Apple closed its keynote with the iPhone Duo, its first folding iPhone, the final announcement of the night, introduced by CEO John Ternus in the last quarter of the keynote (about 1:50am Malaysian time on Thursday 10 September, by the live blogs' timestamps). It is a passport-sized foldable with a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer one, the A20 Pro chip, two 48MP cameras and Touch ID in the side button, from USD 1,999 for 256GB in the US, and Malaysia is in the first wave: pre-orders open on Friday 16 October and it goes on sale on Friday 23 October.
Every specification below is from Apple's press release, published on its newsroom at about 2:15am Malaysian time, unless we say otherwise. Apple Malaysia's store page now lists it, at RM9,499 for 256GB up to RM15,499 for 2TB, as the Malaysia section below sets out.
Table of Contents
Design and hinge
Apple's release calls this "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original", in Ternus's words, and the shape is wide rather than tall: the release describes it as similar in size to a passport when closed and the thinnest iPhone ever when opened. The frame is Grade 5 titanium polished to a mirror finish, with Ceramic Shield on the back and Ceramic Shield 2 on the outer display, which Apple says has three times the scratch resistance of the previous generation, and the phone is rated IP68. The hinge is built from more than 100 components, supports the centre of the display to hold it flat when open, and closes with an integrated magnet array. Inside, support ribs stiffen the structure and ceramic-fibre inserts in the antenna splits add rigidity. Colours are star white and night sky.
Displays and the crease
The inner Super Retina XDR display is 7.6 inches, which Apple says is 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max display (Apple does not say whether it means area or diagonal); the 5.4-inch outer display gives 90 percent of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro. Both share the same aspect ratio so content scales without changing shape, both have ProMotion, Always On and 3000 nits of peak outdoor brightness, and a new FaceTime camera hides under the inner display when not in use. Touch ID is in the side button, the phone unlocks with an Apple Watch, and there is a Camera Control button. Apple Pencil support on either display, with the USB-C Apple Pencil, comes later this year.
On the crease, Apple's release says the inner display has a nano-texture finish that reduces glare and reflections and "minimizes crease visibility", over a cover layer made from a custom polymer, glass above and below the folding panel with adhesives that let the layers glide past each other like pages of a book, and a titanium plate at the bottom. We have not held one, so whether the fold disappears in a viewfinder is a question for our review.
The software is iOS 27, with controls, the Dock and the Dynamic Island moved to the side to leave vertical space for content. Split View puts two apps side by side on an iPhone for the first time, two windows of the same app can run together, app pairs can be saved, and StandBy works on either display even when the phone is not charging.
Cameras and video
The rear cameras are a 48MP Fusion Main with sensor-shift stabilisation, zero shutter lag and what Apple calls an optical-quality 2x telephoto from the same sensor, and a 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide that Apple says is the same as on the iPhone 18 Pro models. Apple's release lists no separate telephoto lens and does not mention variable aperture, the headline feature of the iPhone 18 Pro announced an hour earlier; it describes the main camera's aperture only as fast. The main camera records 4K video at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision, Cinematic effects can be applied after capture at up to 60 frames per second, and time-lapse records in 4K Dolby Vision HDR with the phone propped open instead of on a tripod. The fold adds Duo Preview, which shows the live frame on the outer display so the subject can check it, Smart Take, which captures automatically when people are posing, and Dual Capture in FaceTime. Apple's release does not mention Apple Log, ProRes or external recording, so we are not claiming them.
Chip, modem and battery
The A20 Pro is the same chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, connected directly to a custom vapour chamber, and Apple says the package gives up to 35 percent better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro. Connectivity is Apple's N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and its C2 modem, and the phone is eSIM-only worldwide. One battery sits in each half, working as one: Apple's figures are up to 31 hours of video playback on the inner display, up to 44 hours on the outer display, and up to 24 hours of use per charge when both are used equally. Those are Apple's own test figures, and Apple says actual results vary.
Price and dates
In the US the iPhone Duo starts at USD 1,999 for 256GB, with 512GB, 1TB and 2TB tiers. Apple's release names Malaysia among the countries where pre-orders open at 5am Pacific on Friday 16 October, which is 8pm here, with availability from Friday 23 October. It ships with iOS 27.1. The iPhone Duo Case is USD 79 and the Folio with kickstand USD 129.
Malaysia
Apple Malaysia now lists the iPhone Duo on apple.com/my: it starts at RM9,499 for the 256GB model and runs up to RM15,499 for the largest storage, with 512GB and 1TB in between. Pre-orders open at 8pm Malaysian time on Friday 16 October and it goes on sale on Friday 23 October, with Malaysia in Apple's first wave.
That RM9,499 starting price sits above every iPhone launch price in our own Malaysian record, which runs from 2017 and had topped out at the RM5,999 launch price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Our pre-event estimate, worked from last year's iPhone 17 pricing, put the base near RM9,640, and the confirmed RM9,499 came within about RM150 of it.
What a folding screen means on set
We shoot our own videos on iPhones, so our question is whether this is a better camera to work with. A 7.6-inch screen on the phone doing the shooting is the largest monitor an iPhone has ever given us, and a phone that props itself open is a built-in stand for reviewing a take. Whether the Camera app uses the inner screen as a full-size viewfinder while the rear cameras record is the first thing we will test. Against that, Apple's release lists no separate telephoto camera (it describes the 2x as an integrated optical-quality telephoto on the main camera) and does not mention variable aperture, and until Apple's specifications page confirms Log and ProRes we would not plan a shoot around it. The Pro camera details are in our iPhone 18 Pro launch piece.
Every iPhone Pro since the iPhone 15 Pro shoots Apple Log, and the difference between footage that looks like a phone and footage that looks like cinema is not the phone, it is the workflow: exposing LOG on purpose, grading it, getting clean audio. That is exactly what our Pocket Cinematic course teaches, on the phone already in your pocket, the workflow we use on our own videos. The course page lists the founder price at RM349 with a free Hollyland Lark A1 mic while the founder boxes last.
