Apple’s First Folding iPhone Is Here. It Costs $2,000, and the Wait Is Already Months Long.

Apple’s first phone that folds open like a book, the iPhone Duo, went on sale on Friday, starting at $1,999, The Next Web reported. Other brands like Samsung have sold folding phones for years. Apple waited, and many fans have been asking if the wait was worth it.

Closed, the Duo has a 5.4-inch screen on the outside. Open, it becomes a 7.6-inch screen, almost like a small tablet. It weighs 8.96 ounces, which is heavier than Apple’s biggest regular iPhone, Consumer Reports said. To fit the fold, Apple dropped Face ID for a fingerprint reader on the side button, and there is no zoom camera. Reviewers did love one thing: the crease, which is the line where a folding screen bends, is the faintest they have seen on any foldable, 9to5Mac’s review roundup found.

People clearly want it. Within minutes of pre-orders opening on October 16, delivery dates for new orders slipped to late January, The Next Web reported. One buyer in Sydney, where the first store opened, paid about US$2,734 for the bigger-storage model. The research firm IDC expects Apple to grab 44% of all the money spent on folding phones this year, the same report said.

If you walk into a store hoping to buy one today, good luck. Walk-in stock is tight in the US, the UK and much of Europe, and stores in China, France, Hong Kong, India and Japan are only serving people who already ordered online, according to The Next Web. And many apps are not ready for the big inner screen yet, so they show up with awkward black bars on the sides, Consumer Reports found.

So is this the future of phones, or a very expensive toy? Apple writer John Gruber called it an “extraordinarily polished prototype,” not something he would carry every day, while YouTuber Marques Brownlee said it is probably not worth it for people who mostly text and scroll, The Next Web reported. There is also the question of how long it lasts. In one fold test, the crease got noticeably deeper after 3,000 folds, about the same as other foldables, 9to5Mac noted. Would you pay $2,000 for a bigger screen in your pocket?

If you are curious, try one in a store first, and there is no shame in waiting for the apps, and the price, to catch up.

Sources:

The Next Web: Apple’s iPhone Duo goes on sale with tight supply and mixed reviews

Consumer Reports: The Foldable iPhone Duo: Great or Gimmicky?

9to5Mac: iPhone Duo reviews: The absolute best foldable phone, but not without compromise

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