Apple's iPhone Duo arrives in UK for a fortune

After weeks of rumor and waiting, Apple officially dropped its new foldable phone last night. The device is called the iPhone Duo. It opens like a book with an inner screen that sits wider than it is tall when you flip it open.

Getting one will cost a fortune for anyone living in Britain. Prices in America range from $1,999 to $3,199. Over here in the UK, those same models start at £1,999 and climb up to £3,199. With today's exchange rate, British buyers must pay between £523.75 and £838.15 extra compared to their US counterparts. That sum easily covers a round-trip flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK on Virgin Atlantic. A quick search found return tickets for October 22 through 24 costing just £519.29. You could buy the phone and still have money left over.

The iPhone Duo arrives in stores on October 23. It comes in a single physical size but offers four different storage choices. The 256GB model costs £1,999 or $1,999. Moving up to 512GB adds another £200. The 1TB version hits £2,599, and the massive 2TB capacity tops out at £3,199. This pricing gap means the cheapest model costs over £500 more in Britain than it does across the Atlantic.

Fans of the brand have noticed this huge difference immediately. One person posted on X after the launch event calling it a clear markup. Another user asked how Apple can sell the exact same phone for $1,999 in America and £1,999 here when the math simply does not work out even with tax included. Someone else pointed out that converting the US price to pounds and adding VAT lands around £1,770, yet customers pay nearly £250 more than that. They are demanding transparency on these regional pricing choices.

The new phone shares a squat, book-like shape with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8. Its inner and outer screens both use a 1.4 aspect ratio so apps do not get stretched or leave empty gaps when you switch views. The outside display measures 5.4 inches while the inside screen stretches to 7.6 inches. You can hold it in any position, prop it up half-open for movies without touching your hands, or keep it folded like a traditional book.

Inside lies the new A20 Pro chipset. This chip allows users to multitask by running different apps on either side of the screen at once. Apple also says the display supports the Apple Pencil just like an iPad would. This makes it the first iPhone ever to support that stylus. On the back, the camera setup uses the same 48-megapixel sensor found in the iPhone 18 Pro.