iPhone Duo Release Date, Price and Specs: Pre-Orders Open October 16

Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, goes up for pre-order at 5 a.m. Pacific on Friday, October 16, and reaches customers on Friday, October 23. It starts at $1,999 in the U.S. with 256GB of storage, runs on the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, and pairs a 7.6-inch inner display with a 5.4-inch outer screen.

Apple announced the device at its September 9 event alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, but held the foldable back for a later launch window. That gap has left plenty of buyers asking when they can actually get one, now that the iPhone 18 Pro has been on sale since September 18. Below is everything Apple has confirmed about timing, pricing, specs and the trade-offs of the new design, taken from Apple’s iPhone Duo press release and its official specification sheet.

Video: Apple · Introducing the new iPhone Duo

When can you pre-order the iPhone Duo?

Pre-orders open at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, October 16. Apple says customers in more than 70 countries and regions can order on that day, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Türkiye, the UAE, the UK, the U.S. and Vietnam.

For U.S. buyers, 5 a.m. PT is 8 a.m. Eastern. In the UK that is 1 p.m. BST, and in Central Europe it is 2 p.m. CEST.

The two official cases can be ordered the same day: the iPhone Duo Case at $79 in navy blue or sand, and the iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand at $129 in navy blue or taupe.

What is the iPhone Duo release date?

The iPhone Duo is available from Friday, October 23 in the first wave of countries. Apple says it will reach 28 more countries and regions on Friday, October 30. That puts the Duo’s launch five weeks behind the rest of Apple’s fall iPhone lineup: the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max had pre-orders on September 12 and went on sale on September 18.

The phone will ship with iOS 27.1, a newer build than the iOS 27 release Apple put out for existing iPhones on September 14. Apple has not given a separate date for iOS 27.1 on other iPhones.

How much does the iPhone Duo cost?

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the U.S. for 256GB, or $83.29 a month over 24 months. That makes it $800 more than the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro and $700 more than the $1,299 iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple has also confirmed 512GB, 1TB and 2TB versions but has not yet posted prices for the higher capacities in its announcement.

In the U.S., Apple’s Klarna-run Apple Upgrade leasing program offers 12- and 24-month leases on the iPhone Duo starting at $57.99 a month for 24 months. Leasing is not the same as buying on installments. Check the terms before choosing it over a standard financing plan.

Apple’s regional newsrooms list these starting prices for the 256GB model:

In the UK the Duo carries the same headline number, £1,999 including VAT, as the UK version of Apple’s announcement shows.

iPhone Duo specs at a glance

Apple’s iPhone Duo technical specifications give the full hardware picture. The key numbers:

Displays and design: how the fold works

Closed, the iPhone Duo is roughly passport-sized, according to Apple. The 5.4-inch outer screen gives about 90 percent of the screen area of an iPhone 18 Pro. Open, the 7.6-inch inner screen is, by Apple’s measure, 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max display. Both screens use the same aspect ratio, so apps scale proportionally instead of changing shape when you unfold the phone.

At 5.2 mm, the unfolded phone is the thinnest iPhone Apple has made. Closed, it is 11.3 mm thick and weighs 254 grams, which makes it heavier than the 249-gram iPhone 18 Pro Max.

The inner display has a matte nano-texture finish that Apple says cuts glare and makes the crease less visible. Its cover layer is a custom polymer that Apple says is up to 40 percent stiffer than other materials used in the industry. Apple says the hinge has more than 100 components and supports the center of the display so it lies flat when open. The frame is grade 5 titanium with a mirror-polished finish, and the phone carries an IP68 water and dust rating.

There are two notable hardware differences from the iPhone 18 Pro. First, there is no Face ID: authentication moves to a Touch ID sensor in the side button, so it works whether the phone is open or closed. You can also unlock it with an Apple Watch. Second, the camera system is smaller. You get two rear cameras instead of three, and no 4x or 8x telephoto.

Cameras: fewer lenses, new tricks

The rear setup pairs a 48MP Fusion Main camera, which offers an optical-quality 2x crop, with the same 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera used on the iPhone 18 Pro models. Apple lists a 4x optical-quality zoom range in total and digital zoom up to 10x. By comparison, the iPhone 18 Pro offers a 16x optical-quality range and up to 40x digital. The Duo’s spec sheet also omits ProRAW and ProRes, which the Pro models support.

