iPhone Duo vs. Pixel 11 Pro Fold: 2 Durable Foldables Face Off - CNET

Tech > Mobile > Phones > Foldable Phones

Apple's and Google's phones are both rated for dust and water resistance. Here's how they compare when it comes to other features such as cameras, battery life and displays.

Companies often focus on features like thinness and screen size when launching foldable phones. But for many people, one of the biggest concerns is durability. If you’re spending around $2,000 on a phone, you want to know it can withstand whatever life throws at it.

Apple’s iPhone Duo and Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold stand out in the increasingly competitive foldable phone market for one notable reason: They both have IP68 ratings. That means they’re expected to withstand being submerged in water (up to 6 meters for the Duo and 1.5 meters for the Pixel) for up to 30 minutes, and are dust resistant — a rarity in the world of foldables. So in theory, you can take your pricey handset to the beach without worrying about sand getting in and ruining your device.

The two phones also have high price tags. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, while the Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at $1,899 for the same storage level. Preorders for the iPhone Duo kick off Oct. 16, for an Oct. 23 release. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is available now.

I’ve had the opportunity to use both phones, and the key difference lies in how each is designed. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold takes on a more traditional book-style design, with a cover screen resembling the measurements of a standard slab phone. Inside, the expansive screen is ideal for watching movies or multitasking.

On the other hand, the Duo’s passport-size design makes for a squatter, more compact cover screen and a short, wide inner display that’s ideal for watching videos in landscape and is well-suited to vertical content in portrait. Like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, it’s designed to adapt more naturally to a wider range of content formats.

Here’s how else the iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold compare.

The iPhone Duo has a squat, 5.4-inch cover display and a wide, 7.6-inch inside display. Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a taller 6.5-inch cover display and a larger 8-inch main display.

The Duo can be a good fit if you want something compact that essentially expands into an iPad Mini. The Pixel Fold feels very much like a non-folding phone when closed, and opens up to a more expansive, tablet-like display.

A key differentiator is the iPhone Duo has a matte, nano-texture inner display that helps to reduce reflections and minimize the crease. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold doesn’t have an anti-reflective display, which makes the phone’s crease more visible.

Both phones are relatively thin. The iPhone Duo measures 5.2mm thick when open and 11.3mm thick when closed. It weighs 254 grams.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has the iPhone slightly beat, measuring 5mm thick when open and 10.1mm thick when closed. It’s also a little lighter than the iPhone, weighing 239 grams. That’s likely aided by the Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s aluminum frame, compared to the titanium one on the iPhone Duo.

Both phones let you run up to two apps side by side.

The iPhone Duo comes with a key concession: It supports only Touch ID, rather than Face ID, for unlocking. By comparison, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold supports Face Unlock.

Both the iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold have IP68 ratings for dust and water resistance, but the better design ultimately depends on how you plan to use the phone. If you want a device optimized for consuming a wide range of content, the versatile iPhone Duo could be a better fit. If you prefer a more traditional phone that unfolds into a larger display, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold may be the more natural choice.

The iPhone Duo has a 48-megapixel main camera and a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera. Like the similarly passport-sized Galaxy Z Fold 8, there’s no telephoto camera. A 12-megapixel selfie camera sits on the outer display, while an “under-display FaceTime camera” is nestled on the inside.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold’s shooters don’t quite live up to the camera specs on the non-folding Pro models, but they pull their weight. The foldable has a 48-megapixel wide-angle, 10.5-megapixel ultrawide and 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera on the back. There’s a 10-megapixel selfie camera on the cover and inside displays. Although the foldable Pixel doesn’t have Google’s top-of-the-line camera setup, it performed well in my camera test against another premium foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

When taking photos with the rear camera, both the iPhone Duo and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold allow you to preview images using the phone’s cover screen, so you can guide the photographer (or yourself if you’re taking selfies). The phones also both have features designed to draw kids’ eyes to the camera by playing animations on the cover screen, called Kid Cue on the Duo and Made You Look on the Pixel Fold.

We’ll have to see how the iPhone Duo’s cameras perform in the real world, but the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a leg up with the inclusion of a telephoto camera.

Both devices pack top-end specs, though their storage options differ. The iPhone Duo runs on the new A20 Pro chip, and as usual for its phones, Apple hasn’t stated how much RAM the foldable has — but it does come in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB options (the latter pushing the price up to a jaw-dropping $3,199 in the US). The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a Google-designed Tensor G6 chip, 16GB of RAM and options for 256GB, 512GB and 1TB of storage.

Apple doesn’t share specific battery specs, but says the iPhone Duo will give you up to 31 hours of video playback on the inner display, and 44 hours when using the outer screen. When using both screens equally, the company says you’ll be able to go 24 hours before needing to charge.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a 4,806-mAh battery, which lasts well over a day with heavy use.

Both phones support Qi2 wireless charging up to 25 watts, and have built-in magnets to easily attach accessories such as wireless chargers and wallets.

Apple says the iPhone Duo can charge up to 50% in around 20 minutes with a 60-watt adapter or higher. Wirelessly, it can charge up to 50% in around 30 minutes with a 35-watt adapter or higher when paired with a MagSafe charger.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold supports up to 30-watt wired charging, which gets the phone from 0% to 55% in 30 minutes. It takes about an hour and a half to fully charge.

Both the iPhone Duo and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold are designed to handle heavy use across their dual displays. Qi2 compatibility with built-in magnets can make wireless charging a snap.

The iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold are two foldables designed with slightly different use cases in mind. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a more conventional cover screen paired with a spacious main display. The Duo, meanwhile, has a more compact cover screen and an inner display designed to adapt to different content formats, whether you’re watching a video in landscape or viewing vertical content in portrait.

We have yet to review the iPhone Duo, but based on my limited time with the phone, I can see it appealing to anyone who wants something that feels fresh and smaller-scale. If you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem, you may have already made up your mind that this is the phone for you.

For anyone who wants to preserve the experience of using a slab phone while also tapping into a larger display, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold can be a good fit. Its thin design makes it feel so ordinary that I often mistake it for my iPhone 17 Pro Max when reaching into my bag.

We’ll know more about the Duo’s performance when we have the chance to test and review it. In the meantime, check out the chart below for more specifics about the two phones.