iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Which foldable is the best?

After what feels like and endless amount of waiting, the iPhone Duo is finally here. Apple's first foldable has generated a lot of buzz, and despite some flaws it seems as though reception has been largely positive. Can Apple steal Samsung's crown as the maker of the best foldable phone though?

Samsung has almost a decade of experience making foldables, and the fresh new look of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 shows that it's not given up trying new things just yet. Even if it emphasizes the compact (and arguably more comfortable) design, rather than the flashy features you'll find on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

The thing we want to know is which of these two passport-shaped foldables is actually the better choice for you. Now that we've had chance to test the iPhone Duo in all its glory, here's our full comparison of the iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 to help you decide.

iPhone Duo vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Specifications

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Price & availability

Both the iPhone Duo and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 are officially on sale right now. But if you want to get technical about it, demand for the Duo has been so extreme that every single carrier and retailer is sold out — and will be for the foreseeable future.

Current iPhone Duo wait times mean the absolute earliest time you'll get an iPhone Duo is the end of November, though most retailers and carriers have delivery estimates in late December and January. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is readily available, and is actually on sale at retailers like Amazon.

The cost of an iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 for a model with 256GB of storage. Higher storage options are available including 512GB ($2,199 / £2,199 / AU$3,899), 1TB ($2,599 / £2,599 / AU$4,699) and 2TB ($3,199 / £3,199 / AU$5,899).

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 prices start at $1,899/£1,699/AU$2,699 for 256GB of storage and 12GB RAM. The 512GB model is $2,099 / £1,869 / AU$2,999, and a 1TB model with 16GB of RAM costs $2,499 / £2,209 / AU$3,599. Samsung does not offer a 2TB storage option.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Design & Display

The iPhone Duo and Z Fold 8 both have the passport-shaped design that is starting to take the foldable phone market by storm. Both phones include a large 7.6-inch foldable display with an aspect ratio close to 4:3, which is the same kind of display you'll find on the best tablets.

The Z fold 8 has a slightly larger outer display, though, with a 5.5-inch screen to Apple's 5.4-inches. The sharp corners also mean there's a little more real estate for the apps to work with compared to Apple's asymmetrical rounded design.

The Z Fold 8 features an anti-glare coating which is designed to improve visibility in low-light conditions. The iPhone Duo features a nano-texture display, which offers a matte feel to the screen. This is also designed to minimize glare, while also reducing the visibility of the crease. While the phone does accomplish both those things, the nano-texture display doesn't have nearly as good color saturation and contrast as Samsung's main display.

Both phones have similar brightness levels on the screen, though we found that the Z Fold 8 is a little bit brighter. In our testing Samsung's foldable had a peak brightness of 2,649 nits, while the iPhone maxed out at 2,558. It's less than 90 nits difference, which isn't going to be noticeable to many, but the numbers don't lie.

In terms of design, the iPhone Duo is noticeably thicker and heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Samsung's foldable is 4.5mm thick with a weight of 7.09 ounces. Meanwhile, the iPhone Duo is 5.2mm thick and weights 8.96 ounces. Not only is that almost two ounces more than the Z Fold 8, it also means this is the heaviest iPhone Apple has ever made.

Both phones feature power-button fingerprint scanners, and a pair of main cameras on the back of the phone. However while they also utilize the hole-punch camera design on the cover display, only the Galaxy uses the same one for the inner selfie camera. Apple instead opted for an under-display camera that's specifically meant for FaceTime and video calling — not selfies.

iPhone Duo has a key advantage where durability is concerned, thanks to the IP68 rating. This means that the phone is fully sealed against dust ingress, something that the IP48-rated Z Fold 8 offers no protection against. However both offer protection against being submerged in water for a short period of time.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Cameras

From a hardware standpoint, both the Z Fold 8 and iPhone Duo should be fairly evenly matched in the camera department. Apple has equipped its foldable with a pair of 48MP cameras (main and ultrawide) while Samsung has a pair of 50MP lenses.

Neither phone has a telephoto lens, which means your zoomed in shots will not be that impressive.

Of course, modern phone cameras heavily rely on computational photography software, and that can easily make the most difference in photo comparisons. So let's take a look at photos from both phones.

Both phones have capable main cameras, capturing bright colors with a lot of detail. It's worth noting that while the Z Fold 8 is able to capture brighter images, the photos end up a little more washed out in the process.

It's a similar situation with the ultrawide camera too. The iPhone Duo struggled with the darker spots within view, but the brightness on the Z Fold 8 is ramped up by so much that it completely washed out the background details and makes the details much harder to discern.

In terms of Zoom, the Duo and Z Fold 8 are fairly evenly matched, but as the magnification increases, the worse the quality on the Duo actually gets. At 10x magnification, you can see that the Duo is noticeably blurry and more pixelated than the Z Fold 8 — even though its own zoomed shots are nowhere near as good as they could have been with a dedicated telephoto lens.

Photos from the outer selfie camera are a little more clear cut, with the iPhone Duo producing a sharper and less blurry image, without the same washed out effect that seems to be plaguing the Z Fold 8's camera

The iPhone Duo offers noticeably better performance in low light, too. Both cameras managed to brighten up the image, but the Duo managed to produce a noticeably sharper photo than the Samsung.

Overall it seems as though the iPhone Duo has the edge in the camera department. While the Z Fold 8 doesn't take bad photos, and the iPhone Duo has its flaws, the fact is that Apple's foldable seems to do a much better job of capturing its surroundings in a more lifelike way — and without producing a washed out images that loses its spark. If you're looking for a deeper dive, our iPhone Duo vs. Galaxy Z Fold 8 camera face-off has more samples to check out.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Performance

Apple has already proven that the A20 Pro chipset is an absolute powerhouse of graphics and computing power on the iPhone 18 Pro. To the point where it trumps the Z Fold 8's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Chipset for Galaxy in almost every category. But does that still hold true for the iPhone Duo?

