Apple unveils $1,999 folding iPhone Duo as new CEO leads first launch

Apple has unveiled the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable smartphone. It starts at $1,999 and will be available on 23 October.

When unfolded, the Duo has Apple’s largest smartphone display and is the company’s thinnest phone. It folds like a passport to double the screen area, combining the wider format associated with iPads with the portability and camera features of iPhones.

The “Surprise and Shine” event took place at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. It was new chief executive John Ternus’s first major presentation since taking over from Tim Cook on 1 September.

Apple’s first foldable iPhone

Ternus said the Duo was designed to create a new foldable-phone experience. He also criticised competing designs that, he said, could feel like “two phones stuck together”. Bloomberg reported that Apple began testing foldable-display prototypes in early 2021, although the company had no launch plans at the time.

iPhone 18 Pro and other products

Apple also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro, starting at $1,199, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max, starting at $1,299. The company said Siri AI would work with more than 300,000 apps, while Apple Reference Image would identify whether an image was captured by an iPhone camera rather than generated by AI.

Apple executives said the iPhone 18 Pro Max would offer up to 45 hours of battery life, compared with 36 hours for the iPhone 18 Pro.

AirPods and Apple Watch updates

The fifth-generation AirPods were presented with noise cancellation that Apple said was 50% stronger than on AirPods 4. They offer five hours of battery life and start at $129.

Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. New features include Health Age, which assesses health indicators, and Audio Intelligence, which records ambient conversations, produces transcripts and generates a daily Siri Recap. Apple said recordings would remain on the device and be end-to-end encrypted.