Apple’s first foldable iPhone opens to 7.6 inches and starts at Dh8,499 in UAE

Dubai, UAE: Apple has unveiled its first foldable iPhone, with the new iPhone Duo opening into a 7.6-inch display and carrying a starting price of Dh8,499 in the UAE.

Pre-orders will open on Friday, October 16, with the phone reaching customers and stores on Friday, October 23. Buyers will be able to choose between star white and night sky.

Closed, the iPhone Duo has a 5.4-inch outer display that provides 90% of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro. Opened, the 7.6-inch inner display is 50% larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max, giving users more room for watching content, gaming and running apps side by side.

Both displays have the same aspect ratio, along with ProMotion, Always On and peak outdoor brightness of 3,000 nits.

The iPhone Duo uses a hinge made from more than 100 components, while the body is constructed from grade 5 titanium.

Apple has used Ceramic Shield on the back and Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, which it says provides three times better scratch resistance than the previous generation. The phone carries an IP68 rating for splash, water and dust resistance.

A nano-texture finish on the inner display is designed to reduce glare and reflections while making the crease less visible. The folding display also uses high-strength glass above and below the panel, a scratch-resistant coating and a titanium plate for additional support.

Apple has adapted iOS 27 for the folding design, with Split View allowing two apps to run side by side on an iPhone for the first time.

Users can swap between apps, open two windows from the same app and save pairs of apps to return to later. When the phone is opened, two Home Screen pages can appear alongside Today View.

Netflix, Zoom and Slack are among the third-party apps already adapted to use the folding format.

The Dynamic Island has also been redesigned to sit vertically along the side of the displays, while controls, the Dock and app navigation can move to the side to leave more vertical space for content.

Apple Pencil with USB-C support is due later this year and will work across both displays, allowing users to take notes, sketch and mark up documents.

The camera system includes a 48MP Fusion Main camera capable of capturing images at up to 48MP, with 24MP used as the default resolution.

An integrated optical-quality 2x Telephoto is built into the Main camera, while a second 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera supports wider shots and macro photography.

The folding design also allows users to take selfies with the rear cameras while using the outer display to preview the shot.

Duo Preview places a live camera view on the outer screen so people being photographed can check their framing, while Smart Take uses on-device AI models to automatically capture photographs when subjects are posing.

Kid Cue can show Peanuts animations on the outer display to attract a child’s attention towards the camera, while Duo FaceTime allows people beside the user to join a video call through the outer screen.

The Main camera supports 4K video at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision, while Cinematic effects can be applied after recording at up to 60 frames per second.

Apple has placed one battery on each side of the folding phone, with the two operating together through energy management algorithms.

The phone provides up to 31 hours of video playback using the inner display and up to 44 hours using the outer display. Apple says users can get up to 24 hours of use per charge when the two displays are used equally.

Wired charging can take the battery to 50% in around 20 minutes, while MagSafe or Qi2 wireless charging can reach 50% in around 30 minutes.

The iPhone Duo uses an eSIM-only design worldwide, with eSIM supported by more than 500 carriers, including e& and du.

The iPhone Duo runs on the same A20 Pro processor used in the iPhone 18 Pro models, paired with a custom vapour chamber for thermal management.

Apple says the combination delivers up to 35% better sustained performance than the iPhone 17 Pro.

Its six-core CPU is up to 20% faster than A19 Pro, while the seven-core GPU is up to 40% faster and more power efficient. A Dual 16-core Neural Engine provides twice the compute power for on-device AI models.

The phone also includes Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread through Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip, alongside its C2 cellular modem system.