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Touch ID on the iPhone Duo might end up being frustrating for some users, based on media reviews that came out today. Multiple reviewers found ‌Touch ID‌ to be slow to unlock, which can be jarring coming from Face ID . According to Marques Brownlee , Apple added an intentional delay to "every single" ‌Touch ID‌ unlock. After you touch a finger to the side button to unlock, it pauses on the Lock Screen. If you keep your finger there, it continues to the Home Screen . It's technically smart. Like, it's giving people a chance to check to see their notifications real quick before it goes and unlocks it. And if they want to deliberately hold it longer, it'll unlock. But as someone who is used to the instant unlocks from Face ID, I was like, I need to find a way to turn this off. And I did not find that. Like it just makes the fingerprint reader feel slow when it's not slow [...] I really think Face ID is going to be the number one thing people miss coming from other iPhones. Brownlee says his workaround is to wake the ‌iPhone Duo‌, swipe up, then touch the sensor for an instant unlock. Engadget described ‌Touch ID‌ as taking "a bit longer to unlock than you might expect." Apple told the site that the ‌Touch ID‌ pause creates a more consistent experience when compared to other devices that use ‌Touch ID‌, like Macs and iPads, and gives the phone time to wake up and display Lock Screen notifications. In her review , Joanna Stern said she was fumbling unlocks even a week in, with five fingers registered. "‌Face ID‌, I cannot tell you how deeply I miss you," she said. Mrwhosetheboss said the hold instead of the tap "feels like a tiny bit of extra friction 50 times a day." He found ‌Touch ID‌ could be problematic just after washing his hands or with slightly greasy fingers, plus he said it's really only comfortable to use in landscape orientation. PetaPixel said Apple's choice to use ‌Touch ID‌ instead of ‌Face ID‌ "was a mistake," and found it to be slower than ‌Face ID‌. Accidental presses when picking up or moving the iPhone also trigger a haptic error buzz. PetaPixel said it was buzzing constantly. Apple allows the ‌iPhone Duo‌ to be unlocked with the Apple Watch as an alternative to ‌Touch ID‌, and PetaPixel said this method of unlocking was faster than using ‌Touch ID‌. Having a watch for unlocking "removed a lot of the friction" caused by ‌Touch ID‌. Brian Tong said ‌Touch ID‌ feels like a step back. "I'm going to tell you right now, you will want to wear an Apple Watch," he said. Gizmodo 's Raymond Wong said he missed ‌Face ID‌ every time he grabbed the ‌iPhone Duo‌ off a desk or out of a pocket and he remembered he had to put a registered finger on the button for unlocking. He said it was difficult to get used to not being able to look to authenticate a payment with Apple Pay . Wong also points out that as with old iPhones, winter gloves will need to come off for unlocking. The Verge said "a week" was long enough to get used to ‌Touch ID‌, and that it's "mostly painless once you remember you're supposed to be using it." 9to5Mac said the ‌iPhone Duo‌'s biggest tradeoff might be ‌Touch ID‌, but also described it as working "quickly and reliably." If you're getting an ‌iPhone Duo‌, will you miss ‌Face ID‌? Let us know in the comments below. Related Roundup: iPhone Duo Tag: Face ID Buyer's Guide: iPhone Duo (Buy Now) Related Forum: iPhone This article, " iPhone Duo Reviewers Really Miss Face ID " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Multiple iPhone Duo reviews covered the device's thermal properties, and reviewer opinions varied. Some found that it was just warm, while others thought it was running too hot at times. Joanna Stern said the back of the device got warm when using FaceTime and taking photos. She had to end a ‌FaceTime‌ call during testing because it got too hot. "Yeah, I'm gonna burn my hand off," she said. "This thing is getting really warm." Apple told her the warmth was a sign of the iPhone Duo 's thermal design moving heat away from the chip to keep performance up. "But to me, it just feels like the phone is really warm," she said. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ has the same custom vapor chamber setup and A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro , but the vapor chamber is thinner . Apple added a flexible graphite pipe in the hinge to transfer heat between the two halves, giving more surface area for heat dissipation. The Verge said the ‌iPhone Duo‌ heats up when using the camera for a long time, especially if both displays are on for features like Duo Preview. "You can just feel the phone getting significantly hotter when this happens," reads the review. "The phone gets hot enough to start noticeably lagging after a while." The site also said it gets hot when running third-party apps, particularly video apps and apps from Google. PetaPixel 's review unit got warm when gaming, photo editing, or doing anything that stressed the processor, with the heat felt on the right side of the unfolded device. Mrwhosetheboss did a 20-minute stress test with the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max. He found the ‌iPhone Duo‌ trapped heat inside when it was closed, and ‌iPhone Duo‌ performance was below the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max. When open, the ‌iPhone Duo‌ has a large high-resolution display that also affects performance. Mrwhosetheboss focused more on performance than heat, and said the difference between the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max isn't "massively" noticeable in day-to-day use. HTX Studio did a 30-minute gaming test with the ‌iPhone Duo‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ was 46.5°C, while the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and Pro Max were at 43.8°C and 43.2°C, respectively. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ had a 20 percent lower frame rate than the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models and it couldn't maintain 300 nits brightness, dropping to 185 nits. 9to5Mac said the ‌iPhone Duo‌ "runs a bit hotter than the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌, but not in a way that impacts performance." Tom's Guide did a benchmark heat test and found that the ‌iPhone Duo‌ was able to spread heat evenly across the body of the device, but it was a few degrees hotter than the Galaxy Z Fold8 the site compared it to. The ‌iPhone Duo‌ scored 75.9 percent stability score on the 3DMark stress test, compared to 79 percent for the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max and 72 percent for the Z Fold8. Gizmodo didn't find heat to be a problem, saying the vapor chamber "does a solid job cooling it down to prevent lag or slowdown" when apps use "all the CPU and GPU cores." The ‌iPhone Duo‌ launches this Friday, so we don't have long to wait to see if heat is going to be a problem for the everyday user. Related Roundup: iPhone Duo Buyer's Guide: iPhone Duo (Buy Now) Related Forum: iPhone This article, " Does the iPhone Duo Run Hot? Here's What Reviews Found " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Now that the iPhone Duo is at least partially out in the wild, the horde of reviewers that have used the device are finding things that were previously unannounced and undiscovered. Here are a few examples. Early iPhone Duo reviews have shed more light on some obscure features exclusive to the foldable. On September 9 , Apple officially entered the folding smartphone market with its iPhone Duo. While customers won't be able to get their hands on one until October 23, select reviewers have already shared their thoughts on Apple's first foldable. Alongside the usual opinions, many of these early reviews also detail obscure iPhone Duo features. For instance, when unfolded, the iPhone Duo supports Edge Light. In essence, the outermost area of the iPhone Duo's internal display acts as a ring light during FaceTime video calls. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
iPadOS 27.2 launches next week, and among its many new features , Apple has also brought over a recent Mac addition: a Siri popup when text is selected. more…
