I Bought the Duo.

Around two weeks ago, I wrote that I was probably buying the iPhone Duo. It was released yesterday, and I managed to get one on release day. I picked it up in the afternoon after our annual general meeting at the Växjö office.

My first thought when I opened the box was, “It’s smaller than I thought.” But I like it. It’s like a wallet (not that I use a wallet). And I really like the matte inner screen.

When I was in Shanghai this spring, I needed something for taking notes at a trade fair. The Apple and Huawei stores were right next to each other, and I kept going between them. I really liked the matte screen on the Huawei. I wanted to buy it, but I bought the iPad mini because it worked better for what I needed: writing notes and taking photos and videos directly in the Notes app.

Back to the Duo. I don’t use my phone for much more than BankID (the app we Swedes use for banks, government sites and other services that need to know you’re actually you), email when I’m on the run, Slack and occasionally Instagram. As you might have noticed, I’ve barely been active on Instagram over the past year. I haven’t had the time or felt like it. I just got bored.

In the e-commerce numbers I see, something like 80% or more of purchases happen on mobile phones. I still can’t get my head around it. Personally, I hate browsing the web on a normal phone. The tall, narrow screen just makes the whole thing feel meh.

I’ve barely used the Duo, but so far it’s love at first sight. I’ve never owned an iPhone before, so I might discover some quirks I hate once I’ve spent more time with it. We’ll see. But the form factor, I love it. I would have been happy without the outside screen. I can’t see myself using it for much beyond checking the time and notifications. I’ll probably use the phone open 95% of the time, or more.

As I wrote before buying it, I want to use Tailscale to access the agents running on my local Mac Studio while I’m out. That, and being able to use a web browser away from the desk without hating it. The BankID, email and Slack part I already do on my Sony Xperia.

Then there are the trade fairs. The iPad mini is great, but even the mini is a little too large for this. When you want to touch and feel a product, you need somewhere to put the iPad. With the Duo, I can just put it back in my pocket, then take it out when I want to write a note or shoot a photo.

I’ve also seen the posts on X about “a lot of users” reporting that their screens cracked after opening the phone a few times. Until there’s evidence of a wider problem, I see this as the usual engagement stuff on X blowing up.

It’s a first-generation Apple product, and I’m curious to see the future versions. I can see it becoming thinner. It gets hot very quickly, though. I’ve barely used it, and I can really feel how warm it is in my hands.

My first thought as a “developer” is that I need to build something for it :) Our FocusRAW site works pretty well on the Duo out of the box. I noticed a few small things we can optimise.

I’ve also built my own Notes app for personal use. It’s full of advanced features and overbuilt, like most things I make. I can never keep it simple, haha. But its UI/UX needs quite a bit of work in the Duo’s browser. Now I’m debating with myself whether to improve the web app experience or build a native iPhone app for the Duo instead. I’m leaning towards native.

I really do need to catch up on some business work this weekend, though. And as I write this, my wife is on an Air France flight home from her trip to Mana Pools. She arrives around 16:00 today, after almost ten days away. I need to clean up the house, make a nice dinner for the family and spend time together tonight and tomorrow. I shouldn’t be coding this weekend, but we’ll see how that works out.