The iPhone Duo is both the most exciting (and expensive) product from Apple's September hardware event. The Duo is Apple's first foldable, equipped with new features not present in the company's other iPhones. On the flip side, designing a foldable smartphone comes with a bunch of compromises, which means that the iPhone Duo misses out on a lot of features when compared with the iPhone 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max. Yes, even if you pay $1,999 (going all the way up to $3,199 for the 2TB variant) for an iPhone Duo, you won't be getting all the best new iPhone features this year. Here's every feature that the iPhone Duo misses out on.
The iPhone Duo doesn't have an Action buttonUnlike the iPhone 18 Pro series (or any iPhone since the 15), the foldable iPhone doesn't get a programmable Action button. It doesn't even have a mute switch, which means that its only buttons are for volume control and power. The Action button can be mapped to simple tasks such as taking screenshots, or more complex automations of your choice, and it'll be missed on the foldable iPhone.The iPhone Duo's selfie camera isn't as good as the iPhone 18 ProThe iPhone Duo ships with a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera on the outer display, which is a lower-resolution sensor than the one on the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. The two 18 Pro series phones ship with an 18-megapixel Center Stage camera for selfies. The iPhone Duo also has an under-display front camera, and since Apple hasn't disclosed its megapixel count, it's safe to say it's also less than the 18 Pros. However, by its nature, the Duo has an interesting advantage here: If you're taking selfies with the device unfolded, you get to use the far superior "rear" camera sensor, as the front display becomes your viewfinder. Anyone using the Duo for selfies this way will shoot better pictures than those using the front camera on an iPhone 18 Pro.The iPhone Duo's rear cameras have fixed aperturesVariable aperture is one of the best new camera features of the iPhone 18 Pro series. The primary rear camera lets you control aperture, which opens up the possibility for better quality photos, enhanced depth of field effects, and more creative control over your photography. Unfortunately, the iPhone Duo misses out on this feature.Pro Controls aren't coming to the iPhone DuoBy now the trend is pretty clear: iPhone Duo misses out on a slew of camera features. For the iPhone 18 Pro series, Apple announced "Pro Controls" for the Camera app, which lets you control aperture, shutter speed, and more variables. This will undoubtedly appeal to photography enthusiasts, but despite the Duo's inflated price tag, this is another feature that didn't make it to the foldable.Apple Reference Image is limited to the 18 Pro seriesApple also announced a new standard to combat AI-morphed images. Apple Reference Image allows you to verify that an image was captured using an iPhone 18 Pro device, and that it wasn't generated by AI. For some reason, however, this feature isn't coming to the iPhone Duo.There's no telephoto lens in the iPhone DuoApple decided to go with two rear cameras in the iPhone Duo, which means that the telephoto lens gets a miss. The iPhone 18 Pro series has 4x and 8x optical zoom options, both of which won't be available on the iPhone Duo. You'll be limited to a zoom range of 0.5x to 2x on the foldable iPhone, across both the ultrawide and Fusion cameras. You won't get Spatial photos, videos, and ProRAW on the iPhone DuoSpatial photos, Spatial videos, and ProRAW are all features targeted at professional photographers and videographers. These features are available in the iPhone 18 Pro series, but not on the iPhone Duo.
