If you’ve been weighing up whether to spend a small fortune on the iPhone Duo, you’re probably already aware of the software-related criticism surrounding it.

At the time of writing, several high-profile non-Apple apps (including LinkedIn, Google Calendar, and Duolingo) still haven’t been optimized to take advantage of the Duo’s dual-screen form factor (read: they look awful). Still, less has been written about the apps and games that have received a Duo-specific facelift.

I’ve been using the Duo for a few weeks now, and in this guide, I’ve highlighted seven fully optimized (and free) apps whose slick performance bodes well for the future of Apple’s first foldable.

PianoFold

PianoFold is, hands down, my favorite iPhone Duo game so far. It’s basically Guitar Hero, but for the piano — musical tiles glide down from the top of the screen, and you have to tap the appropriate tile as it reaches the bottom of the screen to play the correct melody.

PianoFold works in every iPhone Duo orientation. If you fold it like a laptop, the notes fall from the upright half and strike just below the hinge. If you hold it open flat, the notes strike halfway down the screen. And if you use the Duo closed, the game functions as it would on any single-screen iPhone.

I prefer to play in the unfolded landscape mode, but the half-folded mode looks exceptionally cool if you enable ‘Room view’, which uses the Duo’s camera to make the notes appear as if they’re floating through your surroundings.

The full version of PianoFold costs money, but the free version is great in its own right. You get access to seven classical songs — including “Ode to Joy” (easy), “The Entertainer” (hard), and “Can-Can” (impossible) — but once you clear the first five, one song from the full game is made free each day until midnight.

Battlefleet Duo

Battlefleet Duo reinvents the classic two-player strategy game, Battleship, for the 21st-century iPhone Duo-owning consumer.

Tabletop mode lets your Duo double as the traditional Battleship box — your fleet on one side, your enemy’s (hidden) fleet on the other — while unfolded mode fills the screen with enhanced 3D graphics; fires rage, ships sink, and the weather changes on a dime. There’s even a Classic mode, which switches out these modern frills for the game’s original plastic board, ships, and pegs.

As with PianoFold, Battlefleet Duo is only partially free, but the unpaid version gives you two free games per day against the AI, a friend, or online players. And if you have the patience to play more than two games of Battleship per day, more power to you.

Art of Flora

Art of Flora is as simple as iPhone games come: you piece together puzzles depicting botanical illustrations, and you’re rewarded with a description of the plant in question.

This slower-paced game is designed to relax and educate, and the iPhone Duo-specific version supports big-screen puzzle-completing in both landscape and portrait orientations.

The first 10 puzzles in Art of Flora are free — the other 100 can be purchased via packs and bundles — but in my experience, that’s enough to see you through a train journey or kill some time on a flight. Once you’ve completed the lot, jump straight into the Duo’s Books app to make yourself feel like a regular Charles Darwin.

Pools

Pools is described by its developer as “slow, reflective, and intentionally uneventful,” but don’t download this game thinking it’s going to relax you.

This Duo-optimized title is a psychological horror walking simulator inspired by The Backrooms internet lore and, specifically, Jared Pike’s "Dream Pools" 3D renderings. Pools has no puzzles, no user interface (UI), and no enemies — you’re just dropped into its liminal spaces and left to explore at your own pace/risk (delete as appropriate).

This game is also my favorite showcase for the power of Apple’s A20 Pro chipset. It looks absolutely gorgeous in all graphics presets (Quality, Performance, or Ultra), offering genuinely console-quality light and water physics. You’ll get similar performance from Pools on the iPhone 18 Pro, but the Duo’s larger inner screen makes it both easier to play and more enjoyable to gawk at.

Lo and behold, the free version of Pools features just one chapter (or map) — the other six require a one-time purchase — but it’s big enough to show what Apple’s first foldable is made of.

Spotify

I don’t need to tell you what Spotify is, but if you’re an existing Spotify user who’s worried about the experience of using Spotify on the iPhone Duo, don’t be: it’s awesome.

