T-Mobile is offering up to $1,000 off the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone, but only to customers who switch carriers, bring their number and sign up for an Experience Beyond plan.
The discount does not come off the price at checkout. It arrives as 36 monthly bill credits, which works out to about $27.78 a month. Buyers still pay local sales tax on the phone's full pre-credit retail value upfront, plus T-Mobile's standard $35 device connection fee.
The credits are the catch. If you cancel service, downgrade your plan or move to another carrier before the three years are up, the remaining hardware balance comes due immediately. The $1,000 is less a price cut than a deferred payment that depends on your loyalty.
That structure is familiar across US carriers, which use bill credits to tie a phone purchase to a service contract. What stands out here is the product. Preorders for the iPhone Duo sold out within moments of opening, so a carrier promotion may be one of the few realistic routes to a unit for buyers who missed that first window.
The math favors a specific kind of customer: someone already planning to stay on a top-tier unlimited plan for the full 36 months. For everyone else, the real cost includes the plan's monthly price and the penalty for leaving early, so compare the total over three years rather than the headline number.
The larger question is how many buyers will accept a three-year tether for a first-generation foldable, a category where hardware changes quickly.