Xiaomi, Oppo and Others Challenge Apple’s iPhone Duo

Apple’s long-awaited foldable, the iPhone Duo, doesn’t hit stores until October 23, with pre-orders starting a week earlier. But the foldable market hasn’t been waiting around. Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo and Motorola have all shipped phones with the same “passport” shape Apple is chasing, and several of them beat the Duo to market with lower prices, lighter bodies, or bigger batteries. Here’s how the field lines up against Apple’s newcomer, and what it means if you’re shopping for a foldable this fall.

Xiaomi and Samsung go wide first

The Xiaomi 18 Fold landed just days before Apple unveiled the Duo, and the specs overlap closely: both phones use a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer display in the same aspect ratio. Xiaomi’s version is noticeably lighter at 219 grams versus the Duo’s 254 grams, and it adds a third rear camera lens for extra optical zoom that the iPhone Duo doesn’t offer. Pricing starts at 10,999 yuan, roughly $1,640, though the phone is currently China-only.

In the US, the more direct rival is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8, which moved away from the brand’s older near-square design toward the same wider passport shape, pairing a 7.6-inch inner screen with a 5.5-inch cover display. Samsung kept straighter edges instead of curved corners and matches the Duo with two rear cameras. Pricing starts at $1,900, $100 less than the iPhone Duo’s $2,000 starting price, which sets up a close comparison for anyone choosing between the two this season.

Oppo and Motorola push thinness and battery life

Oppo’s Find N6 sticks with the more familiar foldable proportions seen on Samsung’s Ultra model, using a 6.62-inch outer display and an 8.12-inch inner display. Its headline feature is thickness: at 8.93mm closed, it’s much closer to a slab phone like the iPhone 18 Pro than to the Duo’s 11.3mm. Oppo also packs in a 6,000mAh battery, 80W wired charging, IP59 water resistance and a 200-megapixel main camera. A “global model” exists for markets outside Asia, though it isn’t officially sold in the US, and pricing starts at 9,999 yuan, about $1,490.

Motorola’s Razr Fold takes a similar conventional layout, with a 6.6-inch outer screen unfolding into an 8.1-inch inner display that hits a 6,000-nit peak brightness, double the Duo’s 3,000-nit maximum. It shares Oppo’s 6,000mAh battery and 80W charging, plus a triple rear camera system for proper optical zoom. An optional $100 stylus works with the inner display. The Razr Fold is sold in the US starting at $1,900, matching the Z Fold8.

What this means if you’re shopping for a foldable

For US buyers, the realistic shortlist is the iPhone Duo, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, and the Motorola Razr Fold, since the Xiaomi and Oppo models aren’t officially sold stateside. On paper, the competition undercuts Apple on weight, thickness, battery capacity or camera versatility depending on which rival you look at. Samsung and Motorola are priced within $100 of each other and of the Duo’s starting price, so the decision will likely come down to software, ecosystem and how each brand handles the crease and hinge over time rather than a clear price advantage for any one device.

Apple’s counterpunch is largely on the software side. iOS 27 includes interface work built specifically for the foldable form factor, including transition animations when switching between the cover and inner displays and different usage modes depending on how the phone is held. Whether that’s enough to offset heavier hardware and a higher price than some rivals will become clearer once reviewers get the Duo in hand.

The bottom line

The iPhone Duo isn’t launching into an empty category — it’s entering a crowded one where Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo and Motorola have already refined the passport-shaped foldable with lighter builds, bigger batteries, brighter screens or extra cameras. Apple’s advantage, if it has one, will likely come down to iOS 27’s foldable-specific software rather than raw specs. If you’re deciding between options available in the US, the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Razr Fold are worth comparing directly against the Duo once reviews are in.

Source: Engadget