Apple is already working on a fix for the iPhone Duo's most-criticized omission. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, speaking on his Power On podcast, the company is testing iPhone Duo 2 prototypes with a Face ID sensor and camera placed beneath the phone's outer display, rather than in a notch or a punch-hole cutout.
The current iPhone Duo shipped without Face ID at all. Apple instead built Touch ID into the side power button, a workaround the company adopted because there wasn't room inside the slim folding body for the usual Face ID hardware stack. That's been one of the loudest complaints from early buyers of what Gurman and others describe as a commercially strong debut for Apple's first foldable.
The current model does already carry one piece of under-display hardware: an under-screen camera built into the inner, foldable display. That gives the iPhone Duo a selfie camera on both the outer and inner screens, which is why it can handle FaceTime video whether the phone is open or folded shut. Gurman's report suggests the under-display infrared camera and flood illuminator that Face ID needs could eventually follow the same path, sitting beneath the glass on the outer screen with no visible cutout.
Not locked in yet
Apple hasn't finalized any of this. Gurman says the hardware is being tested internally for a successor expected next fall, but testing a prototype is not the same as shipping a feature. He has said he expects the Touch ID-to-Face ID gap to close within the first or second generation of the iPhone Duo line, which by his own estimate could take two to three years rather than arriving cleanly with the next model.
It's also unclear what happens to Touch ID if Face ID does make it under the glass. Apple could drop the side-button sensor entirely, or it could keep both and let owners choose how they unlock the phone depending on which screen they're using.
A second change under consideration is less certain: Gurman says some Apple employees have explored bringing back the Action Button, the physical control that sits on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 lines but was left off the first iPhone Duo, apparently for lack of space. He sounded less confident about that one making the cut.
The broader under-display push isn't limited to the folding phone. Similar camera and sensor work, building on what Apple used for the under-display selfie camera on the iPhone 18 Pro, is reportedly being considered for next year's twentieth-anniversary iPhone Pro as well. For now, none of it is confirmed, and the iPhone Duo 2 itself hasn't been announced. The clearest signal so far is that Apple knows exactly what buyers didn't like about the first one.
MDFiled by The Mobile Desk
Phones from leak to launch to price cut: what was announced, what it costs where, and when it goes on sale. Indian launches and prices included, not appended.
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