Apple’s $2,000 foldable iPhone: Is it worth the hype?

Mark Spoonhour, he's got the new iPhone, the foldable iPhone, right here for us. You're seeing it first right here on Newsroom Live, released to the public this morning. We've seen people waiting in line all morning long. Well, we've got it here. A lot of you are chiming in with some questions, so let's go ahead and start getting to them. Jim, in Suffolk, can you use a protective case, and how would that work? Yeah, so I don't have it with me, but it's basically the cases come in two parts, right? So one protects the bottom, one protects the top. The good news is that the device itself is very durable, so it's a titanium case, and it's what's called IP68 rated, which means that it's rated against both dust and water. So if you wanted to, you could actually take this to the beach. What about the screen itself? I mean, I'm always worried about cracking the screen on these things. Yeah, so Apple says that… There's a lot of screens. There's screens on the front and the back. Apple says that they use what's called like a nanotexture display on this, and it's designed to resist wear and tear. And if you also, as I hold it in the light, it's actually hard to see the crease on this. You're right. You can't see it at all. Which is one of the complaints that people have had about foldables up until now. So I actually feel like, at least based on my testing, it's really quite sturdy. Okay, so anything else that we have here? One of the questions that we have. I think there was something on gaming, maybe? Michael from Denver. Yeah, this is it. Oh, yeah. What are all AI features with Apple Intelligence does it have? is there any new features and how is it for gaming mobile gaming okay maybe we'll start we can start with gaming just because i had that up and running so like this is a game called ungodly um really amazing action i can do these like special attacks i cannot let my son see this and new phone and if you want to if you're like playing on the sly you can just play on the front screen too but it's really about that immersive display that's huge it is like a mini iPad that you can fold up and put in your pocket yep uh what about the ai ai basically it's very similar to other iPhones. So you have the Siri AI built in. Siri is smarter than before. But what I will say though, and I think I agree with you, is that the other AI apps are still smarter. Like I use Gemini all the time because I can talk back and forth with it live. I could show my environment live and ask questions and stuff like that. It kind of remembers the conversations. Like Siri, I feel like doesn't have... Siri at this point seems like my slowest AI component of all the stuff that I use. So that may be one complaint. What are the other? We've talked a lot. We've given some sparkling reviews here for the last 10 minutes. What are some of the drawbacks that you've found? So other than the price, and that is a big deal, right? Two bucks. I would say the fact that the camera itself only has a main and ultra wide. So you don't get a dedicated telephoto like you have on your device where you want to zoom in. So you do have digital zoom, but it only goes to 10X as opposed to like 40X on your device. So Ben from Wellington, enjoy the tech talk. How well does the iPhone duo camera work yeah so i actually have a couple of samples here that i can show and it actually you know you get really colorful images um the zoom is not bad where is that uh so this is actually near um Bryant Park so it's actually zoomed all the way in on that yeah so in these cases it is zoomed in but the colors are really great and the ultra wide looks really nice it does look nice yeah and you could do that like if you flipped it it would pop up on the other side too yep i mean the other side of the phone oh sure so as i close it yes if i can just keep going with your images hey there you are takes good selfies yeah pretty good and because it's a foldable phone you could take selfies using the main camera oh oh right so like yeah so if i'm taking a picture and i you know flip the phone around you see how it says all right look at the tv guy ready to take a picture he didn't take my picture There you go. Oh, look at that. Yeah. And it has this feature called... Can you see it right there? And it has this feature called Smart Take Hilton. Look at that. Yeah, so the best-looking selfies you've ever had. Okay, any other questions that we had from Mark? Well, we have them here. Ula from Wallington also. Does the foldable phone work with a pencil? Yes. So it actually does work with the Apple Pencil. It's the USB-C version, or I think the USB version. It goes for $99. And the Apple Pencil actually works on the front and main display. So if you like to draw, take notes, or whatever, it actually works. And, Mark, if anybody wants to learn some more about your takes on this or your reviews, how long have you had it? I've had it for a little over a week now. And it looks like you're pretty much well at home with that thing. Where can people go if they want to check out your work? So we actually have our full review on tomsguide.com. And I actually did a display comparison with the Galaxy Fold. Oh, that kind of went viral, that video that you did. Do we have that video? I think we do, right? We do. We do. I think she loaded it in there. So let's see. This is the comparison that you did. What was the result of your comparison? A lot of angry comments was the result. But the main thing is that you could see that nanotexture display on the iPhone Duo on the bottom, and then up top is the Fold 8. And there's pros and cons, right? So I think you get richer colors and deeper blacks on the Samsung because it's more of like a traditional glossy OLED when inside. But when you're outside, you can see that there's more glare on the screen. So I think it really depends on what you want from your device. But so far, I kind of prefer the Duo. But when I'm inside, I kind of wish I had the Fold, if that makes sense. Is that right? Oh, yeah, if you're watching something or you're looking at something. Yeah. And do you give like a... At this point, it sounds like you're giving it like a thumbs up. Try it if you want it kind of thing. Yeah, no. Don't be afraid of it. Definitely try it out in the stores and see if it's good for you. And I think in a way, the fact that it is backordered gives developers more time to update their apps. But I am impressed with all the apps that are out there so far. All right. Mark Spoonhour, editor of Tom's Guide. Thank you very much. Do we have any other questions before we head out? We might. I hate not serious, but do we have any funny questions? Let's see. I'll take a funny one. We'll get one funny comment. Make sure it's not from Seymour again, okay? Because he got us in trouble yesterday. All right, uh Dave Molina, can I have your phone for three dollars? No, I'll say no, Dave, but but what you said was very interesting because you're already seeing these being resold for thousands of dollars above the sticker price, yeah, eBay I think is going to be like flooded pretty soon with these, um, but it's hard to stop that, I mean people are going to get close to Christmas and you might get a little desperate um, so oh you got another one, okay here we go, one four dollars $4. We got to get out of here. We got to go to a break. So we're doing bidding. Okay. All right, Mark, thank you very much. Everybody check out Tom's guide and we're going to take a break and we will be right back.