Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, a passport-shaped foldable opening to 7.6 inches, starting at $1,999 — below the $2,500 analysts expected and under Samsung’s $2,099 Z Fold8 Ultra. Pre-orders Oct 16, shipping Oct 23.
Apple made a foldable — and the price, not the hinge, is the story.
Apple made a foldable — and the price, not the hinge, is the story. The iPhone Duo, unveiled Wednesday at the Steve Jobs Theater, opens to a 7.6-inch screen and starts at $1,999. Analysts had pencilled in $2,500. Samsung, which has had the category almost to itself for 7 years, sells its Z Fold8 Ultra at $2,099. Apple arrived last and priced below the incumbent, which is not how Apple usually arrives anywhere.
What was announced
The Duo is passport-shaped with rounded edges. Closed, the outer display is 5.4 inches and carries about 90% of the screen area of an iPhone 18 Pro; open, the inner display is 7.6 inches — roughly 50% larger than an iPhone 18 Pro Max — and Apple says it is its thinnest phone when unfolded. Both screens share an aspect ratio, which is what lets content scale cleanly between them. Storage runs from 256GB at $1,999 to 2TB at $3,199, in 2 colours, star white and night sky. Pre-orders open October 16 in more than 70 countries, with shipping from October 23 and 28 more markets from October 30.
You are not paying for the chip
The detail worth pausing on: the Duo runs the A20 Pro, the same chip as the iPhone 18 Pro announced the same morning — a phone that starts at $1,199. So the $800 premium buys the hinge, the second display and the engineering to make a 7.6-inch tablet fold into a passport, not more compute. That is a cleaner value proposition than most foldables, which have historically asked buyers to pay extra for a form factor and accept compromises elsewhere.
Why it matters
This is the most visible overhaul of Apple’s flagship since 2017, and the first launch under new CEO John Ternus. Foldables have been a Samsung-defined niche with modest volumes; Apple entering at a price under the market leader signals it wants the category to be mainstream rather than a curiosity. Whether buyers want a $2,000 phone in a soft economy is the open question — but Apple has removed the usual excuse that its version costs more.
Written for Red Robot with AI assistance and human editing. Based on reporting by CNN and TechCrunch.
