Apple's First Foldable iPhone Arrives at $2,000

Apple ended its hardware event with a surprise: the iPhone Duo, its first foldable phone. After years of rumors, Apple is finally selling a phone that folds open into a small tablet. It starts at $1,999 — expensive, but actually less than many people expected, and right in line with foldables from Samsung and Google. The idea is simple: one device that's a normal phone in your pocket and a big screen when you want one.

The Duo is shaped like a passport when closed, with a small 5.4-inch outer screen for quick tasks like texts and maps. Open it up and you get a 7.6-inch display — slightly wider than an old-school computer monitor. Apple spent a lot of time arguing that its screen won't develop the ugly crease that has plagued other foldables, thanks to layers of flexible glass, a titanium base, and a special polymer top layer. It also says the screen stays readable in bright sunlight.

Durability was the other big pitch. The frame is titanium reinforced with ceramic fibers, the hinge contains more than 100 tiny parts, and the whole thing is rated to survive dust and water. Battery life looks solid: about 31 hours of video on the inner screen, 44 on the outer screen, or roughly 24 hours of normal mixed use. There's even a hidden selfie camera under the screen — a feature Samsung tried and then dropped. Apple Pencil support arrives later this year.

The software has been tweaked too. Splitting apps side by side is easier, and bending the phone slightly gives you a split keyboard. The catch? It's still $2,000, it's probably heavy, and folding screens remain a young, unproven technology — so this is a splurge, not a necessity.