After more than a year of rumours calling it the "iPhone Fold" or "iPhone Ultra," Apple confirmed its first foldable at the "Surprise and Shine" keynote on 9 September — officially named the iPhone Duo. It launched alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max; for the full launch-day picture across all three, see our iPhone 18 launch roundup. This one's just about the Duo.
The basics
- Displays: 5.4in OLED outer screen for everyday use, unfolding into a 7.6in OLED inner display — Apple's largest, most immersive iPhone screen yet
- Design: book-style fold with curved corners on one side and squared-off corners at the hinge, giving it an asymmetrical "D" shape when closed
- Build: grade 5 titanium frame, titanium-and-aluminium hinge, Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, Ceramic Shield on the back, IP68 dust and water resistance
- Screen coating: a nano-texture matte finish on the inner display, designed to scatter light and reduce glare and crease visibility
- Camera: a single 48MP Fusion Main camera — no dedicated telephoto lens, with the selfie camera hidden under the inner display
- Software: runs iOS 27 with Split View multitasking, a redesigned Standby mode, and a side-positioned dock reachable folded or unfolded; Netflix, Zoom and Slack are among the apps already optimised for the fold at launch
- Colours: Star White and Night Sky — just two options
- Price: from €2,369 (256GB), rising to €2,619 (512GB), €3,119 (1TB) and €3,869 (2TB) — €700 more than an iPhone 18 Pro Max at every tier
- Release: pre-order Friday 16 October, in shops Friday 23 October — over a month after the Pro models
What early hands-on reviews are actually saying
Apple let journalists spend a few minutes with the iPhone Duo straight after the keynote, and the reviews are genuinely useful reading if you're on the fence, because they don't all agree.
The hinge and the "in-hand" feel get consistent praise. Reviewers across the board describe opening and closing it as effortless, without the "am I going to break this" anxiety that's dogged some Android foldables. The transition from the cover screen to the full inner display when you unfold it mid-app — say, halfway through a Netflix episode — is being singled out as one of the better bits of software polish Apple's shown in years.
The crease is where opinions split. Some outlets are reporting it's essentially invisible thanks to the nano-texture coating and a new two-layer flexible glass; others say it's just as visible as on Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 once you look at it side-on, even if you can't feel it with a finger run across the screen. Worth knowing before you assume "no crease" is a settled fact — it isn't, yet, and Samsung's own foldables are known to develop a more visible crease after a few weeks of daily folding, so the real test will be longer-term reviews, not launch-day hands-on time.
It's noticeably more expensive and slightly thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 8, its most obvious rival, though early impressions suggest the software experience is the more polished of the two.
Is it actually worth €2,369?
That depends entirely on whether you'd use the fold, not just admire it. The single-camera setup (no telephoto) and €700 premium over the Pro Max are real trade-offs, not marketing footnotes — if photography is a priority, the Pro Max is the stronger camera phone for less money. Where the Duo earns its price is multitasking and screen real estate: if you regularly wish your phone screen were bigger for reading, editing or side-by-side apps, and you're not precious about carrying something slightly thicker than a standard iPhone, it's the most credible case yet for a "tablet in your pocket."
If you're mainly curious rather than certain, the month-long gap before it ships gives you time to read full reviews once devices are actually in daily use, rather than relying on launch-day first impressions.
For the more conventional (and considerably cheaper) options, see our guides to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Get it protected from day one
At this price, protecting it matters more than usual. We'll have a full range of iPhone Duo cases and screen protection ready well ahead of the 23 October launch.
