Apple has joined the foldable phone market with the iPhone Duo, bringing a book-style folding design to its premium iPhone lineup for the first time. It features two displays, Apple’s new A20 Pro processor and a titanium chassis and begins at $1,999.
With the launch, Apple is now taking on Samsung, which has years of experience in this foldable market. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra was announced in July 2026, and it will start at $2,099.99, feature a larger inner display, and support both eSIM and physical SIMs.
Both phones open up to make a bigger tablet screen. Samsung’s foldable, however, is slimmer.
The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra has a thickness of 4.1 mm when unfolded and 8.9 mm when folded. The iPhone Duo unfolds to be 5.2 mm and folds to be 11.3 mm.
Apple uses Grade 5 titanium, while Samsung uses an aluminium frame and chassis with its Flex Titanium display reinforcement.
Samsung has the larger panels. It has an 8-inch inner display against the ‘s 7.6-inch display. It also features a larger 6.5-inch cover screen, compared to Apple’s own 5.4-inch outer screen.
ProMotion displays with peak outdoor brightness up to 3,000 nits on both screens; up to 3,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness on both displays.
Apple says the iPhone Duo will also support the USB-C Apple Pencil, although the Apple Pencil Pro is not supported.
Samsung offers a three-camera rear setup:
The has two rear cameras, each 48MP; one is the main camera, and the other is an ultrawide camera. It has a primary camera with a 2x optical quality crop but lacks a dedicated telephoto lens.
Samsung’s camera also supports 8K video recording. Apple can now play up to 4K Dolby Vision video at up to 120 fps.
The iPhone Duo is powered by Apple’s A20 Pro and Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processors, with up to 16GB of RAM. There were no independent benchmark results for the iPhone Duo at launch, so direct performance comparisons are not available.
Apple says that it can play local video for up to 31 hours on the inner display or 44 hours on the outer display. Samsung says that the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra delivers up to 27 hours of video playback.
Apple claims the can charge up to 50% of its battery in approximately 20 minutes and is compatible with 60W wired charging. Samsung claims that 45W charging can charge the battery to 67% in about 30 minutes.
The selection has to be based on priorities. Samsung has larger displays, a lighter design, and more versatile rear camera hardware, including a dedicated telephoto lens. The iPhone Duo will start at lower prices, include IP68 water resistance, offer up to 2TB of storage, and support Apple’s iOS ecosystem.
For buyers already invested in Apple’s ecosystem, the iPhone Duo provides a new foldable option. On the other hand, Samsung is a more well-known brand, and it’s not surprising to see several generations of Galaxy Z Fold models.
