iPhone Duo Preorders Open October 16: Every Price, Key Dates, and How to Get One on Launch Day

iPhone Duo preorders open October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific. Every price from $1,999 to $3,199, the Get Ready dates, cases, and how to order before it sells out.

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iPhone Duo opening, showing the inner display
Image: Apple

    The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, and the people building it cannot make enough of them. MacRumors' sources put final assembly yields only slightly above 60 percent as of mid September, with a mature production line still six months to a year away. Apple is responding the way it does when a phone is expected to sell out quickly, by opening its Get Ready checkout days before preorders begin.

    If you want a Duo in the first wave, the days before October 16 matter more than launch day. Here are the dates, every price, what Apple is selling alongside it, and the choices worth making before preorders open.

    The Dates

    Monday, October 12: Get Ready opens in the Apple Store app. According to MacRumors, it lets you pick your color and storage, confirm your carrier, choose accessories and AppleCare, set up a trade in, and save your payment and shipping details ahead of time, so ordering becomes a single tap.

    Friday, October 16: Preorders open at 5 a.m. Pacific, 8 a.m. Eastern.

    Friday, October 23: The Duo launches in more than 70 countries and regions, running iOS 27.1, a version built only for the Duo. (Here is why no other iPhone gets 27.1.)

    Friday, October 30: A second wave reaches 28 more countries.

    Every Price

    The Duo comes in four storage sizes and two colors, Star White and Night Sky.

    iPhone Duo in Star White and Night Sky, front and back
    Image: Apple
    • 256GB: $1,999
    • 512GB: $2,199
    • 1TB: $2,599
    • 2TB: $3,199

    Apple's financing on the base model works out to $83.29 a month over 24 months. For context, the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299 with the same 256GB, so the fold itself costs you $700. At 2TB, the Duo is the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever sold.

    If you are torn between the first two tiers, think about the screen you are paying for. A 7.6 inch display invites video, photos, and offline files in a way a regular phone does not, and the Duo records 4K at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision. Anyone who shoots video on it or keeps media downloaded for travel will fill 256GB faster than they expect. For $200 on a $2,000 phone, 512GB is the easier call. The 1TB and 2TB tiers only make sense for people who shoot a lot of high frame rate video.

    What You Are Buying

    We covered the full reveal in our recap of Apple's September 9 event. The short version from Apple's announcement: a 7.6 inch inner display and a 5.4 inch outer display, both with ProMotion and Always On, an A20 Pro chip, a titanium body, a hinge with more than 100 components, and an IP68 rating. Apple quotes up to 24 hours of typical use when you split time evenly between the two screens.

    One detail catches people switching from an older phone: the Duo is eSIM only worldwide. If you still use a physical SIM, plan to convert it during setup. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all support it.

    Cases, AppleCare, and Charging

    Apple sells its own iPhone Duo Case for $79 in sand and navy blue, and an iPhone Duo Folio for $129 in taupe and navy blue. Third party cases are already here. ESR's Duo lineup is on sale now, from $29.99 to $59.99, and OtterBox's Lumen Series for the Duo is available on OtterBox.com, with the rugged Defender Series Pro XT due later this fall.

    Apple's two piece iPhone Duo Case in sand
    Image: Apple

    A phone that folds has a part that can fail in a way a slab phone cannot, so add AppleCare to your Get Ready setup instead of deciding later. If you have several Apple devices at home, compare a single plan against AppleCare One, which we broke down in our AppleCare One Family explainer.

    The Duo charges to 50 percent in about 20 minutes wired and about 30 minutes wirelessly, according to Apple.

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    How to Actually Get One

    Set up Get Ready on October 12, not on the morning of the 16th. Finish every step, including trade in and payment, so the only thing left is confirming the order. Be in the Apple Store app a few minutes before 5 a.m. Pacific on October 16 rather than on the website. If delivery dates slip past launch day by the time you check out, an in store pickup slot is worth trying before you settle for a later shipping date.

    Apple has rarely launched a new iPhone into supply this tight. The Duo is a test of how many people will pay $2,000 for a phone that is also a small tablet, and the first ten minutes of preorders on October 16 will give Apple, and everyone watching, the earliest answer.

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