Apple’s long-awaited first foldable phone, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, arrives as a late but polished entry into a category already occupied by Samsung, Google, and Huawei. After hands-on time at Apple Park, Bloomberg News’ Chris Welch reports that the device already feels like the most exciting new iPhone since the iPhone X in 2017.
The Duo folds from a passport-sized handset with a 5.4-inch cover display into a 7.6-inch inner screen, the largest ever on an iPhone. When open it measures 5.2 millimeters thick, which Apple calls the thinnest iPhone yet. Closed it is 11.3 millimeters thick and weighs 254 grams in a titanium frame.
Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji said Apple set out to fix what people dislike about folding displays. Welch reports that the company largely succeeded. A nano-texture finish on the inner panel makes the crease far less visible than on rival foldables, even if it can still be felt. Software is the bigger leap: iOS has been reworked for the dual displays, with smoother fold-and-unfold transitions and layouts that treat the inner screen more like a compact tablet than two phones glued together.
Preorders open October 16th, with in-store availability a week later on October 23rd. Most of Apple’s other new hardware, including the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, AirPods 5 and updated watches, ships September 18th. Bloomberg plans a full review of the Duo in the coming weeks.
MacDailyNews Take: Welch’s early verdict is that Apple has raised the bar in the foldable smartphone market. Hardware is impressive. Software, he writes, is even better. For now, the first impression is strong.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
Hopefully my $5k check will arrive before it sells out.
That was the funniest post I’ve seen here in 15 years. Bravo Hank!
I think the phone looks amazing.. the biggest step forwards since the iPhone X. I’d like to see the phone in person before I’d be convinced to part with my own money. This is coming from someone who bought 3-4 year old iPhones for the past 8 years. The new fold interests me to come here and post about it.