Well, it’s awesome when using the Duo unfolded. When closed, you still get that jarring black bar on the right-hand side of the screen, but in unfolded mode, Spotify splits the screen in half to show your playlist on one side and your currently playing song on the other.

This split-screen works in both landscape and portrait orientations, and while Spotify still needs to make better use of Apple’s vertical nav bar even in unfolded mode, I’ve been enjoying my time with the world’s most popular music streaming app on the iPhone Duo.

Slack

Here’s one for the workers: Slack on the iPhone Duo works like a dream.

This is one of the few third-party apps (at the time of writing) that uses the Duo’s larger inner canvas and Apple’s vertical nav bar, so you can access channels, direct message chats, and menu options in a single view.

Slack on the iPhone Duo basically puts the Slack desktop experience in the palm(s) of your hand, and while it’s obviously less usable in folded form, it’s still been optimized for the Duo’s outer screen in a way that 90% of apps just aren’t right now. Working 24/7 has never looked so good!

TfL Go

If you’re reading this from the US, Australia, or anywhere in the UK that isn’t London, I’m sorry to disappoint or bore you, but the official TfL (Transport for London) app is a sight to behold on the iPhone Duo.

This is one of the last apps I expected to be optimized for Apple’s first folding phone, but to my surprise, it was one of the first. There’s no split-screen functionality, but the London Underground map looks glorious when plastered across all 7.6 inches of the Duo’s nano-texture display, and it’s great fun to traverse the 272-station network while, erm, stuck on the London Underground.

So there you have it: seven of the best free, fully optimized iPhone Duo apps I've come across so far.

Of course, plenty more apps have been optimized for Apple’s first foldable than those I've mentioned here (my colleague, Lance, has highlighted one of his favorites on TikTok, as have we on YouTube), and plenty more will become optimized in the coming weeks as developers roll out Duo-specific updates.

Apple has touted the addition of a variable aperture main camera on the new iPhone 18 Pro, claiming it delivers an improvement in low-light photos and video, and more control over depth of field when composing shots.

But with an almost identical design and spec sheet to the excellent iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro begs the question: are these camera upgrades incremental, or worth the extra investment?

I received my iPhone 18 Pro review sample on September 21, two days before flying to New Zealand for a month-long trip to see family and friends. The country's dramatic scenery proved the perfect place to put the iPhone 18 Pro through its paces, and I ended up shooting more than 750 still images to see if Apple's much-hyped photography upgrades cut the mustard.

In addition to that variable aperture feature, Apple also added ‘pro’ manual controls to the iPhone 18 Pro's camera app for the first time, as well as more customization options for Photographic Styles, including a film effect and film grain effect.

Cumulatively, these granular control options are quite un-Apple, putting much more control in the hands of an iPhone photographer who might be used to a simpler point-and-shoot experience.

In doing so, Apple is asking for its latest iPhone to be held to a higher standard. And the bottom line is that, while the iPhone 18 Pro has the best and most versatile camera setup of any iPhone to date, there are more capable alternatives available just a short hop over the tech fence in Android land for platform-agnostic mobile photographers who want the very best available.

Variable aperture

The variable aperture is a physically moving mechanism that can be manually changed between four different f-stops — the smaller the f-stop number, the more light is allowed to reach the lens, and vice versa.

The iPhone 18 Pro’s main camera is a 48MP sensor that can switch between f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4.0. This makes it the most flexible iPhone camera lens to date, but Apple only allows those four settings — unlike a real camera, you can’t adjust to incremental f-stops between those numbers.

Changing the aperture on the iPhone 18 Pro subtly changes how much background blur a shot has when there's a subject in focus in the foreground. This is how cameras work, but usually, the small sensor on a phone requires software-enabled portrait modes to achieve this bokeh effect.

