Compare Apple’s first foldable with Android alternatives from Samsung, Google and others, spanning different designs, features and prices.
5 New Foldable Phones To Consider Instead Of The iPhone Duo
Apple’s first foldable arrives years after rivals began refining theirs, and that timing cuts both ways. The iPhone Duo has drawn positive early reactions for its design and software, but Android makers already offer a range of foldables at different sizes and prices. If you’re weighing a $2,000 purchase, the alternatives deserve a close look.
Samsung is already eight generations into its Galaxy Z Fold line. Apple’s new passport-style Duo opens from a 5.4-inch cover screen to a 7.6-inch display. Both are OLED panels with refresh rates up to 120Hz; Apple says a nano-texture finish makes the inner screen’s crease hard to see from some angles. The phone uses Apple’s 2nm A20 Pro chip and has wide and ultrawide rear cameras. Its starting price is $2,000, a little above competing foldables. For buyers outside Apple’s ecosystem, these five Android phones make the comparison more interesting.
1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
Samsung’s latest lineup, announced less than two months before Apple’s foldable, makes a useful point: there isn’t just one way to build a book-style phone. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the smaller, wider model, with a shape closer to the iPhone Duo. Samsung’s taller successor to the Z Fold 7 is called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
The regular Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 5.5-inch outer display and opens to a 7.6-inch screen. Both are Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X panels with refresh rates up to 120Hz. Samsung says its Flex Titanium technology strengthens the folding display and makes the center crease less visible. Tom’s Guide found the crease less distracting and also praised the improved battery, which benefits from Samsung’s move toward silicon-carbon cells in its foldables.
The phone runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, has wide and ultrawide cameras, and comes with seven years of One UI updates. At $1,900 for 256GB, it costs $100 less than the iPhone Duo at the same capacity. That price gap isn’t enormous, but Samsung’s wider design and long update promise give buyers concrete reasons to compare the two.
2. Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold
Google’s $1,900 foldable is only its fourth, despite the “11” in its name. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is slimmer and lighter than last year’s model and uses a glass-fiber composite back that Google describes as “nearly impossible to crack.” It has an IP68 rating like the iPhone Duo, though it lacks official stylus support. Its aluminum frame may also feel less premium, or prove less sturdy, than Apple’s titanium one.
Google’s two OLED screens reach a stated peak brightness of 3,600 nits, slightly higher than the iPhone Duo’s. The cover display measures 6.5 inches; the inner one, 8 inches. Both refresh at up to 120Hz. There’s a hole-punch selfie camera, while Apple hides its front camera under the display—a cleaner-looking approach that comes with a hit to image quality.
Android 17 and Google’s Pixel UI power the phone, with Gemini AI features throughout. Some are useful; others don’t reliably work as intended, as our Pixel 11 Pro Fold review found. The cameras and battery are solid, though neither stands out. That’s a measured set of trade-offs for a phone whose brighter, larger screens are its clearest spec-sheet advantage.
3. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
Foldables are trending toward wider, passport-style designs, but flip phones still have a clear appeal: they close into a smaller package and cost less than large-screen models. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,200 for 256GB, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and 12GB of RAM. It’s a very different proposition from Apple’s $2,000 Duo—and could be a less costly way to find out whether a foldable suits you.
The exterior design hasn’t changed much. A cover screen stretches around the two cameras, making it handy for checking notifications or controlling music. This generation lets you do more from that small display: open the app drawer with a swipe up, pull down notifications, or switch among recent apps.
Its cameras are decent, but don’t match those on conventional flagship phones. In PhoneArena’s review, the Flip 8 narrowly outperformed the Motorola Razr Ultra. Samsung has made the phone thinner and lighter and reduced the crease, much as it did on the Z Fold 8. The price is up from its predecessor, but it remains far below the iPhone Duo’s. For a first foldable, that difference may matter more than the latest screen technology.
4. Xiaomi 18 Fold
Xiaomi’s phones often borrow design cues from Apple, but the company’s feature-packed Android lineup can also push ahead on hardware. Announced two days before Apple’s event, the Xiaomi 18 Fold is arguably the closest Android match to the iPhone Duo in shape: the two phones are the same height to within a tenth of a millimeter.
Both Xiaomi displays are 120Hz LTPO AMOLED panels with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. They’re rated to reach 4,000 nits, above the iPhone Duo’s peak brightness. Xiaomi uses its own 3nm Xring O3 chip. It may not beat Apple’s 2nm A20 Pro in raw benchmarks, but reports put its performance around that of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with better efficiency. The available information doesn’t settle how that comparison holds up in everyday use.
The camera setup is more versatile than Apple’s: a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 50-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The phone runs Android 17 with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 4. There’s a catch for U.S. buyers: Xiaomi doesn’t officially sell its phones there, so importing is an option, but carrier compatibility needs checking before you commit.
5. Motorola Razr (2026)
A lower-cost entry into foldables
At $800, the Motorola Razr (2026) makes a practical case for buying a foldable without crossing the $1,200 mark. That price still buys a phone with trade-offs: its MediaTek Dimensity 7450X, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of starting storage put it outside flagship performance territory. But it covers the expected clamshell basics, and that’s more significant than it looks in a category where high prices often come alongside weaker cameras or battery life.
The display setup tells the same value story. Its 3.6-inch AMOLED cover screen tops out at 90Hz, while the inside LTPO AMOLED panel runs at 120Hz and reaches 3,000 nits. The outer display curves around the two cameras, giving the Razr a current look similar to the more expensive Razr Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8. It won’t match those phones on raw power, but the core hardware is in place.
PCMag awarded the Razr four stars and described it as the “best budget-friendly foldable yet.” Motorola’s bundle promotions, which often include wireless earbuds and a Moto Watch, can make the $800 price go further. Those offers vary, so check what’s included when you buy.
How we chose the phones
Apple’s iPhone Duo may be its first foldable, but the category already has years of products to compare. We selected contenders using reviews from Tom’s Guide, PhoneArena and PCMag, along with our own review coverage. If you’re choosing a foldable, two practical cautions apply across the category: their screens are more vulnerable to accidental damage than standard phone screens, and app support can shape the day-to-day experience.
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