and held it hasn’t stopped raving about the hardware. Between its thin profile and that seamless interior display, the iPhone Duo could really be the one to convince people to upgrade to a foldable phone.
However, there is one particular characteristic that has stolen the conversation: the nano-texture coating on its 7.6-inch main display. I’ve watched enough videos in the last few weeks to know that its visibility can wash out, or appear invisible, if it’s slightly off axis. On camera, it looks like a disastrous design flaw for a premium device.
I was worried at first, but the more I thought about this intentional design, the less worried I became. Here is why.
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Reflection versus Diffusion
The matte versus glossy conversation has been around for years, but when you consider how the best phones are practically all equipped with glossy panels, coming to one with a matte display undoubtedly avoids surprises. But honestly, it comes down to how each deals with ambient light: reflection versus diffusion.
Glossy displays, such as the Super AMOLED panel that Samsung has been running with its phones for years, offer exceptional contrast, punchy colors, ultra-wide viewing angles, and above all, deep blacks, which makes it difficult to tell whether the panel is on or not.
While they are certainly vibrant, the major drawback is their reflectivity. Like a mirror, shiny glass bounces light sources and causes harsh glare under direct sunlight or overhead lights.
Matte screens, in contrast, incorporate a textured or chemically treated surface designed to break up incoming light rays and diffuse them.
Obviously, the immediate benefit of matte displays is glare reduction – which inherently reduces eye strain in bright environments. The trade-off is that there can be a subtle loss of contrast, slightly increased black levels in bright rooms, and reduced clarity or color pop when viewed off-axis.
It’s a proven tech
While a matte finish on a flagship smartphone feels novel, this isn’t Apple experimenting with a piece of new tech just to see if it works.
In fact, Apple has been refining its nano-textured displays across its hardware lineup for years now, consistently proving that it can reduce reflections much better than glossy screens — all without display performance.
For example, my colleagues tested the nano texture option on the M4 MacBook Pro, and it proved to be an absolute game changer, especially under direct sunlight. Just look at the side-by-side of the two competing display technologies above. When you interact directly with these devices, your outlook is what matters – not someone’s path to your page.
We’ve seen similar payoffs across other Apple devices, such as the Premium Studio Display and high-end configurations of the iPad Pro. In almost every implementation, Apple has demonstrated that its nano-texturing process avoids the muddy, low-contrast haziness typical of cheap matte films.
By bringing what it has developed and refined over the years to the iPhone Duo, Apple is not taking an experimental game.
iPhone Duo will still be a test
Apple faces a steep hurdle with the iPhone Duo as it must convince loyalists that a matte finish is an upgrade — not a downgrade.
For nearly two decades, every iPhone has relied on glossy glass to provide the vivid saturation, deep blacks, and striking contrast users associate with Apple’s Retina displays.
I completely understand the decision Apple made here. User visibility is important under harsh lighting conditions, especially when there is a lot more screen real estate prone to glare and reflections.
By choosing a nano-texture display, Apple ensures that visibility will not be a problem for anyone using its future foldable. That’s a big reason why I appreciate gadgets with matte screens, like TCL’s NXTPAPER 70 Pro and NXTPAPER 14 Tablet.
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