The iPhone 18 Pro can do it with hardware only, though the difference between the four settings is quite minimal, as seen here:

You can change the aperture manually, but it’ll also change automatically by default. And after a month of using the iPhone 18 Pro as my main camera, I feel this is still how Apple's latest flagship should be used: as a point-and-shoot camera with its default settings enabled. As you can see from many of my favorite images, the iPhone chooses the main lens at f/1.8 frequently, and it'll usually be spot on.

As mentioned, this variable aperture is the headline feature of the iPhone 18 Pro, but the subtlety with which it changes the photography experience versus the iPhone 17 Pro suggests there’s not much more Apple can do with its flagship camera system.

That said, the addition of customizable ‘pro’ controls within the camera app is a nice touch. I set my control panel to show shutter speed, white balance, and aperture, and they were fun to play around with to achieve better shots in low light, for instance. But unless you're invested in wringing the best possible results from the iPhone 18 Pro's lenses, you’ll likely forget about these new controls after a while.

The good news is that, if you're a more casual shooter, Tap to Focus continues to work well on the iPhone 18 Pro. I was impressed with the main lens' ability to capture the two images below. Tapping on the background and foreground, respectively, quickly focused on the part of the scene I wanted to highlight, with strong results.

I’ve managed shots like this on phones like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but that handset has a much larger 1-inch sensor. It's a testament to Apple's hardware and software prowess that the iPhone 18 Pro’s smaller 1/1.28" sensor can be this capable.

Android phones have long had more technically capable camera systems than iPhones, and while that is still the case, the iPhone 18 Pro represents yet another small shuffle forward for Apple.

Photographic Styles

Apple has also updated the Photographic Styles on offer for the iPhone 18 Pro, and they're much more varied than before.

Below, I've included the same shot taken in succession with several different filters (in their default setting) applied, and noted each filter name in the caption. To my eye, some are tastefully done, others less so:

Handily, if you don't love the look of a particular filter, you can dive into each one and tweak both ‘palette’ and ‘texture’ granularly (though the little dot matrix Apple offers to do this is fiddly, and doesn't explain what you're actually changing).

Within ‘texture’, you can add a film effect and then even extra film grain over that. It’s a bit heavy-handed for my liking, but I did get some cool shots from it:

4x telephoto

While Apple has advertised the variable aperture on the iPhone 18 Pro's main lens more than any other feature, I still really enjoy shooting with its 48MP 4x optical telephoto lens, which has no such capability.

It's the best-looking telephoto I’ve used on an iPhone to date, with optical image stabilization resulting in crisp and well-rendered shots. Some of these were captured on the move while pushing a pram, so a hat tip to the iPhone's ability to eliminate blur (or my steady hands — you decide).

All were taken in the iPhone 18 Pro's default shooting mode, with the Standard filter:

Admittedly, this telephoto lens is still not as capable as those you'll find on phones like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which boasts a formidable 200MP sensor and continuous optical zoom, or the Vivo X300 Ultra, whose own 200MP lens offers exceptional detail and tone. But it is stellar for an iPhone, and that's notable given Apple has long lagged behind the Android competition when it comes to imaging performance.

It's significant, too, that these small hardware improvements are paired with Apple's excellent iOS software. I love the Vivo X300 Ultra’s camera, but I find it hard to enjoy using Vivo phones for long periods given their comparatively unpolished Android software. Apple continues to rank at the top of the pile for software slickness.

Verdict

This was the first time I’d tested a Pro iPhone for an extended period of time since the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and compared to that phone, the 18 Pro feels like a sizable step forward in both hardware and software.

But that's a three-year evolution that I’ve been able to experience. The 18 Pro is certainly only a tiny step forward versus the 17 Pro, and it's not too far ahead of the 16 Pro, either.

So for iPhone fans who want a substantial camera upgrade over their current device, I'd only recommend upgrading to the iPhone 18 Pro if you've got an iPhone 15 Pro or older. You’ll certainly notice the step up in overall quality.

And although Apple sings the praises of the 18 Pro’s variable aperture feature in its wall-to-wall marketing of its new phone, in truth, it’s the cumulative effect of several years of iteration that make an iPhone’s camera system feel like a true upgrade.

