Duo is the size and shape of a passport, with rounded edges and opens to a 7.6-inch (19 cm) wide horizontal screen.
A man records footage of the new foldable iPhone Duo on display during the Apple event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, U.S., September 9, 2026. REUTERS
Apple on Wednesday unveiled a $1,999 foldable phone called Duo, making the biggest change in years to the company’s flagship product.
The Duo is the size and shape of a passport, with rounded edges. It opens to a 7.6-inch wide (19 cm) horizontal screen that can also be viewed vertically. There is a single smaller screen on the front when the phone is folded. When open, it is Apple’s thinnest phone, the company said.
The foldable phone event, the first with new CEO John Ternus at the helm, is the most notable overhaul of Apple’s flagship product since it removed the physical home button from the iPhone
Apple positioned the iPhone Duo as a business productivity device, showing how it would handle Zoom calls with multiple participants and a broader look at the Slack messaging app. The Duo’s larger screen will support multiple app windows at once, a move aimed at productivity that Apple has made with some of its iPads.
Ternus criticized existing foldable devices as cumbersome and ill-suited for common tasks such as scrolling and watching videos, and said the Duo was designed to deliver an iPad-like experience in a pocket-sized device through a custom hinge, dual displays with a consistent aspect ratio, and a new titanium body.
“It’s completely new and at the same time remarkably familiar. It’s similar in size to your passport, familiar to hold, and comfortable to use with one hand,” Ternus said.
Apple said the iPhone Duo will feature the A20 chip to control its displays and also a new Apple-designed C2 modem chip, part of its move away from Qualcomm’s wireless data chips.
“Apple has created a new premium growth opportunity, opened another revenue stream and injected new momentum into the iPhone business,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. Shares fell 1.8% at the end of the presentation.
Ternus emphasizes focus on privacy
Former CEO Tim Cook handed the leadership baton to Ternus at the start of the presentation with a video on how to start the event. The video ended with a close-up of Cook, who said, “Not me. That’s your guy,” pointing toward Ternus.
Ternus touted the iPhone platform as a personal AI hub that focused on privacy and said others wanted to collect and store personal data. “Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer under your control,” he said. “That’s why Apple Intelligence runs on the device whenever it can.”
Apple’s Lilian Rincón, who oversees artificial intelligence products for the iPhone maker and was hired from Google earlier this year, described an updated Siri assistant that will work with 300,000 apps at launch.
The executives also showed the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max phones, which are the latest versions of Apple’s well-known line, which do not fold. iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max prices start at $1,199 and $1,299, $100 more than the starting prices of the 17 Pro and Pro Max.
AirPods and Apple Watch updates
Apple also introduced a feature aimed at addressing growing concerns about images generated and manipulated by AI. It introduced a new standard it calls “Apple Reference Image” to prove the authenticity of images taken with the new iPhone 18 Pro cameras and said it will also support the emerging SynthID standard to identify images that have been created or edited with AI. Apple’s Reference Image feature will not be available in the EU or China.
The iPhone 18 Pro will also include the new A20 Pro chip, which brings improvements to help advanced AI models run directly on iPhones.
The company also said that a new version of AirPods would start at $129 with noise cancellation, a first for its budget line of headphones, and that a $149 version would be available with additional features like wireless charging and a volume control on the stem that would allow users to adjust the volume by sliding their finger up or down on the stem.
Apple also introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, positioning them as major health-focused upgrades. This includes a redesigned sensor system that collects heart rate more frequently than before and powers new features that measure recovery and fitness. The company said the watches use new Apple silicon and improved sensors to offer what it called the most accurate heart rate tracking in a wearable device.
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Ternus previously served as Apple’s hardware chief, but has kept a low public profile aside from a handful of product unveilings and sustainability initiatives. It will be up to Ternus to persuade Apple customers that they need a foldable device that costs around $2,000, a new record for a global brand that has defined mass luxury.
While Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have been selling foldable phones since 2019, the devices remain niche among tech enthusiasts. But even with a high price, analyst firms such as International Data Corporation expect Apple to sell every foldable iPhone it can produce and secure a 40% share of the lucrative niche by the end of next year.
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