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iPhone Duo UK Price and Release Date: What £1,999 Gets You

By Sarah Jenkins • 10 October 2026 • 6 min read

Apple’s first foldable iPhone goes on pre-order in the UK at 1pm on Friday 16 October and on sale a week later, on Friday 23 October. The iPhone Duo starts at £1,999 — £300 more than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 — and makes a few choices worth understanding before you order on day one.

UK prices

Apple announced the iPhone Duo on 9 September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. These are Apple’s UK prices; both colours, Night Sky and Star White, cost the same.

Apple is also selling its own Case for £79 and a Folio with Kickstand for £129. EE, O2, Three, Vodafone and Sky Mobile have all confirmed they will sell the iPhone Duo, though none had published contract prices at the time of writing.

What you get

• Two screens: a 7.6in folding OLED inside (1878 x 2670) and a 5.4in outer screen, both 120Hz ProMotion and rated up to 3,000 nits outdoors.
• A20 Pro chip — the same family as the iPhone 18 Pro.
• Two 48MP rear cameras, main and ultra wide. There is no dedicated telephoto lens: the 2x option is a crop from the main sensor.
• Touch ID in the side button rather than Face ID.
• 254g, 11.3mm thick folded and 5.2mm open.
• IP68 water and dust resistance, with a titanium frame and hinge cover.
• Dual eSIM only — there is no SIM tray.
• Battery: Apple claims up to 24 hours of typical use, and 50% charge in about 20 minutes with a 60W adapter. MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging run at up to 25W.
• Storage from 256GB to 2TB.

The catches worth knowing before you pre-order

It’s heavy. At 254g it weighs more than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (201g) and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (239g). Engadget’s hands-on called it “rather hefty”.

The crease hasn’t gone. Apple says a matte nano-texture layer “minimises crease visibility” — not that it removes it. MacRumors found it still shows in some light, though it is better hidden than on Samsung’s foldables, and TechRadar has published photos where it is plainly visible at an angle.

No zoom lens. Of the foldables on sale in the UK, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a 5x telephoto, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Honor Magic V6 and Motorola Razr Fold have 3x lenses. The iPhone Duo, like the standard Fold 8, has none.

eSIM only. If you move a physical SIM between phones, or use a pay-as-you-go network, check that your network supports eSIM before ordering.

Multitasking is basic for now. The inner screen runs two apps side by side, and Tom’s Guide noted you can’t run more than two at once. Support for the USB-C Apple Pencil is promised “later this year”.

Repair costs aren’t published yet. Apple lists the iPhone Duo on its UK AppleCare+ page but hadn’t filled in the price at the time of writing, and says a separate excess applies to replacing the inner screen’s cover layer. On a £2,000 phone with a folding screen, that is worth knowing before you buy.

Stock may be tight. Analyst Jeff Pu, reported by 9to5Mac, cut his 2026 shipment estimate citing hinge production problems. Apple hasn’t commented, so treat that as a report rather than a fact — but if you want one on 23 October, pre-ordering early is the safer bet.

How it compares

We go into the Samsung matchup in detail in iPhone Duo vs Galaxy Z Fold 8, and rank every foldable you can buy in the UK in our best foldable phones guide.

Our take

If you’ve wanted a foldable but didn’t want to leave the iPhone, this is the first one that lets you have both — and full IP68 dust resistance is a real advantage over Samsung’s IP48 on a phone with a hinge. But £1,999 puts it level with Honor’s Magic V6, which is lighter, thinner and has a proper zoom camera.

Our advice: pre-order only if you’re certain. Otherwise wait for full reviews and for Apple to publish AppleCare+ pricing. A folding screen is the one part of a phone where repair costs can change the maths.

Planning to buy? Our pre-order guide covers the dates, finance, eSIM and trade-in checks, and iPhone Duo vs Honor Magic V6 compares it with the lighter foldable you can buy today, and iPhone Duo vs Pixel 11 Pro Fold compares it with Google’s.

Check iPhone Duo availability on Amazon UK →

Prices and dates correct on 10 October 2026. Specifications are Apple’s; battery and charging figures are Apple’s own claims. We have not tested the iPhone Duo; hands-on impressions are attributed to the outlets that published them. Sources: Apple UK (product, specifications and store pages), Apple Newsroom, Samsung UK, Google Store UK, Honor UK, EE, O2, Three, Vodafone, Sky, MacRumors, Engadget, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, 9to5Mac. We may earn a commission from links on this page.