It’s safe to say that the iPhone 18 Pro Max is proving to be quite popular. At the time of writing, delivery estimates for the cheapest model are two to three weeks away – compared to one to two weeks for the iPhone 18 Pro. However, the popularity pales in comparison to the iPhone Duo, whose delivery estimates have been pushed into next year after only one hour of pre-orders opening.
My iPhone 18 Pro Max arrived yesterday, after almost a month of waiting for Apple to actually ship the thing. The problem was that as soon as it was put up, my mind was immediately stuck on what to do with it. Even more so after playing with the variable aperture, and seeing the blades move across the camera lens.
Unlike the iPhone Duo is something that many people honestly expect, even if you accept some compromises in the process. For what? Because it’s something brand new that Apple has never done before, even though the first foldable phones are now old enough to be in the second class.
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What does the iPhone 18 Pro Max actually have to offer?
I know that on a technical level the iPhone 18 Pro Max is a better phone than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Our tests show that the A20 Pro’s chip makes it significantly more powerful, and battery life is half an hour longer than you’d get in last year’s flagship. Charging time is also noticeably faster, helped by the faster 60W wireless charging capabilities.
But those aren’t the kind of upgrades you can feel conscious about. They make the overall experience of using the iPhone 18 Pro Max better, even if you don’t really notice what’s going on, but they’re not the kind of things that make you physically excited to hold and enjoy the phone for yourself.
These gears didn’t really shift into place until I held the iPhone 18 Pro Max in my hand, and I felt like the aquarium fish at the end of Finding Nemo. I already have an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and aside from some obvious difference in the weight of the two phones (8.78 ounces versus 8.22 ounces) I couldn’t really tell the two phones apart.
I’ve been messing around with the variable aperture camera system, and it’s been pretty fun watching the blades move across the lens as they do. But that’s an activity that gets old very quickly, and once you’ve exhausted the small pleasures it brings, the reality sets in that upgrading your phone every year is a pointless effort.
Apple may have made some significant improvements to the iPhone 18 Pro Max and added some fantastic new camera features, but it doesn’t change the fact that this feels more like an iPhone 17S than an iPhone 18 Pro. It makes the 18 Pro Max look like another iteration of the same old stuff, and the honest truth is that it’s an extremely boring upgrade. To the point that it hardly feels like an upgrade.
I admit that the software changes play a big impact on what the 18 Pro Max can do. But when you remember that iOS 27 isn’t exclusive to the newest iPhones, and has been available on older models for a good few weeks (or months if you’ve downloaded the beta), it’s not really a selling point.
The iPhone Duo, on the other hand, is a completely new type of device that Apple has never made before. Sure, it won’t impress foldable phone enthusiasts for the same reason the iPhone 18 Pro Max isn’t impressing me right now. But for those people who have never left the Apple ecosystem, it’s a whole new kind of device.
iPhone Duo has change that you can feel and experience in your hands
You only have to look at the iPhone Duo to know that it offers a completely different user experience than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. It’s a flip phone that opens to reveal a large tablet-sized display that’s noticeably larger than the one on a traditional phone.
An all-new form factor and operating method means the iPhone Duo is something you need to get your hands on. Although you’ve used foldable phones extensively in the past, the fact that this is a foldable iPhone means that it offers a slightly different experience than that of an Android model. Both in terms of the software side of things and how Apple actually does the foldable experience compared to Samsung or Google.
Heck, the fact that Apple tweaked the UI to put a taskbar on the side of the iPhone Duo means that every user needs some time to acclimate to the new way.
The iPhone Duo goes beyond just being a foldable iPhone. Apple seems to have put a lot of effort into making it something different and unique compared to its usual annual releases. The use of titanium means it’s more durable than the last two Pro Max iPhones, and the under-display camera is a feature we don’t really see on phones.
Although Apple does not solve the myriad of problems that hidden cameras have, it is something else that users can experience. Plus it means you have an uninterrupted display, which isn’t something you see much anymore.
Apple has done something different with the iPhone Duo, and expensive as it is, it offers something that most iPhone owners have not been able to experience until now. In a world where new phones increasingly feel boring and barely different from what came before, this is a very desirable trait to have.
Whether Apple can maintain that excitement with future foldable iPhones is unclear, though I suspect people will lose that sense of excitement very quickly. After all, all other foldables have just become part of the annual release cycle, and there will be a point where the iPhone Duo matches them.
Bottom line
Phone launches have been boring and weak for a long time. As much as the companies behind them try to drum up excitement and act like what they’re offering is revolutionary, the truth is that 90% of the time they’re not. Even new types of phones can get old very quickly, especially when you have a release as spectacularly bad as that of the original Samsung Galaxy Fold.
I have never picked up a new phone and struggled to know what to do with it. It’s not a fun experience to hold a $1,200 phone and wonder what the point of it all is – which makes a very strong argument against upgrading your old phones too soon. Also, at the same time, I have to wonder if the impending iPhone Duo release will affect things. Both in terms of user attitude and the resources that Apple has put into developing its new phone lines.
You can feel the anticipation for the iPhone Duo now, and the fact that delivery estimates have been pushed back to 2027 suggests that demand is likely to be much higher than Apple actually predicted. That’s not something you see every year, and it’s nice that people can actually be really excited for a brand new phone. It’s just a shame that the iPhone 18 Pro Max feels like such a nothingburger.
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