iPhone Duo pre-orders open October 16 at 8 a.m. Eastern, and 9to5Mac's advice is to finish the order four days early. Apple's Get Ready step went live October 12: walk the Apple Store app to the end of a Duo order, pick the color, storage, and payment plan, tap Get Ready, and Apple puts a pending hold on the card so the real order on Friday is mostly confirmation. A trade-in gets valued in the same pass. Nothing is binding, and 9to5Mac says the app has beaten the website on past launch mornings, so have both open before 8.
Launch day is the bigger production. Bloomberg's newsletter, which the video relays, has more than 150 demo units heading to the Fifth Avenue store in New York, nearly 100 to the Apple Park Visitor Center, and 30 to 40 each to Michigan Avenue, The Grove, and the Upper West Side, with a MagSafe stand for an unfolded Duo and a fixture that shows the phone opening and closing. The comparison 9to5Mac reaches for is the Vision Pro launch, and the difference is the format: open demo tables at select stores, no appointment. The smaller flourish, which MacRumors reported on October 9, is the hello screen: US Apple Stores can put the buyer's name after the first-boot hello, in English or Spanish, and the video repeats the limits, in-store purchases and US only.
My read: iPhoners on the fence should still do the Get Ready step, since it's reversible, and the iPhone Duo buyer guide covers the Face ID and telephoto trade-offs while you wait. The only way I can see to handle a Duo before paying is to be in an Apple Store on October 23, the day the pre-orders land on doorsteps.
