For months, it has been referred to in reports as the “iPhone Fold” and more recently, mainly as the “iPhone Ultra.” But just hours before Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone at a special launch event scheduled for Wednesday evening, it appears that neither of those names may make it to the stage.
According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple has decided to call the new device the iPhone Duo. Along with the name come several new details about the device: a starting price of $2,000, first-ever Apple Pencil support on an iPhone and a retail launch that will only come in October.
The name Duo did appear earlier this week in a post by leaker Majin Bu. But now Gurman, considered one of the most reliable sources on Apple’s plans and devices, reports that this is indeed the name the company has chosen.
$2,000 — and that’s just the starting price
Even if the name is different from what the industry had expected, one thing remains as anticipated in recent months: the foldable iPhone will not be cheap. According to Gurman, the iPhone Duo is expected to start at $2,000 for the 256GB version, making it the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever launched.
According to the report, rising memory component prices have pushed manufacturing costs beyond Apple’s targets. However, the company has decided to absorb some of the increase to keep the entry price around $2,000. Higher-end versions are a different story: storage will reach up to 2TB and the price could climb to around $3,000.
The Duo is also expected to bring something no iPhone has offered before: support for Apple’s smart stylus, the Apple Pencil. Until now, Apple has reserved the stylus for its iPad lineup.
According to previous reports, when closed, the device will feature an external display measuring around 5.5 inches. Opening it will reveal an internal display of around 7.8 inches — not far from the size of a small tablet. Pencil support could make the larger screen more useful for writing, marking up documents and drawing, bringing the device even closer to iPad territory.
The changes are not limited to the displays. The Duo is expected to feature Apple’s A20 Pro chip and C2 modem, but one technology closely associated with the company’s high-end iPhones may be missing. According to reports, the device will not include Face ID and will instead bring back Touch ID. The fingerprint sensor is expected to be integrated into the side button, similar to the solution Apple uses on some iPad models.
The camera system may also be more modest than that of the new iPhone 18 Pro models that will also launch Wednesday evening. According to reports, the device is not expected to include a telephoto lens — a significant compromise for an iPhone starting at $2,000. As for colors, the first generation will apparently offer a particularly limited selection. According to Gurman, Apple plans to launch the Duo in just two options: dark blue and white.
The cases are already waiting for it
In fact, the secrecy surrounding the device began to crack even before Gurman’s latest report. While touring accessory manufacturers’ booths at IFA 2026 in Berlin last week, we encountered several companies already displaying cases designed for Apple’s foldable iPhone — a device that at the time had yet to be officially announced.
And it was not an isolated case. Other media outlets attending the exhibition also reported seeing cases from several different manufacturers, including WiWU and Forcell. In some cases, they were displayed under the unofficial names iPhone Ultra or iFold, which had been used in reports about the device in recent months.
Foldable iPhone cases already on display
(Photo: Daniela Ginzburg, Berlin)
This is not the first time cases have preceded an unannounced smartphone. To prepare their products in time for a launch, accessory manufacturers sometimes rely on dimensions, CAD files and dummy models circulating in the industry before an official unveiling.
That does not necessarily mean they received the information directly from Apple. But in this case, several different manufacturers had already arrived at IFA with products ready for a device Apple had not even acknowledged existed. And they all followed more or less the same design: a device that opens horizontally like a book, with an external display and a larger internal screen, in dimensions reminiscent of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, which recently hit the market.
Then came ESR. The accessories manufacturer posted a video on social media promoting new cases, apparently showing the foldable iPhone itself inside one of them. Shortly afterward, the video disappeared from the company’s X account, only drawing more attention to it.
There is, of course, no confirmation that the device shown in the video was the real thing. It could just as easily have been a dummy model or a rendering designed to showcase the case, and claims also emerged online that part of the video had been created using artificial intelligence. But after cases from several different manufacturers were already circulating at IFA, it is clear at least that the accessory industry is preparing for the device.
Either way, even if the Duo is unveiled Wednesday evening, it is unlikely to reach stores alongside the rest of the new iPhones. Gurman estimates that sales will begin no earlier than October. The rest, it seems, will be revealed at the highly anticipated event Wednesday evening.