The £1,999 iPhone Duo is here. Should you actually buy it?
Why it hits youIt's all over your feed, and the hype is huge. But £1,999 is more than a lot of laptops, and the first version of anything new comes with problems nobody has found yet. Worth knowing what you're getting before the FOMO wins.
Apple's first folding phone opens out to a 7.6-inch screen, and it costs £1,999. The reviews love how it's built. A lot of them still say wait. Here's what you'd actually be paying for.
The Facts
What everyone agrees on
Before anyone spins it. Every one of these is checkable.
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The iPhone Duo is Apple's first folding iPhone. Pre-orders opened on 16 October and it went on sale on 23 October, including in the UK. Apple Newsroom ↗
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It costs £1,999 for 256GB, rising to £3,199 for 2TB. Apple also offers it at £66.63 to £106.63 a month for 30 months. Apple (UK store) ↗
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It opens out to a 7.6-inch screen, with a 5.4-inch screen on the outside, and weighs 254g. Apple (tech specs) ↗
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It unlocks with Touch ID in the side button rather than Face ID, and has no separate zoom lens: its 2x zoom crops from the main camera. Apple Newsroom ↗
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Folding phones aren't new: Samsung's first Galaxy Fold went on sale in the UK in 2019, seven years before the Duo. Samsung Newsroom ↗
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Within days of pre-orders opening, delivery dates for some US orders had slipped into January 2027. GadgetScout ↗
Every Side · 1 of 3
The fans
Apple took its time, and nailed it
Engadget gave it 8.8 out of 10 and called it “a first-class foldable”, saying the battery often had 40% or more left at the end of the day. Gizmodo says Apple waiting years to get folding phones right “was the right move”, and that “even at two grand, it has the potential to upend mobile as we know it.” For fans, it's the most exciting iPhone in years.
- Engadget
- Gizmodo
- Apple
Side labels are our editorial calls for now. How we'll rate lean
Every Side · 2 of 3
The sceptics
Clever, but first-gen and pricey
The Verge's reviewers called it expensive and “full of compromises”, and said it can get hot enough to slow down. Engadget says apps not yet rebuilt for the folding screen are “the biggest growing pain”. There's Touch ID instead of Face ID, and it weighs 254g. One early owner in Australia said his inner screen cracked along the fold after fewer than 20 opens. Apple replaced it, and nobody yet knows how common that is.
- The Verge
- 9to5Mac
- MacRumors
- iFixit
Side labels are our editorial calls for now. How we'll rate lean
Every Side · 3 of 3
The verdict
Brilliant, for a small group of people
Most reviews land in the same place: impressive hardware, mixed verdict, and a first-generation phone for people with money to spare. CNET put it simply: “most people just don't need a phone that doubles as a tablet.” Even so, analysts at Counterpoint expect Apple to grab a quarter of the world's folding-phone market in its first year.
- CNET
- Counterpoint Research
- Tech reviewers
Side labels are our editorial calls for now. How we'll rate lean
The Blindspot · what the headlines skip
“£66 a month” means two and a half years
The monthly price looks small because it runs for 30 months. That's a commitment that outlasts most people's school year, course or first job contract, for a phone that may have a cheaper, lighter version out long before you've paid it off.
The Blindspot · what the headlines skip
One crack could cost more than a new phone
Repair group iFixit says fixing the inner screen costs more than a brand-new iPhone 17, and that the hinge and screen are “untested in the real world”. It says that if it were buying one, it would buy AppleCare too. That's extra money the price tag doesn't show.
The Blindspot · what the headlines skip
“Apple invents the folding phone” isn't the story
Android phones have folded since 2019, and Google had its own by 2023. Fans say Apple waited to get it right; critics say it's late. Either way, cheaper folding phones already exist if that's what you want.
The Blindspot · what the headlines skip
Recycled metal doesn't fix a fragile phone
Apple says the Duo is 35% recycled material overall. But the world threw away a record 62 million tonnes of electronics in 2022, and less than a quarter was properly recycled. A phone that's expensive to repair is more likely to end up replaced.
The Blindspot · what the headlines skip
Everyone's talking about it. Hardly anyone has one
With some orders not arriving until next year, the Duo is far more common in your feed than in real life. The pressure to have one is mostly social media.
Your Call
- The fans: not yet
- The sceptics: not yet
- The verdict: not yet
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Hero image: Photo: Simon Waldherr / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 · launch day, 23 October 2026 ↗
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