Nothing's Carl Pei Calls Apple's $1,999 iPhone Duo a Waste of Money
Nothing chief executive Carl Pei used his latest video to deliver a blunt verdict on Apple's first foldable: the iPhone Duo "is a waste of money." PhoneArena, IBTimes UK, Gossip Herald and MacObserver all carried the comments on October 12, four days before pre-orders open at 5 a.m. Pacific on October 16 and a week before the handset reaches stores on October 23. His case rests on two omissions at a starting price of $1,999 for 256GB, rising to $3,199 for the 2TB configuration.
Apple has shipped Face ID on every iPhone since the iPhone X, and Pei argues a $1,999 device should not be the exception. Apple has never officially explained the omission. The prevailing technical reading, echoed by PhoneArena and Tom's Guide, is that the Duo unfolds to just 5.2mm, leaving no room for the TrueDepth array, and that a two-screen device complicates unlock logic. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has described fitting Face ID and a telephoto into the Duo as "fundamentally a physics problem."
Pei's video also dwells on the imaging system: no dedicated telephoto, only dual 48MP rear sensors with an optical-quality 2x crop from the main camera, a 12MP front camera against the 18MP selfie camera on the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro, no LiDAR scanner, no ProRAW or ProRes capture, no Pro camera controls for shutter speed and aperture, and no Action button. Tom's Guide editor-in-chief Mark Spoonauer's video on the Duo's trade-offs drew 329 comments, with another 176 on the site's Reddit thread, and camera quality attracted the most argument.
Apple's public position, set out when it unveiled the Duo on September 9, is about hardware and software working together. CEO John Ternus said the phone "shows what's possible when hardware and software are engineered together and redefines what it means to use a foldable phone." The trade-offs sit in the spec sheet: a 7.6-inch inner display, a 5.4-inch outer display, Touch ID in the side button that works open or closed, Apple Watch unlocking, a hinge of more than 100 components, 254 grams, and an IP68 rating good for six meters for 30 minutes. Apple has not responded to Pei.
IBTimes UK notes that Nothing's chief executive has an obvious interest in questioning a rival's premium pricing. Nothing released its $399 Headphone (1) Pro on September 29, and Pei said around that time he was "warming up" to the idea of entering the foldable market the Duo is about to upend. He has attacked Apple before, telling followers on Instagram, "I'm gonna steal your customers. One bored iPhone user at a time." Nothing is squeezed too: memory prices killed this year's CMF phone, and Pei said memory costs on the Phone (4a) doubled between the decision to build it and its launch, then doubled again.
Counterpoint Research's Ivan Lam expects roughly 6 million Duo sales in 2026, contingent on the production ramp. TrendForce expects about 5 million, or 24.8% of the foldable market; analyst Jeff Pu cut his estimate from 7 million to 6 million; Goldman Sachs' base case is 14 million with an optimistic case of 35 million. IDC expects global foldable shipments to grow 13% to 22.9 million units. Pricing starts at 15,999 yuan in China, and a further 28 countries get the device on October 30.
Gurman reports that Face ID and a dedicated telephoto are priorities for future Duo models, with the third generation a more likely candidate than the second, and no timetable attached. Until then, the argument Pei opened on October 12 stays where it began: a first-generation foldable asking $1,999 while giving up features Apple puts in phones that cost $800 less.