Samsung, take note: iPhone Duo supports stylus input better than any Galaxy Fold

Apple took the wraps off its newest hardware in a prerecorded video presentation today. There were new iPhones and new Apple Watches, but the biggest reveal was Apple’s heavily rumored first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. The pricey new phone looks as polished as you’d expect Apple’s late entry to the foldable segment to be, with a form factor quite similar to the squatter Galaxy Z Fold 8. The Duo also has one feature that owners of Samsung’s latest foldables might be jealous of: support for Apple’s first-party Apple Pencil stylus.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 offered support for input from Samsung’s compatible S Pen styluses on its inner display, but the Z Fold 7 and Z Fold 8 lack that compatibility, partly due to concerns about foldable screen durability. The iPhone Duo, meanwhile, works with the Apple Pencil on both its cover screen and its inner display.

Apple says the Duo works with the version of the Apple Pencil that charges with USB-C, specifically. That makes sense, given there’s nowhere on the foldable iPhone for the magnetically charging version of the stylus to attach.

Fine print on Apple’s website says that the support is coming “later this year,” which implies that the iPhone Duo might not work with the Apple Pencil out of the box when the phone hits store shelves in late October.

The iPhone Duo starts at super-premium $2,000 for the base model that comes with 256 gigs of storage (and that won’t include the USB-C Apple Pencil, which costs another $79). Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo start October 16, with general availability beginning October 23.