Apple has finally released its long-rumored foldable phone, which it has unexpectedly decided to call the iPhone Duo, and I’m planning to pre-order one. This is not a sentence I expected to write. I’ve tried most of the foldable phones in recent years, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Pixel 11 Pro Fold, Honor Magic V5, and Galaxy Z Fold 8, and none of them became my daily phone after reviewing them. The Fold 8 is the closest to change, and the only foldable phone I’ve ever really liked before was the Galaxy Z Flip 4.
The biggest problem I have with foldable phones is that I never open the big screen often enough to justify the price of these more expensive devices – although the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has changed that as it’s more useful for watching content. As a result, I never wanted to transition to a full-time role, especially since I would have to abandon the Apple ecosystem. Thickness stopped being a complaint somewhere around the Magic V5 and Fold 7. The iPhone Duo – announced at Apple’s September 9 event – solves both of these problems for me.
Everything you need to know about iPhone Duo
The iPhone Duo is a passport-style foldable, like the Galaxy Z Fold 8, that opens sideways onto a square canvas similar to the iPad mini. Apple pairs a 5.4-inch exterior display with a 7.6-inch interior display, both sharing the same aspect ratio so content fits between them. Closed, the outer screen covers 90% of the screen surface of an iPhone 18 Pro. Opened, the interior screen is 50% larger than that of an iPhone 18 Pro Max, making it the largest screen Apple has ever installed on an iPhone.
The frame is made of titanium with a mirror-polished finish – much like the iPhone Air – and a 3D printed hinge cover. Apple claims the open device is the thinnest iPhone ever, at 5.2mm open and 11.3mm closed. It’s not as thin as the iPad Pro, but it’s thinner than the iPhone Air. Ceramic Shield 2 covers the outer screen with apparently three times the scratch resistance of the previous generation, and the phone has an IP68 rating. Inside is the A20 Pro, the same chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, paired with a vapor chamber and battery on each side. Apple rates the Duo for up to 31 hours of video playback on the interior display and 44 hours on the exterior display.
Face ID is gone and Touch ID returns in the side button, although you can also unlock the iPhone Duo with an Apple Watch, like you can on a Mac. There are two rear cameras, a 48MP Fusion Main and a 48MP Fusion Ultrawide, as well as two selfie cameras, one on the inner screen below the display and another (12MP) on the cover screen. And speaking of the camera, unlike the iPhone 18, this foldable iPhone does not have a telephoto lens. It’s also eSIM only worldwide, just like the iPhone Air. Apple kept the camera control button, which you’ll probably never use, but there’s no action button or mute switch, making the Duo the first iPhone to ship with either. It’s a long list of things removed from the most expensive iPhone ever made. I’m pre-ordering it anyway.
Apple may have finally solved the foldable phone design
Every foldable phone has a fold. Although foldables have come a long way in making the crease less visually noticeable, I can still feel it. My thumb finds the dip every time I scroll down a long page, and once I notice it, I can’t help but notice it. But Apple seems to have come closer to solving this problem than anyone else.
The interior display uses a nano-textured finish that reduces glare and reflections, which Apple says also reduces fold visibility. Underneath, high-strength glass sits above and below the foldable panel, with custom adhesives that allow the layers to slide over each other when the phone closes, as well as a titanium plate at the base. The hinge is designed to support the center of the screen and keep it flat when opened.
First practical impressions seem to confirm the fact that the crease is not particularly visible. In a video shared by analyst Neil Cybart, the crease is visible when unfolding the iPhone Duo, then disappears once the phone is laid flat. Ray Wong, a tech journalist who had the opportunity to test the device at the event, reported that the crease is visible from certain angles. Analyst Ben Bajarin called it “extremely thin” and said it went into his pocket without any problems. I still won’t know how well it holds up until I use the iPhone Duo for several months, but if creasing stops being something I can feel as much, the device becomes easier to use.