That's the best praise I can give these excellent cameras, along with the simple fact that they're incredibly fun to shoot with, which I haven't always found while reviewing iPhones over the past decade.

To finish, here are some more of my favorite New Zealand-shot photos that I feel showcase the iPhone 18 Pro's versatility:

Android die-hard pixel peepers will understandably stick to their superior hardware. But as far as iPhones go, the 18 Pro will surely please all who carry it as their main camera.

Apple is firmly in rule-breaking mode, which has led to the introduction of the first touchscreen MacBook, and an iPhone that accepts Pencil input. These rules, as set by Apple co-founder and former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, are now quickly becoming footnotes in the tech giant's history, and consumers are the beneficiaries of this outside-the-box thinking.

This week, I took a break from trying to figure out reasons to touch my MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display, to finally dig into the other formerly unthinkable Apple product feature: an iPhone that accepts — even welcomes — Pencil input.

Granted, the iPhone Duo is not your typical iPhone. It's a two-screen handset with a 5.4-inch display on the outside and, when you unfold the device, a 7.6-inch display with a remarkable nanotech finish that effectively hides the crease.

That big screen invites all kinds of non-traditional iPhone use cases, including big-screen content consumption, animated page turning in the Books app, and split-screen multitasking. It's also an invitation to art — a fact Apple recognized by introducing, for the first time, Pencil support to the iPhone line, albeit in a limited fashion.

Here are the limits:

• The iPhone 18 Pro and all other iPhones currently on the market do not accept Pencil input
• The only Pencil the iPhone Duo supports is the Apple Pencil (USB-C)

That second limit is a direct result of how the rest of the Apple Pencils pair with devices and charge: by being seated along the magnetic edge of any supporting iPad. Even unfolded, the iPhone Duo offers no equivalent capability.

Limits aside, I honestly could not wait to try using Apple Pencil (USB-C) on my iPhone Duo (upgraded to iOS 27.2).

Getting started and scribbling away

The Apple Pencil (USB-C) looks like other Apple Pencils, but it hides a secret. When I slide the back end back, it reveals a USB-C port. I can use that to charge the Pencil, but it's also how I connected the Pencil to my iPhone Duo: I run a USB-C cable from the phone's USB-C port to the port on the Pencil. After that, the pairing is pretty much automatic.

As you might expect, the Pencil — which is recognized on the inside and outside screens — can be used just like the tip of your finger to navigate the interface, if that's your thing.

The platform also adds Scribble, which means I can now poorly write the website names I want to see in Safari, jot down notes in Notes, and even solve simple written equations in that same app. But the show I came for, the reason we're here, is to try drawing on both screens.

Flexi-sketch

I've been drawing my whole life and doing so on digital platforms for 40 years. I drew on the first Mac with a mouse, early PCs with a Wacom tablet, my finger on the iPhone, and, in recent years, on an iPad using Procreate and (naturally) an Apple Pencil. Drawing with an Apple Pencil on an iPhone has been a long-held dream, and I was anxious to try it out.

I unfolded the iPhone Duo, launched Procreate Pocket (the iPad version does not run on an iPhone), and started putting the Apple Pencil to the nano-etched display.

One of the first things I noticed is that the digital pen works almost exactly the same as it does on the iPad. There's palm rejection, which means I can rest my hand on the 7.6-inch display while drawing.

As with an iPad, the digital ink appears to flow directly out of the Pencil tip, and it's fast, too. There's no delay between me running the tip across the display and the digital ink, paint, charcoal, or watercolor stroke appearing in its wake.

I instantly liked how the pen feels on the lightly textured surface. Glossy screens can feel a tiny bit slippery, but not this one.

As for the other big question that's probably bursting to get out: yes, if you draw back and forth over the full, unfolded display, you will feel the crease — not a lot, mind you, but it is there. Interestingly, the lines I drew did not recognize those tiny bumps and instead were straight and squiggle-free.

