The foldable iPhone Duo is Apple's boldest smartphone experiment yet

Sep 10, 2026 01:17 AM - 5 days ago 7

The Apple iPhone Duo foldable display

Apple's foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. Apple

Since its 2007 launch, the iPhone has had the aforesaid basal design: a flat, rigid rectangle.

Now, Apple is folding connected that shape factor.

Apple debuted the caller foldable iPhone Duo connected Tuesday astatine its annual September hardware event, marking the biggest creation alteration successful the device's history.

John Ternus, Apple's CEO, critiqued different foldables that "feel for illustration 2 phones awkwardly stuck together." The institution wanted a larger display, 1 that is "as earthy and intuitive arsenic an iPad," he said.

The instrumentality has 2 displays: the closed beforehand and the full-sized unfastened screen. When opened, the telephone tin besides person 2 displays connected each broadside of the hinge.

It's 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max and 80% larger than the 18 Pro.

Apple will waste the instrumentality for $1,999.

Breaking the iPhone's creation rut

Apple surely isn't the first institution to put retired a foldable. Samsung continues to expand its lineup, while Chinese companies for illustration Honor and Oppo connection cheaper (and thinner) alternatives. One of Huawei's phones folds not once, but twice.

Still, the move is seismic for Apple, which mostly iterated and finessed the shape facet Steve Jobs first unveiled successful 2007.

Designer Christopher Stringer recounted the process of picking a style during Apple's 2012 suit against Samsung. The institution tested an "extrudo" model, which had a lozenge-like shape, he said. Then, it landed connected the iPhone creation we cognize and love.

At the extremity of the 2012 trial, Apple explicitly received its creation patent: a rectangle pinch rounded corners.

For years after, Apple tinkered pinch elements of the design. It extended the show and removed the location button. It tried retired caller colors and broadside buttons. It tried lighter and thinner models.

Throughout it all, the basal rectangle creation stayed flat.

The caller foldable doesn't stray excessively acold from Apple's roots. It does unfastened into a rectangle pinch rounded corners, aft all.

Still, the creation brings thing caller to the marketplace — and shows Apple tin still operation it up.

Read next

Henry Chandonnet is simply a elder newsman connected the Business News desk. He writes astir tech culture, from Silicon Valley's startup people to the mundane AI user. He besides intimately covers Big Tech and the workplace. Henry antecedently wrote for Fast Company, wherever he covered trending tech news. He's written for The Daily Beast, People Magazine, and Vulture.Email Henry astatine [email protected], scope him connected Signal astatine henrychand.30, aliases travel him connected X @HenryChandonnet. 

More