After years of watching its rivals launch foldable phones, Apple has finally entered the arena with the unveiling of the iPhone Duo during its "Surprise and Shine" event, currently underway. Details are still trickling in, but the passport-style design makes it an immediate contender for one of the best foldable phones around.
“iPhone Duo is 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,” said John Ternus, Apple’s CEO said in a press release.
Here's everything you need to know about the Apple iPhone Duo.
This is a developing story. Check back soon for more details.
Foldable display
The iPhone Duo features two Super Retina XDR displays, both of which Apple claims feature the same aspect ratio. The interior display is a 7.6-inches diagonally, while the outer screen is 5.4 inches.
And both will support Apple Pencil, making it one of the first iPhones to do so. And at this point, one of the only new foldables to offer any stylus support.
It comes with ProMotion, Always On and up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness.
The interior display hides the selfie camera on the interior until you need it.
Apple describes the display as having a "nano-texture" matte finish that should reduce glare and reflections.
Passport-esque design
The iPhone Duo features a passport design with curved corners on the right side of the phone and squared-off corners at the hinge. The frame is made from grade 5 titanium, while the hinge is a titanium and aluminum blend. It comes with an IP68 rating and is splash-, water-, and dust-resistant.
It's powered by the new A20 Pro chipset, the same as in the iPhone 18 Pro models. Duo also features Apple's in-house C2 modem, which should be more efficient than the C1X. Apple claims the C2 is 50% faster and 15% more efficient.
Touch ID is available on a side button, or you can unlock the phone using your Apple Watch. It also features the Camera Control button to quickly launch your camera.
Speakers are on both the top and bottom of the Duo. It comes in "starwhite" and "night sky" (kind of a navy).
Ceramic shield is on the back and front of the closed device.
For battery life, Apple claims 31 hours using the inner display and 44 if you only use the outer screen; 24 hours if you use both screens equally. It should get back to 50% with 20 minutes of charging.
Foldable software
iOS 27 has been customized to work specifically for the iPhone Duo, including moving the Home Screen dock to the right side of the screen on both the interior and outer displays.
When opened, the Duo displays two Home Screen pages with "Today View" on the left. Today View is a vertically scrolling list of customizable widgets.
Your battery life, wife and LTE connectivity have been moved to a circular icon somewhat under the camera on the outer display and a touch higher on the inner display.
You can have two apps open side by side, and Apple says it will react to how the screens are angled, like when you make it look more like a Nintendo DS. The phone will let you use it partially folded.
Setting the phone down will let it enter standby mode, which is customizable depending on what information you want to see. This works in both closed and folded modes.
In some apps, like Safari, you can open a second window next to the first. Or you can pin videos to the top of the phone in portrait mode, allowing you to continue using other apps like iMessage.
As with everything, AI and the new Siri AI is an integrated part of the new iOS 27 experience on Duo.
Cameras
The iPhone Duo features a 48 MP Fusion Ultrawide camera, the same as in the iPhone 18 Pro, and a 2x telephoto lens. It can record up to 4K, 120 fps video.
The cameras can be used in any orientation, and if you're FaceTiming, you can let someone see both your face and what your outer camera is looking at simultaneously.
The outer display lets you preview your shots or lets those being photographed see what you're seeing when unfolded.
Price and release date
iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with storage variants starting at 256GB all the way up to 2TB.
Pre-orders start on October 16 and the phone will be available on October 23.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom's Guide
