Apple unveils its first foldable: iPhone Duo, 7.6-inch internal display

Apple unveiled its first foldable phone on September 9, 2026, during the event at its Cupertino headquarters: it is called iPhone Duo and was shown alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. The announcement is in the company’s press release — which, like any company communication, should be read for what it is: the manufacturer’s position — and is reconstructed from the event coverage by Bloomberg and Fortune.

The event had a second significance: it was the first with John Ternus in the role of chief executive.

The announced features. The device has a 7.6-inch internal display and a 5.4-inch external display, which according to the company offers 90% of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro — a figure meant to address the classic objection to foldables, namely that when closed the phone becomes unwieldy. Facial recognition gives way to fingerprint recognition: Touch ID replaces Face ID, with the sensor built into the side button. The processor is the A20 Pro, manufactured with a 2-nanometer process and cooled with a vapor chamber, as reported in the specifications released by the company and gathered by Macworld.

On price, the source is not the press release but Bloomberg’s coverage, which indicates a starting point of $1,999; pre-orders in the UK begin Friday, October 16. The new version of iOS is expected on September 14, with the new AI-based Siri assistant.

The market reaction. Apple shares, down 1.5% during the day, rose back into positive territory after the Duo announcement. This is a movement of a few hours, not an assessment of the product: it measures market expectations, not sales, which do not yet exist. Among the comments gathered by Fortune, that of analyst and investor Gene Munster:

“I walked away with the impression that they’ve regained some of their edge” (transl. from English) — Gene Munster, investor and analyst

What the sensor change means. The replacement of Face ID with Touch ID in the side button is the most technically telling choice in the entire announcement: facial recognition requires a group of sensors at the top of the screen, cumbersome to place in a device that folds. It is the type of trade-off that foldable manufacturers have faced for years, and here it is resolved by returning to an earlier technology.

What we don’t know. None of the reported figures has been verified by independent testing: battery life, hinge durability, and the thermal behavior of the 2-nanometer processor under prolonged load do not appear in the available material, and the first reviews have not yet come out. The material does not indicate prices in euros nor availability dates in markets other than the UK, nor the quantities produced. Finally, we do not know which features of the new Siri will actually be active at the time iOS is released.

The first verifiable date is September 14, when the new version of the operating system is expected; the second is October 16, with the opening of UK pre-orders.