iPhone Duo Becomes First iPhone With Apple Pencil Support, but Not at Launch

Apple’s first foldable phone will also be the first iPhone that ever works with an Apple Pencil, but not the good one, and not straight away. Apple confirmed that the iPhone Duo, unveiled on September 9, only pairs with the $79 Apple Pencil with USB-C rather than the pricier $129 Apple Pencil Pro, and the feature itself won’t be switched on when the phone ships.

That’s a strange asterisk on what is Apple’s most expensive iPhone ever. At his first launch event since taking over from Tim Cook, new CEO John Ternus unveiled the iPhone Duo, a double-screen foldable that opens like a book, marking the first time in 19 years and 19 generations that Apple has changed the fundamental shape of its most important product. A stylus for a phone that folds open into something close to a small tablet makes obvious sense. Locking out the more capable Pencil doesn’t.

Reaction from Apple’s own community forums has been mixed, with plenty of buyers annoyed that a $3,499 phone doesn’t support the $129 stylus:

Only the USB-C Pencil Works, Not the Pro Model

Apple says that you need the Apple Pencil with USB-C for the iPhone Duo, so if you have the Apple Pencil Pro, you may be out of luck. The cheaper stylus isn’t the full package either. The Apple Pencil with USB-C does not support pressure sensitivity, double-tap, barrel roll, haptic feedback, squeeze, or Find My, but it does have tilt sensitivity.

Apple says that an Apple Pencil will work with both the inner and outer iPhone Duo displays. That covers the 5.4-inch cover screen and the 7.6-inch inner panel once you unfold it, so you can jot a note closed or sketch something bigger with the phone open.

Why the Pencil Pro Gets Left Out

It’s likely the iPhone Duo doesn’t support the Apple Pencil Pro because there’s no magnetic surface for charging the pencil, since the Pencil Pro charges magnetically when connected to a compatible iPad while the Apple Pencil with USB-C charges through a USB-C port hidden behind a sliding cap. Building a magnetic dock into a hinge that has to fold flat is a much harder engineering problem than adding a USB-C port.

Here at ShaneTheGamer we think that’s a fair trade-off on paper, but it still leaves anyone who already owns a Pencil Pro for their iPad stuck buying a second, worse stylus just to draw on their new phone.

Support Arrives After Launch, Not On Day One

Apple Pencil is finally crossing from iPad to iPhone, but early iPhone Duo buyers will have to wait, with Apple confirming on September 9 that its new foldable will support the Apple Pencil with USB-C, with the feature arriving later in 2026. Apple has given no more precise timing than “later this year,” and while the Duo will ship with iOS 27.1, Apple has not identified which release will activate Pencil support.

So if you’re buying this thing specifically to draw or take handwritten notes, you’ll be waiting on a software update that doesn’t have a date attached to it yet. That’s an odd gap for a launch feature Apple spent real time on stage talking up.

iPhone Duo Pricing and Release Dates, US and Australia

Apple’s foldable iPhone Duo will be available to pre-order starting Friday, October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, and will be released on Friday, October 23, in the US and more than 70 other countries and regions, with US pricing starting at $1,999 for a 256GB configuration and going up to $3,199 for 2TB.

iPhone Duo costs A$3,499 for 256GB in Australia and A$5,899 for 2TB, with pre-orders opening at 10pm AEST on October 16 and general sale on October 23. At A$3,499, it’s the most expensive iPhone ever sold in Australia. Australian buyers will pay a premium of around 25 per cent compared to those in the United States, where the iPhone Duo starts from US$1,999.

Titanium frame, a folding hinge cover, dual batteries, and a new A20 Pro chip round out the hardware. None of that changes the Pencil situation: a $3,499 phone whose flagship input feature ships as a promise rather than a working button, with October 23 as the only firm date on the calendar so far.