iPhone Duo Pre-Orders Open: Apple's First Foldable Costs $1,999 and Stock Looks Tight

Apple opened pre-orders for the iPhone Duo on Friday, October 16, at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. The Duo is the first foldable iPhone Apple has ever sold. Customers in more than 70 countries and regions can order it on apple.com and in the Apple Store app, and the big US carriers are taking orders too. The first phones reach buyers on Friday, October 23.

Apple unveiled the Duo on September 9, 2026, and set the pre-order date then. The company took its online store down for a short stretch on Friday morning before orders opened, its usual move on a launch day. Buyers who set up an order in advance with Apple's Get Ready option could check out in a couple of taps once the store came back.

What the phone is

Closed, the Duo is a normal sized phone with a 5.4 inch outer display. Open, it shows a 7.6 inch inner display, the largest screen Apple has put on an iPhone. At 5.2 millimetres thick when open, it is also the thinnest iPhone Apple has made. The frame mixes aluminium and titanium, and the hinge uses more than 100 parts.

Apple dropped Face ID for this phone and put Touch ID in its place. The rear camera system has two lenses, a 48 megapixel main camera and a 48 megapixel ultra wide, with no separate telephoto lens. The phone runs on Apple's A20 Pro chip and ships with iOS 27.1, which rearranges apps across the two screens and puts two apps side by side on the inner display. Apple rates the body IP68 for water and dust resistance.

Prices and dates

In the United States the Duo starts at 1,999 dollars for 256 gigabytes of storage. The 512 gigabyte model costs 2,199 dollars, the 1 terabyte model 2,599 dollars, and the 2 terabyte model 3,199 dollars. It comes in two colours, star white and night sky. In India, pre-orders opened at 5:30 p.m. local time on October 16, with prices starting at 299,900 rupees.

Apple offers 175 to 885 dollars of trade-in credit for an iPhone 13 or newer, and carriers offer up to 1,200 dollars in trade-in deals. A lease through Apple Upgrade, run by Klarna, starts at 57.99 dollars a month over 24 months. One cost worth knowing before ordering: MacRumors notes that some Duo repair fees reach 1,499 dollars without an AppleCare plan.

Deliveries and in-store sales start on October 23 in the first group of countries, which includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, India, Japan, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. A second group of 28 countries follows on October 30.

Tight stock is the early story

Supply is the open question of launch day. Reports ahead of the opening said Apple had asked suppliers for about 30 percent more parts and still expected stock to stay tight, with a target near 10 million phones worldwide by the end of 2026. MacRumors warned on Friday that limited production could make the Duo sell out fast and push later orders into longer waits. Apple has not published order numbers, and no carrier had reported sellouts in the first hours.

The Duo lands in a market Samsung, Google and others have sold foldable phones in for years. Apple is late, and it is charging more than most rivals. What Friday decides is simpler: how many buyers pay 1,999 dollars on day one, and how long Apple can keep the phone in stock.