Apple has finally revealed the iPhone Duo and it already feels like it was worth the wait for the company’s eventual entry into the foldable smartphone game. Apple calls the iPhone Duo “the most transformation iPhone experience since the original.”
The iPhone Duo – now revealed as the official name for the device – also arrives with some neat software touches to ensure a seamless experience when opening and closing the device and full support for Apple Intelligence and the new Siri AI features.
It’s not only the first iPhone to offer a foldable design, but the first to offer Apple Pencil support, and the first to feature an under display camera.
Price and availability
The iPhone Duo will start at $1,999 / £1,999 for the 256GB version which is on the lower end of the estimates. It does go up to $3,199 / £3,199 for the largest 2TB version.
The phones be available to pre-order in both the United States and United Kingdom in star white and night sky on October 16 with availability commencing on October 23.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key features:
Design and displays
When closed, the passport-sized design can be used one-handed and fronts-up with a 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR display offering 90% of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro.
The phone opens up to reveal an iPad-like 7.6-inch inner display that is 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s real estate. When opened it’s also the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever made (between 4.5mm and 5.2mm), so durability is key.
The opening of the phone summons a neat transition and the inner display is filled with content smoothly. The company says key display features like ProMotion and Always On make the cut, while both displays offer 3000 nits of peak outdoor brightness.
Notably, the device maintains the same aspect ratio when open and closed, enabling content to scale proportionally. While the phone doesn’t have Face ID, it does reintroduce a Touch ID sensor that’s designed to sit where the thumb would naturally sit when the device is closed. Apple says.
Durability
With foldables durability is paramount and Apple is sparing no expense here with Grade 5 aerospace-grade titanium used for the construction. It’s also IP68 certified for water and dust resistance.
The hinge is a custom built with over 100 components that precisely controls the opening and the closing of the device. Apple says it has a 3D printed hinge cover while the Ceramic Shield on the rear, and new Ceramic Shield 2 protection on the front promises 3x greater durability than the previous generation.
There are internal support ribs to reinforce the structure and Apple is also offering antenna splits made with ceramic fibre inserts to boost rigidity throughout the frame.
Camera
As expected, there’s only a pair of cameras on the rear. The 48-megapixel Fusion Main camera that offers 2x telephoto and the 48-megapixel Fusion Ultra Wide camera.
However, that’s not all of the story. For the first time, the Face ID camera on the inner display sits underneath the display and only appears when needed.
Software tweaks include the ability to use the front display to frame selfies taken with the best cameras on the back of the device. Smart Take means both the camera operator and the subjects will be captured. There’s also a new Kid Cue feature that shows animations from Peanuts to get kids looking at the outer screen and hence the cameras
Software
As we mentioned, there’s some serious software magic here that keeps the experience feeling natural. The old status bar is condensed into a single icon so as not to take up too much space. It shows things like Wi-Fi, cellular strength, battery, and more.
Apple adds: “The Dynamic Island is also redesigned to fit vertically on the side of the outer and inner displays, and expands to show Live Activities and alerts. iOS seamlessly adapts to the new ways to use iPhone Duo — content reacts as it folds, reorients when turned to the side, and switches to the appropriate display when flipped over.”
When open, different apps can be viewed side-by-side, as can different tabs in apps like Safari. It you’re using Mail, you’ll see an iPadOS-like experience with a tabbed sidebar. There’s also an upgrade to the StandBy mode, which can be used on the outer and inner display, to come into use when it isn’t charging. Typing on a single app in portrait open mode also looks and seems natural.
Apple says all of its stock apps will confirm with the inner and outer displays, while third parties like Netflix are also on board from the get go.
Power and battery
Apple is powering the device with the same A20 Pro processor that sits within the iPhone 18 Pro range, whole providing support for all of the new Siri AI capabilities.
Battery life shouldn’t suffer, Apple says, with up to 31 hours of video playback when using the inner display, 44 hours of video playback when using the outer display, and 24 hours when using the displays equally. When wired up, you’ll get a 50% charge in 20 minutes. There’s also support for MagSafe wireless charging offering a 50 per cent increase in half an hour.
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