iPhone 18 Pro/Duo Impressions: Mogged
MKBHD's hands-on with the iPhone 18 Pro and the long-awaited iPhone Duo finds a device that wins on feel and finish over specs, with a few honest caveats about what Apple left out.
1 / 5at 9:42
the iPhone has a bunch of these tiny, frankly unnecessary, but also very awesome quality-of-life things that make it feel like a more fun phone to use”
AI Summary
Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) shares his hands-on first impressions from Apple's annual fall event, where the company revealed the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and — as the headline product — the first-ever folding iPhone, called the iPhone Duo. The base iPhone, Air, and SE models were pushed to early next year, a shift Brownlee frames as a welcome change to the release cycle.
Yank Summary
What matters, in Yank’s words, each linked to where the source says it.
The A20 Pro chip inside the iPhone 18 Pro is a 2-nanometer chip with 50% more memory bandwidth than its predecessor.
The variable aperture main camera offers four stops that can be manually cycled, compared to just two on the old Samsung Galaxy S9.
the iPhone has a bunch of these tiny, frankly unnecessary, but also very awesome quality-of-life things that make it feel like a more fun phone to use
MKBD concedes that beyond matched specs, the iPhone wins on intangible daily feel rather than measurable performance.
In context
They both have the flagship chip available to them. The- they both have... solid battery, despite being barely thicker than a USB Type-C port. They both have a fingerprint reader on the power button. But! just in my... scattered couple hours of using the iPhone Duo today, the iPhone... has a bunch... of... these tiny, frankly unnecessary, but also very awesome... quality-of-life things... that make it feel... like a more fun phone to use. I forget the specs and numbers and like raw horsepower and megapixels and stuff,
Receipt
I forget the specs and numbers and raw horsepower and megapixels, but just the fit and finish and the little animations — I feel like the iPhone kind of mogs the Samsung.
In context
They both have a fingerprint reader on the power button. But! just in my... scattered couple hours of using the iPhone Duo today, the iPhone... has a bunch... of... these tiny, frankly unnecessary, but also very awesome... quality-of-life things... that make it feel... like a more fun phone to use. I forget the specs and numbers and like raw horsepower and megapixels and stuff, but just, just the... fit and finish and the little animations and stuff like that. And the... feel of it. I feel like the iPhone kind of mogs the Samsung. Like,
I forget the specs and numbers and like raw horsepower and megapixels, and stuff, but just just the fit and finish and the little animations and stuff like that. And the... feel of it. — I feel like the iPhone kind of mogs the Samsung.
Receipt
we used to have under-screen selfie cameras in the past and there's a reason why we don't have them anymore — it's just because they're bad
Past industry experience is invoked to dismiss the under-screen selfie camera as a solved-and-rejected problem, not a genuine innovation.
In context
move to the right-hand side, and I don't see any settings to move that stuff to the left. And then speaking of that dock, only four items in the dock. I tried adding one, it didn't let me. I could take stuff out, but I couldn't add a fifth item to the dock. And then the under-screen selfie camera on that big screen. It's cool that it's hidden but we used to have these in the past and there's a reason why we don't have them anymore... It's just because they're bad. They just look really bad quality-wise... Samsung had these on a bunch of their older folds for a couple of
under-screen selfie camera on that big screen. It's cool that it's hidden but we used to have these under-screen selfie cameras in the past and there's a reason why we don't have them anymore — it's just because they're bad
Receipt
China bought more foldables than the entire rest of the world combined last year — and now there's an iPhone that folds.
In context
But they were on the iPhone side of the fence so they couldn't get one before, but now they can. And if you're watching this on YouTube thinking, who is that person who was even asking for this, who wants foldables? They're not so popular here, but in China they are popular. China actually bought more foldables than the entire rest of the world combined last year. So there are a lot of foldables out there. And Apple, of course, wants to play in that market and sell phones to those people too. Now there's an iPhone that folds. so it's $2,000.
China actually bought more foldables than the entire rest of the world combined last year — and now there's an iPhone that folds.
Receipt
it's like iOS plus a little — like with a little sauce
MKBD resolves his confusion about the Duo's OS identity, placing it as a slightly extended iPhone experience rather than a full iPad or hybrid system.
In context
side versus the flagships, and then actually the same ultrawide camera as the 18 Pro. And this software has a lot to it. I was first seeing it, just trying to figure out, like, is this iOS... or is it iPadOS, or neither, or both? Like, what is it really? I think what I've landed on is it's like, it's like iOS plus a little, like with a little sauce. Obviously the reachability stuff and the dock on the side are new. Like, you won't find that on a regular iPhone. And then the continuity also between the inside screen and the outside screen,
Receipt
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