iPhone Duo 2 rumor season has now officially begun three months before those who made late pre-orders of Apple’s first foldable phone are ready to actually receive it. With the ship date set at January 22, fans would know what the second generation of Apple’s foldable will bring long before the OG iPhone Duo hits their porch.
The first iPhone Duo goes on sale tomorrow with a starting price of $1,999. It has a 5.4-inch external screen and a 7.6-inch internal one and relies on a fingerprint sensor in the side button, just like an iPad. Early reviewers have been quite vocal about the lack of Face ID. Unfortunately, the thin body leaves very little room for the depth sensing components needed for facial recognition.
iPhone Duo with FaceID
Thankfully, even though the iPhone Duo hasn’t reached customers yet, Apple is said to already be working on its successor. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, prototypes of the second-generation foldable carry Face ID hardware hidden beneath the external display as a clever solution to fit all its paraphernalia onto Apple’s thinnest iPhone to date when unfolded.
Apple has apparently been making these parts smaller for a while, as the smaller infrared camera on the iPhone 18 Pro would attest. The next step could be to hide both the infrared camera and flood illuminator under the display, thus reducing the cutout even further. The same technology could also appear on the rumored 20th anniversary iPhone.
Gurman says Apple hasn’t decided whether the feature will be included in the final product. The company is testing hardware for a successor expected next fall, but if development is delayed, Face ID could slide into the iPhone Duo 3. That would be in line with its prediction from September, when it said that smaller components and advances in artificial intelligence could bring Face ID and a third-generation dedicated telephoto camera.
Action button on iPhone Duo
Face ID isn’t the only item on Apple’s foldable phone wish list, as Gurman also says that Apple is also considering an action button, something the current model lacks. Staff are reportedly pushing for this and say it can be done, but there’s nothing confirmed there either.
It’s a little awkward to talk about the second or third edition of Apple’s foldable phone, given that the decision to open pre-orders despite severe supply constraints was called a “serious mistake” by Gurman and other analysts. Apple’s retail staff have reportedly even been told to warn customers that supplies will be low. If these iPhone Duo 2 rumors continue to pile up, fans might just wait until the first generation is over as they might have to spend a couple thousand dollars to get a phone that will be obsolete in just eight months or so.
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