Apple held its September event today to unveil the new iPhone, Watch, AirPods.. .and… oh yeah, the new iPhone Duo
New CEO: “But actually, there IS one more thing…”
- Their new foldable iPhone is called Duo.
- It has a 7.6" inner screen and 5.4" outer (front cover) screen.
- It starts at $1999 for 256GB, and can be extended to up to 2TB of storage. (So is 53% more expensive than an 18 Pro Max.)
- Unlike the other announcements, this is coming a month later. You can preorder on 10/16, and it ships 10/23.
- It has an extremely fancy multi-layered nano-texture display, and a precision hinge system that magnetically seals shut.
- When closed, it resembles a small book (with the outer display as the front cover, and camera on the back cover), and can be used one-handed and fit in your pocket.
- When open, it looks like a slightly smaller iPad mini, but with way better display resolution (and nearly triple the price).
- Like the 18 Pro line, it too is powered by the A20 Pro chip, C2 chip, N1 chip, and has advanced thermal mgmt.
- The battery is split into both sides, and AI helps utilize and charge it in a unified way. Battery lasts
- It is the thinnest iPhone yet. Most of the other chips/sensors are fit into the camera bulge.
- The back cover has 48MP main and ultra-wide camera lenses (you lose the telephoto lens), and there is a hidden FaceTime front-facing selfie camera under the inner display.
- Instead of Face ID, it uses Touch ID on the thumb button.
- The 2 displays use the same aspect ratio, and the screen rescales as you open the device. The UX transition between screens looks pretty wonderful.
- It can be used in a variety of display configurations, across open, closed, hinged facing down (like a desk calendar), or hinged facing up (like a mini laptop).
- iOS has been completely adapted to each of those display configurations, as have all the main iPhone apps and several 3rd party apps (Zoom, Netflix, Slack, etc).
- The inner display allows multitasking and SplitView like the iPad.
- They are doing some unique things with the combination of both displays. One example is, while open, the outer display (now pointing the same way as the main camera) can act as a display for the photo subject. Another is, while hinged facing down, the StandBy mode can show a photo gallery, clock, or calendar like a smart display.
- Later this year it will support using the Apple Pencil (only the kind with USB-C). This is the first non-iPad device to support Pencil.
- They will also sell a new regular and Folio case (with kickstand) for $79/$129.
See Apple’s videos on the new Duo:
- Short video demoing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUfGcZ092b0
- Or jump to the last 25min of the full presentation: https://www.youtube.com/live/39BalPDuTo0?si=BaDWe_RtO6eQod-2&t=3160
-muji
