An AppleInsider Podcast episode sorts through a week of Apple launches, from the M6 iMac to the touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro and the OLED iPad mini, with one host reviewing the iPhone Duo. His headline take is that the Duo, unfolded, is a better iPad mini than the OLED model Apple announced alongside it.

Where the hosts land

  • The Duo's cameras hold up, telephoto aside. The reviewing host points to the 18 Pro Max's ultra wide and to white balance control, which the 17 Pro Max lacks. In a shot of autumn leaves, the Duo set to daylight matched what he saw, while the 17 Pro Max came out bluer. His complaints are the missing telephoto and moving subjects in dim light, where a pet on a dark staircase came out "a little bit more crunchy" than he expects from an iPhone.
  • It beats the new iPad mini almost everywhere. By his count the mini wins only on screen size, 8.5 inches against the Duo's 7.6, and on Apple Pencil Pro support. The other host isn't sold: a Zoom call on his own Duo ran in half the screen because the app isn't updated, while the mini runs full iPad apps.
  • Unupdated apps are an annoyance, not a dealbreaker. He names Indigo, a Mastodon and Bluesky client whose send button hides under the keyboard on the inner screen, and LumaFusion, the video editor, with a control stuck in a corner. On the outer screen, Apple Books' controls covered the page for the other host; the reviewer couldn't reproduce it, and the point stays open.
  • Nobody buys the new MacBook Pro for touch. The reviewer says buyers want the tandem OLED and the chips. Touch gets a warmer read from the other host, who likes that Apple pitched it as an extra but suspects reaching up to the screen gets tiring.
  • Hinge cracks aren't a gate. The reviewer's own Duo has no display problems so far, only paint scratched under the camera bump by a MagSafe mount. He guesses at about 20 crack reports among millions of units and expects Apple to replace them under warranty.

The reviewing host summed up the iPad mini argument in one line.

I realized that I have a better iPad Mini in my hand than the iPad Mini they just announced in almost every aspect.

I side with the co-host. Apple's spec page lists the Duo with the USB-C Apple Pencil and no hover, and until apps like Zoom fill the inner screen, the mini is the one that runs every iPad app at full size.