iPhone Duo is thicker and heavier than basically every Android foldable

The days of foldables being an Android-only experience are over. The iPhone Duo is set to arrive next month for a relatively-competitive $2,000 price point, and it seems like Apple’s decision to sit back and observe since the launch of the original Galaxy Fold more or less paid off — that is, until you consider the iPhone Duo’s size and shape.

I won’t lie — there’s plenty of things I find intriguing about the iPhone Duo. Sure, it apes almost everything we know about modern folding phones from Samsung and Google, but with a couple of interesting twists. Keeping the under-display camera and stylus support from earlier Galaxy Z-series entries? A very smooth transition between inner and outer displays? A Made You Look clone but with Snoopy? I might prefer Android to iOS, but at the end of the day, I’m only human.

But no matter how “modern” the iPhone Duo appears at first glance compared to Google and Samsung’s respective first-gen entries, it loses out on one big metric: bulk. The iPhone Duo measures in at 11.3mm thick when closed and weighs a whopping 254 grams. Compared to Apple’s most recent foldable rivals, that’s 15 grams (or three nickels worth) heavier than the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, 39 grams heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and a whopping 53 grams heavier than the similarly-shaped Fold 8. Each of those phones is significantly thinner too, ranging anywhere between 8.9mm to 10.1mm when closed.

• iPhone Duo: 254g, 11.3mm closed
• Pixel 11 Pro Fold: 239g, 10.1mm closed
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra: 215g, 8.9mm closed
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: 201g, 9.7mm closed

It is, undoubtedly, a miss from Apple’s design, especially considering the push for lightweight devices with last year’s iPhone Air. However — and here’s where I have betray the most dedicated Android fans just a tiny bit — while I absolutely think Apple’s foldable is bulkier and heavier than it should be in 2026, I can’t pretend like Google is that far ahead here. Yes, this year’s foldable finally managed to shed a few grams, but the iPhone Duo still manages to be lighter than 2025’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold, a device Google was pushing to users but a month ago. Samsung, though? It’s eating Apple’s lunch all day.

I also have no idea how much of that extra bulk can be chalked up to Apple Pencil support. Samsung upset a pretty sizable portion of its audience when it dropped the S Pen from the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but that sacrifice came with a significantly slimmer and lighter chassis. Comparing the iPhone Duo to 2024’s Fold 6 — the last foldable Samsung shipped with stylus support — it measures in at 12.1mm thick. That said, the Fold 6 still had Apple beat on weight, even with a device that’s now over two years old.

At the end of the day, the size and weight of the iPhone Duo really only matters if you’re completely platform-agnostic, a foldable-first fan who simply wants the most refined hardware experience around. I expect most Android fans won’t be tempted with a big-screen experience not all too dissimilar from what they’ve had access to for the better part of a decade now, and I expect iOS fans who have held out for an Apple-made foldable won’t be put off by a device that’s a bit bulkier than its rivals. But hey, if you’re an early adopter looking to lord something over your Apple-loving co-workers in a couple of months, you’ve already found your first opportunity.