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Apple's $1,999 Foldable iPhone Can't Recognize Your Face
Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo, starts at $1,999 — and it is the first flagship iPhone since 2017 without Face ID.
Announced 9 September 2026 at John Ternus's first keynote as CEO, the Duo folds from a 5.4-inch outer screen to a 7.6-inch inner display, which Apple says is the largest it has ever put on an iPhone. Pre-orders open 16 October; it ships 23 October in more than 70 countries. Ternus called it "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original."
To get there, Apple took things out. Face ID is gone, replaced by Touch ID in the side button — the technology Face ID itself replaced on the flagship in 2017. There is no dedicated telephoto lens; the 2x zoom is a crop from the 48MP main camera. There is no Action Button, which has shipped on every Pro model since 2023.
The iPhone 18 Pro, announced on the same stage the same morning, keeps Face ID and the Action Button, and starts at $1,199. The more expensive phone is the one with fewer features, and the gap is $800.
Apple has not said publicly why the face sensors did not make it. And Apple is not first: Samsung shipped the Galaxy Fold in 2019, so the category is seven years old. What Apple brought to it is a hinge with over 100 components, a Grade 5 titanium body, and a battery split across the two halves.
No footage of the device is ours to run. Every shot in this video is licensed stock.
References
Reporting drawn from Apple Newsroom · MacRumors · TechCrunch · Macworld · MacObserver · TechRadar · Samsung Newsroom
What the reel says
Narration as scripted and voiced.
Apple's new two thousand dollar iPhone unlocks with your fingerprint. It is the first flagship iPhone in nine years that cannot recognize your face
It is called the iPhone Duo, and it is Apple's first folding phone. Closed, it is a 5.4-inch phone. Opened, it is 7.6 inches, which Apple says is the largest display it has ever put on an iPhone
It starts at $1,999. It ships on the 23rd of October, and it goes on sale in more than 70 countries at once
This was John Ternus' first keynote as chief executive. Tim Cook handed him the company on the first of September after fifteen years, and Ternus called the Duo the most transformational change to iPhone since the original
To build it, Apple took things out. Face ID is gone. There is a fingerprint reader in the side button instead, and that is the technology Face ID replaced on the flagship back in twenty seventeen.
There is no dedicated telephoto lens either. The two-times zoom is a crop from the main camera, and there is no action button, the shortcut key Apple has put on every Pro model since twenty twenty-three
The iPhone 18 Pro was announced on the same stage on the same morning. It has Face ID. It has the action button. It costs $1,199. So the more expensive phone is the one with fewer features, and the gap is $800.
Apple has not said publicly why the face sensors did not make it. What the specification shows is a folding panel, and the array that reads a face needs depth behind it
Apple is also not first. Samsung shipped the Galaxy Fold in twenty nineteen, so the category Apple has just entered is seven years old. What Apple brought to it is a hinge with more than a hundred components, a titanium body, and a battery split across the two halves
Every folding phone so far has asked the same question, which is what you will give up to own a phone that opens? Apple's answer at two thousand dollars is your face
