Samsung has been folding phones in half since 2019, patiently waiting for Apple to show up to the party. Apple has now shown up — fashionably late, wildly expensive, and insisting it invented the concept of "hinge" along the way.
Two Screens, One Very Serious Price Tag
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable, at a Cupertino event where new CEO John Ternus called it "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original." It packs a 7.6-inch folding inner display and a 5.4-inch outer screen, both Super Retina XDR ProMotion panels hitting 3000 nits, protected by Ceramic Shield 2. The body is Grade-5 titanium, folded shut it's 84.1mm wide, 117.8mm tall, and 11.3mm thick, and the hinge alone is built from 100 components plus internal support ribs to keep the crease in check.
Under the hood it runs the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, brings back Touch ID via a power-button fingerprint sensor alongside Face ID, and starts at $1,999 for 256GB. Preorders open October 16, with availability October 23.
Late to the Fold, Right on Time for the Premium
Being years behind Samsung isn't necessarily a problem when your fanbase will happily wait for you to do it "properly" — Apple's real bet here isn't the hinge, it's that titanium build quality and software polish can make a category everyone else already sells feel brand new. At $1,999, they're also betting a lot of people have decided a folding phone is worth roughly double a flagship.
The detail worth watching isn't the screen — it's Touch ID's return. Apple quietly conceding that a fingerprint sensor sometimes beats Face ID (hello, weird folding angles and masks) is a small admission that "newer" doesn't always mean "better," even from the company that spent a decade trying to convince you otherwise.
Whether the crease disappears or not, Apple just made "foldable" a mainstream question instead of a Samsung fan's talking point.
New device form factors always mean new responsive-design headaches for the websites people browse on them — if your site's UX hasn't been stress-tested on a folding screen yet, that's a conversation worth having before your customers do it for you.
Source: TechCrunch