Apple raised the curtain on its much-anticipated foldable iPhone at a streaming video event Wednesday.
The new iPhone Duo, which will start at US$1,999 and ship October 23, is about the size of a passport — 5.4 inches diagonally — when closed, but still offers about 90% of the screen real estate of an iPhone 18 Pro, which was also announced at the event, along with the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
When open, the Duo sports a 7.6-inch Super Retina display that’s 80% larger than that of the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
The iPhone Duo unfolds from its compact, passport-size form into a full-size foldable display. (Video Credit: Apple)
To create an uninterrupted experience when transitioning between the interior and exterior screens, both displays maintain a consistent aspect ratio.
Software controls are located on the side of the screens to maximize content display and are within easy reach of a thumb.
Unlike other iPhone models that are secured with Face ID, the Duo uses Touch ID.
Apple is touting the Duo as the thinnest iPhone ever when opened.
The iPhone Duo shown in its closed and fully opened configurations. (Image Credit: Apple)
Like the other iPhones announced at the event, the Duo runs on the new A20 Pro chip, which has a six-core CPU, seven-core GPU, and two neural engines with a combined 32 cores.
Built for durability with a titanium frame, the Duo also has spatial audio speakers at the top and bottom of the unit, which will be offered in star white and night sky.
Duo Exceeds Analyst Expectations
“They exceeded the expectations that a lot of people had,” declared Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst with SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm in Las Vegas. “I think they’re going to have a blowout holiday season with this new foldable phone — even though the price point is high.”
“They did an incredible job of showing the usage models,” he told TechNewsWorld. “That’s an area that, frankly, Samsung has struggled with, but Apple really knocked it out of the park.”
Vena predicted Apple’s developers will warm up to the form factor immediately. “Wait until the developers get their hands on the APIs,” he said. “Apple did some stunning things with running apps on each screen and dragging material left and right.”
The iPhone Duo uses its unfolded display to run different views side by side. (Image Credit: Apple)
He also praised the Duo’s battery life. “My God, it was like 45 hours,” he noted.
One thread Apple wove throughout the event was the use of Apple Intelligence across its devices. With the new Siri, Apple noted, personal context can be found across applications like email and messaging.
“If you give Apple Intelligence access to your text messages, there’s some really incredible value that you can extract from that,” Vena observed.
“The question is, are people going to feel comfortable giving Apple access to their text messages?” he asked. “Because when you really think about it, your entire life is on your text message stream.”
AI, Siri Get More Screen Space
The expansion of real estate on the Duo’s display could give a boost to agentic AI, maintained Ranjit Atwal, a senior director analyst at Gartner, a global research and advisory company based in Stamford, Conn.
“The extra real estate allows you to divide the phone up and be able to see what the agent is doing,” he told TechNewsWorld. “You can interact with the agent on one part of the screen and run apps on the other part of the screen.”
“This is the first iteration of their foldable, but moving forward users will interact more with agents on their phone with AI,” he continued, “so if they can split the screen between what the AI and user are doing, they may have a better experience around Apple Intelligence over time.”
He added that Apple has a long way to go to integrate AI on the iPhone, as it has done on the Mac. “They’ve enabled the hardware on the Mac side to run much more effectively with Apple Intelligence,” he asserted.
Apple is bringing Apple Intelligence to the core and the heart of the products it develops, added Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president at IDC, a market research company in Framingham, Mass.
“It’s not just a feature on the devices that provides some capabilities for users to either summarize contacts or get different images,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I think it’s now clear that they are able to use AI to drive new experiences.”
That certainly seems to be the case with the latest version of Apple’s AI assistant Siri.
“I’ve been using the Siri AI beta for quite some time, and it’s the most I’ve ever used Siri, period, because of how good it is,” said Anshel Sag, a senior analyst for mobility, 5G & XR at Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas.
“It’s more accurate. It’s more responsive. It’s more useful,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’s everything I have always wanted Siri to be and a lot of what its competitors already are, but it has Apple security and Apple’s ability to get deeply into your phone in ways that maybe some of their competitors have never been able to do yet.”
Apple Puts Its Stamp on Foldables
Sag also praised the Duo. “I think Apple took a more novel software approach and has made it more user-friendly than I think other foldables are,” he observed.
“They’ve had time to kind of pick and choose features from other foldables and decide which ones make the most sense for how they want to approach a foldable,” he said. “I think they’ve done a really good job with it.”
“I think the design is great,” he added. “The hardware feels good. The screen looks great. I like that there’s nanotexture on the screen so there’s a little bit less glare.”
He also noted that while the hinge on the phone is very good, the crease is not completely gone. “That’s on par with some of the best foldables on the market today,” he explained.
Close-up of the iPhone Duo hinge as the device folds. (Image Credit: Apple)
“The Duo has a really stunning design, especially when you consider the fact that there have been other foldables out there for years,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in San Jose, Calif.
“This one looks to be even better than the most recent Samsung foldable, based on the software that Apple has, which always sets it apart from Android,” he continued.
“Foldables are a whole new area for Apple,” he added. “I think there’ll be great interest and demand will be strong.”
Biggest Brand in Foldables
Apple spent a lot of time thinking about all the things they wanted to do to improve the foldable experience, and it shows, observed Bob O’Donnell, founder and chief analyst at Technalysis Research, a technology market research and consulting firm in Foster City, Calif.
“I’m talking to you on the Galaxy Fold 8 from Samsung, which I’ve been using since it just came out, and it’s got a very similar form factor, but there’s just enough refinements in the Duo that make it genuinely just a better experience,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Most importantly, I wondered what Apple would do with the software,” he said. “There are just so many little things they did to how the software works on the device. They really optimized it for the folding screen and the different sizes.”
IDC’s Jeronimo noted that one of Duo’s biggest surprises was its price. “I think there was an expectation for much higher pricing,” he said.
He predicted that Apple will become the biggest brand in foldables by the end of next year. “We expect them to sell 10 million units in the first 12 months, which is quite remarkable,” he said. “So I think the biggest challenge they have is whether they will be able to supply the volumes for the demand they will see.”
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