Apple’s first foldable iPhone is expected to ship with notable compromises, but according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company plans to add Face ID and a telephoto lens to the third-generation iPhone Duo through component miniaturization and computational photography advances. Smaller, less sophisticated depth-sensing and camera hardware, combined with AI-driven processing, could eventually allow Apple to fit the missing features into a future foldable form factor without the market constraints that eliminated them from the current generation.
Gurman reported the prediction in his Power On newsletter on September 14, just five days after Apple officially announced the iPhone Duo. The analysis marks the first public timeline for when these features might return to Apple’s foldable line.
Why Face ID and Telephoto Are Missing From Generation One
The first-generation iPhone Duo cannot fit Face ID because the device’s thin front panel cannot accommodate the sensor array required for facial recognition. The folding design creates a depth constraint that Face ID’s infrared and depth-sensing cameras cannot clear. Similarly, Apple chose a Main plus Ultra Wide camera arrangement, sacrificing a dedicated telephoto to conserve internal market and manage thermal demands within the folding chassis.
The 5.4-inch outer display and 7.6-inch inner display create engineering trade-offs that current hardware cannot resolve. At $1,999 starting price for 256GB storage, the device positions itself as Apple’s most expensive iPhone at launch, making the missing features especially visible to users comparing it against the flagship iPhone 18 Pro lineup.
How Miniaturization and AI Bridge the Gap
Gurman’s prediction relies on two technologies working in concert. Component miniaturization allows smaller Face ID and telephoto sensors to fit within the folded design, while computational advances, particularly AI-driven image processing, compensate for less sophisticated hardware by enhancing the output algorithmically. Rather than simply removing features to save space, future iPhone Duo models could retain nearly identical capabilities through a blend of reduced physical sensors and increased on-device processing power.
Apple Intelligence shows the company’s commitment to computationally intensive photography and authentication features that could enable this approach. The system’s on-device AI processing power provides the foundation for smaller sensors to produce output matching current flagship hardware.
Gurman’s report does not specify which generation will receive these upgrades or a concrete timeline beyond the third-generation model. The first iPhone Duo officially launches October 23, 2026, in more than 70 countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, China, France, Germany, India, and Japan, with pre-orders beginning October 16.