Passport-style form is more useful
The passport form factor is the other major design choice that sold me towards the iPhone Duo. I’ve had the Galaxy Z Fold 8 since it launched, and it’s the first foldable phone I’ve actually enjoyed using. Samsung’s new wider foldable pairs a 5.5-inch cover display in a 10:16 ratio with a 7.6-inch 4:3 inner display, which is close to where Apple landed. Open, a wide panel gives you much more usable width for video than the nearly square interior screens of traditional book-style foldables, where widescreen content leaves thick black bars at the top and bottom. In fact, I think viewing content is one of the best uses of the Fold 8’s large screen, and first impressions of the iPhone Duo point in the same direction. Journalists at the event found that videos appeared slightly larger on YouTube and in the Apple TV app than on an iPhone Pro Max, and they said they were more comfortable to hold for playback than most foldable devices.
When closed, it is shorter and wider than a normal phone, reducing the overall size of the device. In my opinion, this is the best application of foldable screens. I prefer carrying a smaller device rather than opening a large square screen. The only foldable phone I enjoyed owning before was the Flip 4, mainly because of its smaller size.
The passport-style foldable is less than ideal for vertical videos, which will appear smaller on the short, wide cover screen. I barely use social apps, so I won’t miss being able to scroll through the For You page. If your phone time mainly consists of TikTok and Instagram Reels, this form factor could work against you.
iOS is why I buy the Apple version of it
I’ve owned every iPhone since the iPhone 4. I also dove into Android full time, first on a Nexus 5, then a Pixel 2 XL. In recent years, change has become a more difficult idea to manage as I use a MacBook, Apple Watch, and AirPods, and have become accustomed to years of daily continuity between them. Every time I’ve ever bought a foldable phone, using it properly meant giving up all that. That’s why the Fold 8 never managed to make me switch, although it came closer than any foldable before.
Since the launch of the iOS 27 beta program, Apple has been pushing developers to update their apps with support for resizable and flexible layouts, and it seems like it’s for good reason. The iPhone Duo still uses iOS rather than iPadOS, but it borrows heavily from it. Split View puts two apps side by side on an iPhone for the first time, and you can open two windows of the same app, save app pairs, and talk to Siri on one half of the screen while watching something on the other. The lock screen shortcut buttons, Dock, and app navigation all move to the side to free up vertical space, and Dynamic Island now extends vertically along the edge, which I wasn’t expecting.
In Apple’s launch speech, the company mentioned that Netflix, Zoom, and Slack have already updated their apps to support the iPhone Duo screen. How useful any of this is depends on how many other developers follow, although I hope most will. Oddly enough, Apple Pencil support is coming later this year, making the Duo the first iPhone you can write on.
What I don’t like about the iPhone Ultra
Although I am pre-ordering the iPhone Duo, the device is not perfect. The camera situation is what stings me the most, because Apple included an ultra-wide camera, which I rarely use, and left out the telephoto lens that I constantly take photos with. There’s a 2x optical zoom built into the main Fusion 48MP camera, which beats a straight digital crop, but 2x is nowhere near the range I have on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. I regularly take photos of landscapes and zoomed-in cities, and that’s the only thing this phone can’t do for me.
Then there’s the interior screen, which will be softer than a normal phone’s glass because it has to bend. To be fair, this is inherent to foldable displays rather than a failure on Apple’s part, and Apple has done more than most to mitigate it. Apple claims that the scratch-resistant coating and nano-textured cover layer make the foldable screen 40% stiffer than other foldable phones. Even so, a fingernail or grain of sand in a pocket could leave a permanent mark. Foldable phone threads on Reddit are full of exactly these kinds of stories.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, which is exactly the configuration I’m ordering. Pre-orders open at 5 a.m. PT on Friday, October 16, and the phone arrives on Friday, October 23. A CNET survey conducted by YouGov in August 2026 found that 75% of American adults are not interested in a foldable Apple device and that the quarter interested would only pay $781 on average. The iPhone Duo costs a lot of money for a form factor that most people don’t need. I would know because I spent years among these people. It turns out that the passport format and iOS have changed my mind, and I’m happy to pay extra for this convenience.
