Apple is giving a new twist to its flagship smartphone line: The company unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone model.
The company’s iPhone Duo foldable has an internal dual-display panel that provides the largest, most immersive screen size ever at 7.6 inches diagonally — and it’s also the thinnest iPhone ever, according to Apple. (When unfolded, it looks like a small iPad tablet.) There’s also a screen on the outside of the device.
The iPhone Duo is priced starting at $1,999, with storage options ranging from 256 gigabytes to 2 terabytes. Preorders start Oct. 16 and the device will begin shipping Oct. 23. It’s available in two colors, dubbed “star white” and “night sky.”
According to Apple, a few third-party apps — including Netflix, Zoom and Slack — are already taking advantage of the folding design to take advantage of the larger display. Apple is releasing software development kits for developers to design (or redesign) their apps for the iPhone Duo.
Apple’s iPhone Duo launch Wednesday comes seven years to the day after Samsung shipped its first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, in September 2019.
Along with the Duo, the company also announced the single-screen iPhone 18 baseline model and Pro 18 and Pro Max 18 versions, as well as AirPods 5 and other new products. It was the first product launch presided over by newly installed CEO John Ternus , formerly Apple’s head of hardware engineering, who took over from Tim Cook at the helm of the tech giant as of Sept. 1.
Other foldable designs feel like “two phones that have been stuck together,” Ternus said. He called the iPhone Duo “the most transformational change to iPhone since the original. With an entirely new design and intuitive experiences, it shows what’s possible when hardware and software are engineered together and redefines what it means to use a foldable phone.”
When it’s closed, the 5.4-inch outer display of the iPhone Duo delivers 90% of the screen area of iPhone 18 Pro in a “pocketable” design. Lock-screen controls and app navigation and controls are located on the side of the iPhone Duo, to “maximize vertical space for content,” Apple said.
When the phone is open, the display shows two home-screen pages with Today View (a vertically scrolling list of customizable widgets) on the left. With the “Split View” feature, you can launch two different apps on the left and right screens for side-by-side comparison; you can also drop-and-drop items between the two sides.
The company said iOS 27 is tailored for iPhone Duo. The operating system “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,” per Apple.
Apple said iPhone Duo has new camera features that are possible only with foldable design, such as the ability to take a selfie with the higher-resolution rear cameras and preview the shot on the outer display.
iPhone Duo provides enhanced battery life, too, with up to 31 hours of video playback when using the inner display and up to 44 hours of video playback when using the outer display. It provides up to 24 hours of usage per charge when both displays are used equally, according to Apple.
Apple also touted AI features for the new iPhones, which act as “your intelligent personal hub,” Ternus said in a video played at the top of the event. He underscored that its Apple Intelligence AI features — including an enhanced Siri AI app that has more “expressive” voices — run locally on the device whenever possible to protect users’ data privacy.
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