Yes, as it turns out, and you can see the figures below.

It turns out that, per the benchmarking tests, there isn't a whole lot of difference in performance on the iPhone Duo compared to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The figures aren't identical, but they do outpace the Z Fold 8 in everything except AI performance.

Geekbench 7 benchmarks produced scores of 4,007 for a single-core benchmark and 11,363 for multi-core testing — far in excess of the Z Fold 8's 2,978 and 9,811. Similarly 3DMark's Solar Bay Unlimited graphics test came out with a score of 16,496 and an average frame-rate of 62.3 fps. Sadly the Z Fold 8 only managed to produce 12,454 and 47.35 fps.

AI is a different story, though. The Z Fold 8 scored 72,242 in the Geekbench AI 1.7 test, compared to the Duo's 69,438. This means that on-device AI processing should be slightly better on Samsung's foldable.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Software & AI

Apple's made a bunch of major advances in AI this year, thanks to the launch of iOS 27 and Siri AI. This upgraded assistant is capable of performing various different and more complicated tasks, as well as understanding personal context that helps it understand your commands much more easily.

On top of that, iOS 27 features expressive voices for Siri, more advanced dictation, and AI-powered editing features such as Clean Up, Extend and the unique "Reframe" that lets you adjust the angle of your photos. Outside of features available on other iPhones, the Duo comes with a Smart tracking camera feature, which operates in a similar manner to MyFanCam on the Z Fold 8.

The Z Fold 8 comes with all the best Galaxy AI features you'll find on every flagship Galaxy phone, plus all the best parts of Google Gemini. This includes Now Nudge, a context-based tool to resurface relevant information when you need it, Now Brief's regular preparatory reports and the advanced version of Circle to Search that's capable of identifying multiple items at once.

However, the Duo has some drawbacks to its overall UI. The main one is that the taskbar has been pinned to the right side of the screen, with no option to change it — compared to Samsung's traditional bar along the bottom of the phone.

The Duo's multitasking is also limited to running two apps side by side, and doesn't work as consistently when the phone is in portrait mode. The Z Fold 8 supports up to three split-screen apps and as many as five floating app windows — giving it the edge for productive multitasking. The Z Fold 8 also supports the DeX desktop mode, and so far there's no equivalent feature on iPhones.

Right now it feels like Samsung may have an edge with app optimization too. Apple has done a lot to ensure major apps take advantage of the iPhone Duo's larger screen, but Samsung has a head start of several years — and the fact Android itself runs on a huge number of devices of differing sizes.

Only the iPhone Duo offers stylus support, thanks to the Apple Pencil USB-C. Likewise, the Z Fold 8 doesn't fracture Samsung's Flex Mode, which adjusts the UI depending on the angle of the hinge. The Duo does do this, and has multiple different fold states to take advantage of.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Battery

When it comes to total battery capacity, the iPhone Duo and Galaxy Z Fold 8 are pretty evenly matched. The Duo offers 4,883 mAh of power reserves, while the Z Fold 8 is slightly lower at 4,800 mAh. However the slight difference in capacity has led to very different results in our battery life testing.

The iPhone Duo lasted 13 hours and 20 minutes in a new version of our battery test, which was optimized for the iPhone Duo. In that same test, which ran simultaneously, the Z Fold 8 only lasted 10 hours and six minutes — which is not particularly great in the grand scheme of things.

Previously the Z Fold 8 has lasted 12hours and 19 minutes in testing, but that's no longer the case — and the current battery life is much lower. However, whichever way you look at it, the iPhone Duo has the clear advantage.

However, the Z Fold 8 has a slight edge when it comes to charging speed, despite the fact its 45W wired charging is noticeably lower than the iPhone Duo's 60W. The Duo reclaimed 42% battery in 15 minutes, compared to the Z Fold 8's 43%, with both numbers rising to a respective 66% and 70%.

It's not a huge amount of difference, but if you want to recoup as much power as you can as quickly as possible, the Z Fold 8 actually has Apple beat. Though its wireless charging speed is limited to 20W, compared to the Duo's 25W, and it lacks the internal magnets that facilitate Qi2 or MagSafe chargers and accessories.

iPhone Duo vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Bottom line

Apple has done great things with the iPhone Duo, and it manages to edge out competition from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in a number of key areas. The main ones, of course, being battery life, performance, overall camera performance and the fact it has stylus support.

That said, the Z Fold 8 offers a lot and it feels like it has Apple beat when it comes to AI and software capabilities. Not to mention the fact it's cheaper, thinner and lighter than Apple's foldable, and the anti-glare coating means the colors from the screen really pop compared to the iPhone.

When deciding between the two, it's going to come down to what you actually want out of a foldable. If you value the software experience above all else, then the Z Fold 8 is going to be the right option for you. But if you like Apple products, and prefer a phone that is physically more capable, then the Duo might be the better option.

Then again, considering the iPhone Duo is sold out everywhere, and you're going to have to wait at least several weeks before you can actually get your hands on one.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple iPhone Duo 2 with Face ID is reportedly being tested even before the first foldable hits shelves
• I put the iPhone Duo vs. Galaxy Fold 8 through a 10-round photo face-off — and there's a clear winner
• 'Polished but rough': The common flaws in the iPhone Duo found by nine different reviewers