iPhone Duo Benchmarks: A20 Pro Holds Up in Apple's Foldable

Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo, delivers performance close to a conventional flagship. Testing shows its A20 Pro chip avoids the heavy throttling that usually hits thin, hinged devices.

Unlike last year's iPhone Air, which had a GPU core removed, the Duo uses the same A20 Pro as the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. On Geekbench 7 it scores 3,950 in single-core and 11,056 in multi-core, gains of 17.5% and 18.6% over the iPhone 17 Pro Max. In Geekbench 7 Metal it reaches 62,946 points against 43,656 for the 17 Pro Max, a lead of more than 44%.

Ahead of Android, just behind the Pro models

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 trails by 27.8% in single-core and scores 23,848 in graphics, which puts the Duo more than 163% ahead. In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, the Duo posts 8,043 points at 48.2 fps. That beats the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max (7,785 points) and the standard iPhone 18 Pro (7,952), and it is level with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Extreme (8,046). Only the 18 Pro Max stays ahead. AnTuTu 11 is less kind: Android leaders pass 3.4 to 4 million points, and the Duo also sits behind the 18 Pro models.

Cooling in a 5.2 mm body

Apple pairs a vapor chamber with a flexible graphite conduit through the hinge. It moves heat from one half to the other and widens the dissipation area when the phone is folded. Apple claims up to 35% more sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro. In 20 consecutive 3DMark Wild Life Extreme loops, the Duo kept 97.3% stability.

In use, Genshin Impact ran at 120 fps with maximum settings on both screens, and No Man's Sky held 60 fps at Ultra. Surface temperatures peaked at 28.5 °C on the front and 27.2 °C on the back. The phone does run warmer on MagSafe charging.

Two flaws stand out: Touch ID is slow, and switching between portrait and landscape takes about a second longer than on an iPhone 17 Pro. Still, for a first foldable, the Duo shows the format no longer has to cost much performance. In France it is listed at around €2,339.