Q. iPhone Duo release date and price: what's new in Apple's first foldable?

Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo opened on Friday, 16 October, at 5 a.m. Pacific time. It is the first iPhone that folds, arriving 19 years after the original iPhone in 2007. It costs about two thousand dollars, takes no physical SIM (subscriber identity module) card and comes with a long spec sheet. So what exactly is new in Apple’s first foldable iPhone?

The short answer: iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone, a phone that opens like a book. Pre-orders opened on 16 October, and it goes on sale on 23 October in more than 70 countries, starting at $1,999 in the US. Closed, it is about the size of a passport with a 5.4-inch screen; open, it becomes a 7.6-inch screen.

When is the iPhone Duo release date?

Apple unveiled iPhone Duo on 9 September at Apple Park in Cupertino. Pre-orders opened at 5 a.m. PT on Friday, 16 October, on apple.com and in the Apple Store app, at the same moment in more than 70 countries and regions, including the US, the UK, Japan and South Korea, where it was 9 p.m. The phone goes on sale on Friday, 23 October, and 28 more countries and regions follow on 30 October.

The US store gave an early hint of how tight supply is. MacRumors reported that customers who ordered right at 5 a.m. PT will get their phones on 23 October. By 5:30 a.m., though, new orders for some configurations on Apple’s US online store showed delivery estimates in late January. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had said supply would be limited, after earlier reports of possible manufacturing problems and low production yield (the share of finished units that pass quality checks).

Keep in mind that this is the US store only, and shipping estimates reflect supply as well as demand, so they do not reveal sales numbers.

How much does the iPhone Duo cost?

iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the US, or ₩3,290,000 in South Korea. Storage options are 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB. There are two colors, star white and night sky, and the frame is grade 5 titanium (a titanium alloy made stronger with small amounts of other metals) with a mirror-polished finish.

Two accessories launched alongside it: the iPhone Duo Case, a thin two-part case that wraps both halves, for $79 (₩119,000), and the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand for $129 (₩199,000). Both could be ordered from 16 October.

What exactly is different about a foldable iPhone?

The biggest change is the screen. Closed, the outer display measures 5.4 inches (13.6cm) and offers 90 percent of the screen area of an iPhone 18 Pro. Open, the inner display measures 7.6 inches (19.3cm) and is 50 percent larger than the screen of an iPhone 18 Pro Max. Both screens share the same aspect ratio, so content simply scales up or down as you open or close the phone.

The hinge, built from more than 100 parts, holds up the middle of the display so it stays flat when open, and magnets help it close firmly. Touch ID is built into the side button, so you unlock the phone the same way whether it is open or closed. Apple’s announcement does not mention Face ID at all.

The A20 Pro is the same chip as in the iPhone 18 Pro, built on what Apple calls the latest 2-nanometer process. A custom vapor chamber (a thin sealed plate in which a liquid evaporates and condenses to spread heat) is connected directly to the chip, and Apple says the phone sustains up to 35 percent better performance than the iPhone 17 Pro. There is one battery in each half, and the eSIM-only design frees up space for battery capacity. With iOS 27, Split View lets an iPhone run two apps side by side for the first time.

Feature	iPhone Duo
Screens	7.6-inch (19.3cm) inner, 5.4-inch (13.6cm) outer, same aspect ratio
Hinge	More than 100 parts, keeps the open screen flat
Unlocking	Touch ID in the side button
SIM	eSIM only, worldwide
Chip and cooling	A20 Pro on a 2nm process, vapor chamber on the chip
Battery	One in each half, up to 31 hours of video on the inner screen
Water resistance	IP68 (Ingress Protection rating 68), up to 6 meters for 30 minutes (lab conditions)
Multitasking	Split View, two apps side by side

Does the iPhone Duo have a crease?

This is the first thing most people ask about any foldable. Apple does not say there is no crease; it says it has made the crease harder to see.

Apple’s approach comes in layers. The inner display has a nano-texture finish, a matte surface with microscopic texture that scatters light, which cuts glare and, according to Apple, minimizes crease visibility. High-strength glass sits above and below the folding panel, and custom adhesives let the layers slide over one another like the pages of a bent book, easing the stress of each fold. A titanium plate sits underneath, and the hinge keeps the center of the screen from sagging when open.

How visible the crease really is, and how it holds up after months of folding, only reviews and everyday use after 23 October will show. For now, this is all Apple’s own description.

Words in this story

This site saves one news story at a time and branches out into the words inside it. These are the first ones worth knowing.

Word	What it means here
eSIM	A SIM built into the phone as a chip, with your carrier’s details downloaded to it. The Duo uses nothing else
Crease and hinge	The faint line where a folding screen bends, and the mechanism that lets it fold. The Duo’s hinge has over 100 parts
IP68	An international rating for dust and water resistance. Apple tested the Duo at 6 meters for 30 minutes
2nm process	The name of a chipmaking generation. The A20 Pro is built on it
Vapor chamber	A thin plate in which liquid evaporates and condenses to spread heat. On the Duo it sits right on the chip

Each word gets its own explainer, one a day, listed under “Branching out from this story” below.

In short

iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone: pre-orders opened on 16 October, and it goes on sale on 23 October from $1,999 (₩3,290,000 in South Korea). It brings a 7.6-inch folding screen, Touch ID in the side button and an eSIM-only design, but how visible the crease is will only become clear once people start using it.