Apple’s $1,999 Foldable iPhone Has a Problem You’d Never Think About Unless You’re Left-Handed, and There’s No Setting to Fix It

Apple’s first foldable iPhone may come with an ergonomic compromise if you use your phone left-handed.

A video shows just how far your thumb has to travel across the iPhone Duo’s outer display to reach controls positioned along the right side of the $1,999 foldable.

The controls are reachable, but it’s a noticeably bigger stretch than you’d make on a conventional iPhone.

The Duo is built around its right edge

The Duo’s hinge occupies the entire left edge when the phone is closed, leaving the rounded right side for Apple’s physical controls. The software interface also places a vertical control rail along that side of the outer display.

Hold the phone in your right hand, and those controls sit naturally beneath your thumb.

Switch it to your left hand and your thumb has to cross much more of the display to reach the same area.

The hands-on demonstration shows that the reach is possible, but it doesn’t tell us what the Duo will feel like after hours of everyday left-handed use.

Apple doesn’t offer a left-handed mode that reverses the physical layout, and software obviously can’t move buttons away from the right edge.

The Duo’s apps can adapt their interfaces across the outer and inner displays and its different physical orientations, but the basic hardware arrangement remains the same whichever hand you use.

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Hand size could make a big difference

Someone with larger hands may have little trouble reaching across the outer display, while a smaller hand could require shifting the phone in the palm before reaching controls on the opposite side.

That matters on a foldable because moving your grip around a $1,999 phone is probably not something you’ll want to do every time you need a control.

The video at least shows that left-handed operation is possible. Whether it’s comfortable is a different question, and one that will be easier to answer once the Duo reaches customers on October 23.

If you’re left-handed and considering one, this is one of those things I’d try in an Apple Store before spending $1,999. Specs can tell you how wide a phone is. They can’t tell you whether your thumb comfortably reaches the other side.