The iPhone Duo main screen recognizes the pen angle and speed, but not pressure. This is likely intentional; after all, I don't imagine Apple wants you putting extra force on the Pencil, and therefore the screen, to make a darker or bigger line. That adds a small wrinkle to my typical drawing flow — on the Duo, if I want to make lines taper properly, I sometimes have to shorten my line stroke, adjust the pen width to be smaller, and then continue on.

Even so, at no point did I feel like I couldn't draw naturally. Most of the time I forgot I was drawing on a flexible display and instead focused on the art in much the same way I would if I were drawing on an iPad mini.

In general, Procreate Pocket worked smoothly on the iPhone Duo, though I did notice that I sometimes had to select a tool, say Eraser or the Pen, more than once to get it to switch.

The Apple Pencil works equally well on the cover screen, though I find that smaller display a bit restrictive for drawing. There is also the matter of what I do with the Pencil when I'm not using it. Even if Apple did come up with an iPhone Duo case to hold it, the Apple Pencil (USB-C) is at least an inch taller than the folded Duo.

Overall, this is what I always wanted but also something more. It's an iPhone that I can draw on but also one that reminds me of Mr. Peabody's expandable chalkboard. Instead of one relatively cramped drawing space, I have a hidden 7.6-inch Apple Pencil-ready drawing tablet in my pocket.

Now, Apple, do the iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that not everyone is immersed in the Apple news cycle like their livelihood depends on it.

If, like me, you were paying close attention to all 24 minutes of the company’s iPhone 18 Pro announcement in September, you may already know why a small amount of pixelation is occasionally visible in the top left-hand corner of the display on Apple’s newest flagship. But if you had better things to do (and let’s be honest: you probably did), then you may have missed the memo.

In any case, don’t panic: if you occasionally spot some odd discoloration on the left side of your iPhone 18 Pro’s clock, you’re not going mad, and your iPhone isn’t faulty. What you’re actually seeing is Apple’s new under-display Face ID camera, which makes room for an upgrade elsewhere. Let me explain.

The iPhone 18 Pro has a new, better Dynamic Island — it’s smaller and can display three Live Activities at once, versus two on the original Dynamic Island. To shrink it, Apple moved the iPhone 18 Pro’s Face ID infrared (IR) camera away from the Dynamic Island and placed it under the top-left corner of the phone’s OLED panel.

As a result, this portion of the display features a modified pixel layout—there are larger gaps between pixels here than anywhere else on the iPhone 18 Pro's screen, allowing IR light to pass through and Face ID to function.

You’ll need a pretty serious zoom camera to spot these gaps with the naked eye (as this iFixit video demonstrates), but this pixel trickery does occasionally become visible, particularly when the clock is displayed (it only affects the first half of the clock, but I think that’s what gives it away).

I spotted this new under-display Face ID camera when using my iPhone 18 Pro for the first time (I mention it in my video review at 0:56, see below), but it’s too subtle to have remained distracting. And hey, maybe I went looking for it because I knew it was there.

Still, people notice it to varying degrees, as one Reddit forum suggests: “I haven’t noticed it at all. Zero difference to me,” wrote one user. Another said, “I usually only notice it when the black text of the clock is sitting directly on a solid white background, which isn't very often.”

But there are some outright negative responses to Apple’s Face ID switcheroo: “This really bothers me; I always notice it whenever I look at that part of the display,” one user wrote, while another said, “I don’t know how good people’s eyesight is, but I notice it clearly even with a passing glance. It’s actually quite distracting. I’d much rather have a larger Dynamic Island than an obvious screen disparity.”

I’m not sure I’d call the pixelation ‘obvious’, but then maybe my eyes are bad.

I did, however, feel like this iPhone 18 Pro oddity was worth explaining to those who may have noticed it and feared the worst. But honestly, it’s not a big deal — as mentioned, the trade-off is a better Dynamic Island — and at least we’re seeing Apple try new things with its long-standing iPhone features. More please.