It has now been over a week since the iPhone Duo launched to lots of fanfare, with long queues at Apple Stores worldwide and delivery dates slipping into 2027. But, iPhone 18 Pro remains the ultimate iPhone model for most users, at a much lower price and with next-day delivery.

Here's why the iPhone 18 Pro remains the best iPhone in Apple's lineup, over the iPhone Duo.

Form factor

The iPhone 18 Pro comes in the most practical, traditional form factor. It does not over-complicate itself, providing you with one simple screen.

This single screen is reachable and a great size to show you plenty of content without it being cramped, and is incredibly optimised for millions of apps and websites.

Additionally, the iPhone 18 Pro is more suitable to use as a phone, with the taller form factor much easier to hold to your ear when taking a call compared to the shorter, wider iPhone Duo.

The iPhone 18 Pro's buttons also feel much more intuitively placed, with the volume buttons on the side where your fingers naturally sit, so you can easily adjust the volume of the device without having to adjust your hand placement.

18 Pro users also benefit from the Action Button, a reprogrammable button that can take any action of your choice, which is notably absent from the Duo. This would feel like a major loss for someone moving from an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16/17 model with the button. Even the budget iPhone 17e has an Action Button, but on iPhone Duo Apple chose to prioritise the controversial Camera Control button instead.

Authentication

Another miss with the iPhone Duo is the fact that it uses Touch ID authentication. After the first week of use, users are reporting on the fact that they miss Face ID, which provided a simple way to authenticate your device without having to think - you could simply look at your device.

Now, you have to place your finger on the side button to authenticate, and Apple has programmed a delay into this so you can still access the lock screen without immediately opening your Home Screen.

On the iPhone 18 Pro, Face ID feels much more intuitive and faster to use, from unlocking your iPhone to using Apple Pay at a busy ticket gate to get the train.

Durability

Folding phones are much less durable than others, as they use a complex hinge mechanism and have an inner display that has been designed to fold. The folding display on the iPhone Duo is made of many thin layers of material, with a thin nano-texture cover on the top.

This is not protected by the durable Ceramic Shield 2 glass like on the iPhone 18 Pro, and is susceptible to damage from even your own fingernails. This means you will need to be extra careful with the iPhone Duo, as if you get any dirt, grit or sand on the inner display and close the device, you could damage your £2,000 iPhone.

iPhone 18 Pro on the other hand, the front glass is extremely durable and I would be happy to use the device without a screen protector.

The iPhone 18 Pro does however fall short when it comes down to durability of the external chassis. It uses a softer aluminium finish which is extremely easy to dent or scratch, especially when compared to the titanium frame of the iPhone Duo. Though, a damage screen is more likely to impact your experience using the device, over a damaged chassis.

iOS

As iPhone Duo is a first-generation device and an all-new form factor for the iPhone, it has a slightly adapted version of iOS.

This includes moving the Home Screen app dock to the right side of the device, combining the top menu items such as power, data and Wi-Fi into a much more compact icon.

It is a different iOS experience to what iPhone users are used to, and will feel unfamiliar. If you're looking for the classic iPhone experience, I'd avoid the iPhone Duo and go for the much more predictable experience of the iPhone 18 Pro.

Many apps on iPhone Duo are also not optimised for the different screen sizes it comes in, with odd black bars appearing besides your content and in some cases, the inner display is opened to show a small rectangular iPhone app rather than one that makes the most of the large screen.

This is because app developers need to optimise their apps with iOS 27.1 or later for iPhone Duo support, but the reality is that many third-party apps are slower to adopt the latest updates. Older apps do work, but they are the traditional rectangular iPhone apps that look tiny on the larger Duo screen.

Even Apple, who would have been working on the iPhone Duo for a while, has not optimised their own Apple Store app for the iPhone Duo.

While this will change over time, if you're looking for the most reliable app and software experience, the iPhone 18 Pro is the clear winner.

Cameras

iPhone 18 Pro is the ultimate camera phone, with a triple camera system that has variable aperture, Pro Controls, optical zoom up to 8x and digital zoom up to 40x.

On the contrary, iPhone Duo has a dual-camera system that supports up to 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom, and provides a similar camera experience as the base model iPhone 17.

The iPhone Duo does support some additional features due to the form factor, including Kid Cue to get your children's attention when taking a photo and Smart Take which can automatically take a photo when you're in position, but if you're into photography the iPhone 18 Pro is the better option.

Who is iPhone Duo for?

iPhone Duo is something different. It is made for someone who might be bored of the traditional iPhone experience that they have had for the past 19 years.

It also allows Apple to expand into different markets, such as the growing foldables market in Asia, specifically China.

So, while iPhone 18 Pro has been overshadowed by the iPhone Duo the past couple of months, it still comes out on top and is the best iPhone you can buy.

Since the addition of the iPhone Air last year, and the iPhone Duo this year, the iPhone lineup is no longer higher price means a better iPhone, as Apple differentiates the lineup to cater the different needs and wants of its existing and future users.