I tested Apple's $2,000 iPhone Duo. It's a fascinating experiment, but the price is hard to justify.

I've spent the past week trying to figure out whether Apple's $2,000 iPhone Duo is the future of smartphones or just an expensive way to do things I could already do on my regular iPhone. The answer, unsurprisingly, is a bit of both. Why it matters: Apple wasn't first to the folding smartphone party. Samsung, Google and others began making them years ago. But Apple's arrival in a category has a way of reinventing it. The big picture : The most exciting thing about Apple's first foldable iPhone isn't necessarily what it can do today but what it can become. Already, it's inspiring developers to explore possibilities that could reshape how we use our devices. Old habits die hard One of my first surprises was how little I initially used the Duo's biggest selling point: its folding screen. While other reviewers talked about endlessly opening and closing their devices, I found myself mostly using the smaller outside display. After years of conventional iPhones, it was a mix of instinct and muscle memory. Zoom in: Over time, though, I found reasons to unfold it. Watching sports was one of the clearest advantages. I pulled out the Duo at Starbucks to watch the 49ers with my son and later followed a tied World Series game in a doctor's waiting room. At the WNBA Finals, having forgotten my laptop, I managed some quick edits to a story about Anthropic's IPO . I wouldn't want to write a full article that way, but it was reassuring to have the option. Playing the New York Times' Spelling Bee alongside its Spelling Bee Buddy helper was a small but delightful example of multitasking without constantly switching apps. Between the lines: The Duo's advantages aren't always about more screen space. Sometimes they're about what you can physically do with a phone that bends. I tried watching Netflix with the phone unfolded, propped up like a tent and partially folded into a miniature laptop. I also used the Duo's ability to stand on its own to capture wide shots of the WNBA Finals from