Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 vs iPhone Duo — 7 ways Samsung's wider foldable beats Apple

(Image credit: Future) The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has been a strong reminder of why Samsung has been able to dominate the foldable phone market for so long. While it's true the company hasn't had a lot of competition, the fresh new form factor of the Fold 8 seems to have reinvigorated the interest in Galaxy foldables — just in time for Apple to jump onto the foldable bandwagon with the iPhone Duo.The simple fact that this is a foldable iPhone means the Duo has the potential to offer Samsung the first serious competition for several years. The phone hasn't even been released yet, and we've already identified key ways that the iPhone Duo beats the similarly-styled Galaxy Z Fold 8. But what about the other way round?Samsung has almost a decade of foldable experience, and that shows in the ways its latest release compares to Apple's first attempt. Here are seven ways the Galaxy Z Fold 8 beats the iPhone Duo. I Tried the iPhone Duo... Is It Worth It? - YouTube Watch On It's lighter and thinner (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Rumors suggested that the iPhone Duo would be the thinnest phone Apple has ever built, at 4.5mm (0.17-inches) thick when unfolded. That wasn't the case, and we now know that the iPhone Duo is 5.2mm (0.2 inches) thick — which is slightly less than the 5.6mm iPhone Air.Meanwhile the Galaxy Z Fold 8 really is 4.5mm thick when it's unfolded, making it one of the thinnest phones you can go out and buy. It's also much lighter than the iPhone Duo, weighing 201 grams (7.09 ounces) to Apple's 254 grams (8.96 ounces). That weight actually makes the Duo one of the heaviest iPhones Apple has ever released.The difference between the two may not seem like much, it does mean that the Z Fold 8 is likely to be more comfortable to use.A cheaper price tag (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Foldable phones are not cheap, with both the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Duo costing several hundred dollars more than their non-folding counterparts. But when it comes to the actual asking price, Samsung has the edge.Sign up to the Tom's iGuide weekly newsletter with coverage on everything from product launches to software updates, this is your go-to source for the latest updates on all the best Apple content.The cheapest Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is $1,899, which gets you a model with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Apple's cheapest iPhone Duo offers the same level of memory and storage, but it costs $1,999 — $100 more.That price disparity sticks around for the 512GB and 1TB options as well. Samsung charges $2,099 and $2,499, respectively, while Apple's prices are both $100 more at $2,199 and $2,599. Samsung doesn't offer a 2TB storage option; the 2TB Duo comes in at $3,199.Four app multitasking (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Multitasking has never been Apple's strong suit, especially on the iPhone, and it looks like iPhone Duo won't be at quite the same level as the Galaxy Z Fold 8.The Z Fold 8 supports up to four windows at once, as well as floating app windows that can sit wherever you like on screen. This is also possible on Apple's iPads, but iPhone Duo only supports two Split View windows at a time.Considering one of the benefits of iPhone Duo is the ability to carry an iPad-like device in your pocket, the limited nature of Split View means you're missing out on an important productivity feature other devices have offered for years.DeX (Image credit: John Velasco / Tom's Guide)While desktop modes have slowly started making a comeback on Android phones, Apple has always seen fit to completely ignore them. The Z Fold 8 offers Samsung's DeX desktop mode, while the iPhone Duo lacks any sort of equivalent feature.The idea behind DeX is that you plug your Galaxy phone into a monitor, at which point the phone loads up a desktop-like UI on the larger screen. That way you can use your phone as a desktop computer, without needing to carry around a laptop or tablet everywhere you go.It's a fairly niche feature, and it's reliant on having access to a spare display. But it is a way to get more use out of a Z Fold 8, and put all the performance hardware to good use. It's unfortunate that the iPhone Duo is limited to its own display and UI.Physical SIM slot (Image credit: AndreyPopov)Apple has been betting big on eSIMs in recent years, and some regions (including the U.S.) can't use physical SIM cards in newer models of iPhone.Sadly, while European versions of the iPhone 18 Pro still come with a physical SIM card slot, that won't be the case with iPhone Duo. Apple has confirmed that the phone will be eSIM only all around the world. So no matter where you live, there's zero opportunity to use a physical nano SIM card.The Galaxy Z Fold 8 still supports both eSIM and physical SIM cards, which gives users a lot more choice and flexibility. It's pretty small in the grand scheme of things, but as someone that has to swap phones fairly often, the process of transferring eSIMs to a new device is nowhere near as simple as swapping a physical card between devices.16GB RAM option (Image credit: Tom's Guide)The iPhone Duo comes with 12GB of RAM no matter which storage variant you get. Samsung starts off by offering 12GB on its cheapest models, but those buying the 1TB storage option will actually get an additional 4GB of RAM thrown in — for a total of 16GB.Why does that matter? It all comes down to why memory prices have been skyrocketing over the past year: AI processing. AI features are heavily reliant on RAM, and generally speaking the more memory that's available, the faster things will run. That's particularly important for on-device AI processing, which is faster and more secure than offloading those tasks to the cloud.Historically iPhones haven't needed as much RAM as Android phones, on account of the strong links between Apple's hardware and software. But not even Apple can bypass AI's need for memory, and we'll have to wait and see how the Duo (and A20 Pro chipset) performs in AI benchmarking tests before we can say how much better or worse it could have been with more RAM.8K video recording (Image credit: Future)The iPhone Duo is no slouch in the camera department, at least not as far as we can tell from the specs and limited hands-on time. While the actual camera hardware looks fairly similar to that of the Z Fold 8 (48MP main lenses compared to 50MP), there is one thing Samsung has a leg up on — ultra-high-resolution video recording.Like many Samsung flagships, the Z Fold 8 is capable of recording video at 8k resolution at 30 frames per second or 4K resolution at 120fps. Meanwhile, the iPhone Duo is capped at 4K resolution video recording, with frame rates of 120fps on the main camera and 60fps on the ultrawide.Admittedly, the opportunities to play 8K video are pretty slim for the average phone user — so recording in such high resolution is just a waste of storage space. But it is a key area in which Samsung outpaces Apple, which might be important to you. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok. Finally, you can visit our dedicated Tom's Guide Savings Squad hub for expert help on getting the best products for less. More from Tom's GuideiPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max battery capacity confirmed in Europe — here's how they compare to iPhone 17 ProApple's just extended free access to emergency satellite communication for another year — it's the third time this has happenedSteve Jobs said there would never be an iPhone stylus but iPhone Duo just proved him wrong — and it'll be a better device for it Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.