What the Duo adds is a set of features that use its two screens:

• Smart Take: on-device models running on A20 Pro watch the scene and take a photo automatically when people are posing.
• Rear-camera selfies: you can use the higher-resolution rear cameras for selfies, framing the shot on the outer display.
• Duo Preview: shows the live viewfinder on the outer screen so the people being photographed can check their framing.
• Kid Cue: plays Peanuts animations on the outer display to get children to look at the camera.
• Duo FaceTime: lets someone next to you join a FaceTime call on the outer display.

Video tops out at 4K at 120 fps in Dolby Vision on the Main camera. Cinematic mode goes up to 4K at 60 fps, and you can add Cinematic effects after you shoot.

What iOS 27 looks like on a foldable iPhone

Apple has adapted iOS 27 for the Duo. The Dock, Lock Screen controls and app navigation move to the side of the screen to free up vertical space. The Dynamic Island is redesigned to sit vertically along the side of both displays. When the phone is open, the Home Screen shows two pages side by side, with a scrolling Today View of widgets on the left.

The bigger news for productivity is Split View. For the first time on an iPhone, you can run two apps side by side, open two windows of the same app such as Safari, and save app pairs to return to later. StandBy also works on either display whenever the phone is set down, even when it is not charging. Apple says Netflix, Zoom and Slack are among the third-party apps already optimized for the folding design.

Apple Pencil (USB-C) support for both displays is coming “later this year,” according to Apple. The iPhone Duo also gets Siri AI, the rebuilt assistant that began rolling out as a beta with iOS 27. It is available in English first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish coming in October. Details are on Apple’s Apple Intelligence page.

Battery life and performance

The Duo has two batteries, one in each half. Apple says its silicon and energy-balancing software make them work as a single battery. Apple’s figures are up to 31 hours of video playback on the inner display, up to 44 hours on the outer display, and up to 24 hours of typical use when both screens are used about equally. The typical-use figure matches the iPhone 18 Pro’s rating.

For performance, Apple says A20 Pro connects directly to a custom vapor chamber in the Duo. According to Apple, that gives up to 35 percent better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro. That figure comes from Apple’s own testing and has not been independently confirmed. Apple also says the A20 Pro’s CPU is up to 20 percent faster than A19 Pro and its GPU up to 40 percent faster, and that the chip is built on a 2-nanometer process.

eSIM only, everywhere

Every iPhone Duo is eSIM-only, worldwide, with no physical SIM tray. Apple says the space saved goes to battery capacity. By contrast, the iPhone 18 Pro is eSIM-only in just a dozen markets, including the U.S., Canada, Japan and several Gulf states. If you are in a country where eSIM support is patchy, or you rely on local prepaid SIM cards when traveling, check your carrier’s support first. Apple lists compatible carriers on its eSIM page.

Inside is Apple’s C2 modem, which supports mmWave 5G in the U.S., along with the N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread. iOS 27 also adds iPhone Handoff. With supported carriers, it lets you switch between two iPhones on the same phone number, which could suit people who want to keep a smaller phone alongside the Duo.

Should you buy the iPhone Duo?

The Duo is aimed at people who want a small-tablet screen in a phone and will use Split View, video and reading enough to justify an $800 premium over the iPhone 18 Pro. It makes less sense if camera range matters most: you give up the 4x and 8x telephoto, ProRAW, ProRes and Face ID. The Duo is also 5 grams heavier than an iPhone 18 Pro Max.

It is also the first version of a new form factor. Apple says the hinge and cover layer are built for durability, but there is no long-term data yet on how the crease, hinge and nano-texture surface hold up after a year or two of daily use. Buyers who want that answered first can wait for independent reviews after the October 23 launch. AppleCare+ and AppleCare One are available, and both cover accidental damage.

What happens next

The next dates to watch are October 16 for pre-orders and October 23 for the first deliveries and in-store availability. Apple Pencil support and the wider Siri AI language rollout are still due later this year. Like the iPhone 18 Pro, the Duo supports Apple’s satellite features, which are listed by country on Apple’s satellite features support page. For most buyers, the bigger decision is whether a $1,999 foldable is worth more to you than the camera range of the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro.

Written byNadia Osei

Nadia Osei covers mobile and consumer gadgets for Pandromeda: smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds and smart-home devices. She tracks launches, software updates and pricing across Apple, Google, Samsung and the rest, and builds comparisons from the manufacturers' published specifications.

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