Apple’s iPhone Duo, announced in 2026, has entered a foldable phone market that took years of breakthroughs and failures to become viable. The device starts at $1,999 and arrives after Android manufacturers spent years solving problems that once made foldables fragile and expensive. Apple’s entry gives U.S. buyers a new high-profile option in a category that has largely been defined by Samsung and other Android makers.
The modern foldable traces back to Royole and Samsung, whose early inward-folding designs set the template. Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold, released in February 2019 at just under $2,000, drew terrible reviews after screens broke with little use, in many cases because reviewers peeled off a plastic layer acting as a screen protector. Samsung delayed the public launch and recalled units sent to reviewers, and the reworked version was only somewhat sturdier. Those problems made crease quality, hinge durability and screen resistance central to later designs.
Huawei’s Mate X, presented at MWC 2019, folded outward around a single high-resolution display. The design was striking, but the exposed screen scratched and damaged easily, and the phone was never sold in the United States due to sanctions imposed by then-President Donald Trump on Chinese technologies. Huawei’s follow-up, the Mate X2, adopted the inward fold used by Royole and Samsung.
Between 2020 and 2025, Android makers released a wave of foldables that steadily improved durability. Samsung’s 2020 Galaxy Z Flip introduced ultra-thin glass in the inner screen, the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 added IPX8 water resistance in 2021, and the Fold 6 later offered partial dust protection rated IP48. Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold reached full IP68 in 2025. Oppo’s 2021 Find N achieved a near-invisible crease, Honor’s Magic V series cut thickness, and Samsung answered with the slim Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Pricing also shifted. Clamshell models including the rebooted Motorola Razr and the $999 Galaxy Z Flip 3 brought foldables down to regular flagship prices. Newer models such as the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 have pushed the technology further.
The iPhone Duo is passport-sized when folded, with a 7.6-inch internal display and a 5.4-inch external display. Reviewers have called it Apple’s most exciting device in a decade, and Counterpoint told Bloomberg that sales are expected to reach 6 million units in 2026 alone.
More gadget news from TechManNews.
