- Apple has officially launched the much-anticipated iPhone Duo, the first-ever foldable iPhone.
- Set to ship in October, the phone brings A20 Pro SoC, the same as iPhone 18 Pro, and a powerful battery to power it.
- The nano coating on top of the inner display ensures minimal creases while the form factor does it's job making you feel welcomed and comfortable using a foldable phone.
It’s official! Apple’s iPhone Duo has finally made its debut at the Surprise and Shine event on September 9. The absolute limelight of the show was Duo, Apple’s first-ever foldable iPhone, with a rather surprising moniker, as we used to call it iPhone Ultra or iPhone Fold ever since we knew it existed. Well, let’s check out what the Apple foldable phone brings to the table and be ready to be amazed.
iPhone Duo launches with a creaseless foldable display
Well, the phone looks pretty decent. I mean, although Apple made us wait for a long time, it seems the wait was quite worth it. The phone looks amazing with a passport-style (or book-style) form factor. The interesting bit here is that the displays pretty much share the same aspect ratio, which means you don’t feel disoriented switching from outer to inner display. Instead, you feel as if switching from a smaller to an iPad Mini-ish display, and I would applaud Apple for this.
The phone deploys a 5.4” cover display with ProMotion, 3000 nits of peak brightness, and a Ceramic Shield 2 that prevents damage. Unfold, and a giant 7.6” primary OLED panel greets you with a majestic custom nano-texture finish that not only reduces visibility of creases but also makes iPhone Duo resistant to scratches. Plus, we have an IP68 rating for dust and water that makes iPhone Duo topple Samsung’s counterpart.
iPhone Duo uses a Ceramic Shield on the back and a titanium frame to support the structure; however, all this has made the phone a bit heavier at 250g. I mean, you’ll feel the weight when the phone is folded, as in, it is bulky. However, the moment you open it, things change, as you typically feel as if you are using a mini version of an iPad.
A20 Pro chip under the hood
Well, the iPhone 18 Pro Duo uses the A20 Pro SoC under the hood that powers the iPhone 18 Pro series as well. The chipset is the first-ever 2nm SoC that comes with a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a dual 16-core NPU. Although we will have to wait for the real-life performance benchmarks, Apple has advertised the A20 Pro to possess 20% faster CPU performance, up to 40% faster GPU performance, and 50% more unified memory than the A19 Pro SoC.
I wouldn’t simply boast about the hardware when the software is doing a great job as well. iPhone Duo uses iOS 27 under the hood, adapted for the foldable displays. It is proactive; it reacts and reorients when you fold or unfold the display or flip or turn, and it will follow. I like how you get a subtly larger inner display when held in landscape mode, great for watching movies and gaming, though.
Usually, the Cupertino-based giant doesn’t reveal battery specifics, and Duo is no exception. Apple simply said that the battery on board is capable of video playback for up to 31 hours on the inner and 44 hours on the outer display.
When combined, the output is around 24 hours of use. Since Apple mentioned iPhone Duo uses the same battery as the iPhone 18 Pro, which in turn uses the same battery as the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we can estimate the battery to be around 4,900mAh. It charges to 50% in just 20 minutes; plus, we have Qi2 and MagSafe support on board.
Well, there are some cameras on board as well, although it may be a hit or miss. iPhone Duo camera specs include a 48MP Fusion primary cam with optical-quality 2x telephoto mode, plus a 48MP ultrawide snapper with macro capabilities. There’s no telephoto cam on board. We also have a 12MP Center Stage cam on the cover display, the same as the iPhone 18 Pro Duo.
Surprisingly, Apple has integrated an under-display selfie camera on the inner foldable display as well. Although the specs and hardware remain a mystery, the cool software mechanism ensures the pixels remain lit when the cam is not in use. When you want to use it, the pixels turn off, revealing the camera that was always hiding in plain sight; isn’t it amazing?
iPhone Duo brings a self-standing structure, which means you can position your device to view as you like. Fold it midway, and you get a perfect display for watching movies, or help it stand for all your photos and videos; it won’t disappoint you.
Apart from that, the iPhone Duo gains a Touch ID position on its power button to the right. There’s no Face ID as of now. Finally, it will gain Apple Pencil support later this year, which completes it eternally as your mini iPad (but a larger iPhone).
iPhone Duo pricing and availability
Well, the first-ever foldable phone from Apple surprised everyone with a price tag of $1,999 in the US. Of course, this makes the phone the most expensive iPhone ever made, but hey, it is a foldable phone we are talking about, so cut some slack here. Apple underwent a price hike last month after absorbing the increasing cost of components and supply chain constraints for months.
The phone is priced at EUR 2,299 in Germany; INR 299,900 in India; GBP 1,999 in the UK; JPY 364,800 in Japan; and finally, CNY 15,999 in China, and all this for the base 256GB variant. Well, if you are ready to spend a fortune, be my guest and get your hands on higher storage configurations priced at $2,199 for 512GB and $2,599 for 1TB; finally, we have a 2TB variant as well, priced at an insane $3,199 in the US. Think about it: the phone is half a million INR in India for the top-most 2TB configuration.
Regarding color options, you can choose from the two—Star White and Night Sky.
Talking about the availability, iPhone Duo enters 65 countries in its first wave of rollout, which includes South Korea, the US, the UK, Germany, India, France, Australia, China, Canada, Japan, etc. Pre-orders commence on October 16, and shipments will begin on October 23. 28 other countries will join the wagon from October 30.
Keep up with the tech that actually matters.
Add us as a preferred source on Google Search for quicker access to our coverage.
