Apple says the iPhone Duo’s display isn’t an off-the-shelf part. It’s a custom order built for the phone.
That’s according to MrMobile‘s Michael Fisher, whose interview was with Rich Dinh, VP of hardware engineering, Piyush Pratik, senior product manager for iPhone, and JP Guillou, senior director of display technology. Fisher asked what took Apple so long to make a foldable, and the execs said the problem was never how to make a foldable. “What does a foldable need to be to be an iPhone,” was the question, and they said the experiences already out there were “falling short,” so they built everything from the ground up.
On the display itself, the execs said the panel doesn’t exist at the supplier until Apple starts working on it, and agreed with Fisher that “everything is a custom order.” One of them also said Apple customizes “down to the nanometer.” They never named Samsung and only spoke about manufacturers and partners in general. We’ve already looked at how much Apple is reportedly paying Samsung for the Duo’s display, so this fits with that, but Apple isn’t confirming who makes it. Fisher also says on camera that the panel isn’t identical to the one in Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, which is his own claim.
The shape is on purpose too. The execs said the goal was “continuity,” and compared the wide screen to A4 paper, which scales perfectly when you print. The outer display matches the size of half the inner one, so the two screens feel like one experience. They also said app developers will feel it, since building for the outer display carries over to the inner one.
The inner screen has a nano-texture finish, with tiny domes that scatter reflections so the surface looks flat and glare is less distracting. The execs said a special anti-reflective coating on top keeps colours from looking washed out. The Netflix app even uses the hinge angle sensor and the ambient light sensor to show a light effect that shifts as you fold the phone, which Fisher called a really cool effect.
On durability, one of the execs said “if you want to call it iPhone, it has to deliver what people expect for iPhone.” They pointed to a new support material under the screen that Apple says is 40% stiffer, plus a titanium enclosure and ceramic inserts in the antenna splits, with lessons carried over from the iPhone Air. Apple wouldn’t say how many times the phone can fold. The execs said they studied “a day in the life” and the “new flexible poses” the phone allows instead. An Apple exec has already said to hold Apple accountable if the crease gets worse, and Apple has said the crease-hiding layer can be replaced.
The FaceTime camera sits under the inner display, which the execs said keeps the screen “aperture free” so the biggest iPhone display yet isn’t interrupted. The trade-off is less light reaching the sensor, so the A20 Pro chip uses neural networks to make up for it. Fisher found the result a bit muddier in his hands-on time, and the execs didn’t dispute that. For better selfies, an exec pointed out “you have three other cameras,” and the Duo can take 48-megapixel selfies with a preview on the outer display.
Fisher also asked which they’d build next, a flip or a trifold. The execs wouldn’t pick, and one said “there’s nothing that we think is better than what we’ve come up with with this Duo.” Fisher called it an “unacceptable answer.” Earlier in the interview, all three said they fold their pizza slice, and one said New York style. When Fisher joked that Apple must have bought up the world’s supply of under-display cameras, one exec laughed and said “I would love to have said that.”
For Canadians, the iPhone Duo goes on sale October 23 at Apple Canada. Pricing starts at $2,999 for 256GB, which is a lot of money to put on a phone with a camera you may not love for selfies. Good luck getting one soon, too, since online orders in Canada already show delivery dates in February 2027.
If you did get a Duo, the repair prices in Canada are worth a look before you pick a case. Does knowing the display is custom make you feel better about the price?
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