The folding iPhone rumored to arrive in 2026 might mark a major turning point for foldable devices. But to pull that off, Apple’s first folding phone needs to do more than just look good — it needs to nail the fundamentals.
From durability and design to software and camera performance, here’s everything I want to see in the foldable iPhone.
Production of the long-awaited iPhone with a folding screen begins in a few months, according to a trusted analyst. But Apple supposedly plans to make only a few million of them, indicating the company expects this to be a niche product.
Previous reports indicate the price for the folding iPhone could be around $2,000 — about what similar Androids with foldable screens cost. High cost keeps this entire class of handsets out of the hands of average users, and so far it doesn’t seem like Apple has a solution.
Apple might rejig its iPhone release cycle in a big way in 2026, releasing high-end models in the fall and less-expensive models in the spring. If the rumor proves true, Apple would change things up to make room in its lineup for the first foldable iPhone.
Apple chose Samsung Display as the exclusive supplier of OLED panels for its first foldable iPhone, expected to launch in 2026, according to a new report. The decision marks a departure from Apple’s typical multi-supplier strategy. It could help ensure high quality and reinvigorate the foldable OLED market.
To avoid mistakes made by rivals, Apple reportedly will do everything it can to create a crease-free folding iPhone with a durable hinge. According to a report released Friday, that includes producing the hinges using a liquid metal process.
The innovative handset should arrive in 2026.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone may sport a book-style design and a steep $2,000+ price tag. It will apparently sport a 7.8-inch inner folding display, with a 5.5-inch cover display.
Despite its high price tag, the foldable iPhone will seemingly have a strong replacement demand among loyal Apple fans.
Apple’s display supplier reportedly solved the biggest technical challenge slowing the acceptance of foldable phones: the ugly screen crease where the display bends.
With that hurdle cleared, production of components for the slim, folding iPhone supposedly will begin later this year.
iPhone’s lack of two key features — generative AI and a foldable design — could cause a significant decline in shipments in 2024. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says without these advances, the iPhone will fall behind amid a “new paradigm in high-end mobile phone design.”
Kuo cites supply chain sources to back up his predictions. However, there are numerous reasons to doubt his opinion.
Apple has started developing an OLED panel without a polarizer that will make them thinner than traditional displays.
Reportedly, these slim OLED panels are ideal for use in foldable displays. Samsung already uses OLED displays with similar technology on the Galaxy Z Fold3.
There’s plenty of proof that Apple has had a folding iPhone on the drawing board for years. But the company held off until flexible displays are past the prototype phase. The latest foldables from Samsung show that the technology has finally matured to the point where an iPhone Fold could become a mass-market success.
This surely hasn’t escaped Apple’s attention, which is why a folding iPhone is probably coming in 2023.
A folding iPhone is two years away, according to a trusted industry analyst. When open, the device will have an 8-inch screen, significantly bigger than the current largest iOS model, which has a 6.7-inch display.
Apple is reportedly testing two different folding iPhone designs. But only one of them has a flexible screen. If one of the prototypes successfully passes testing, it could become the first foldable iOS handset.
Apple’s “foldable” iPhone will use dual displays to get around the foldable screen problem that plagues other folding phones like Samsung’s beleaguered Galaxy Fold, claims Apple leaker Jon Prosser.
“The current prototype has two separate display panels on a hinge,” Prosser wrote in a tweet Monday. He claims the foldable iPhone prototype boasts “round, stainless steel edges like current iPhone 11 design” and features no notch. Instead, there is a “tiny forehead” on the outer display that houses the Face ID sensors.
The iPhone 12 Flip is the foldable iOS device many are hoping for. This proposed concept fits a large screen into a tiny package.
While currently only a dream, Apple is hard at work on technologies that could eventually make it real.
Watch a video of the iPhone 12 Flip concept now:
Apple engineers are exploring the feasibility of a dual-screen iPhone or iPad. Two displays that touch with no bezels between them would simulate one large display. And this wouldn’t have some of the drawbacks of folding screens.
A concept design for a folding iPhone has none of the drawbacks of the handsets with flexible screens released so far. It shows what an iOS device using this tech might look like some time in the future.
Take a look at a short video of the folding iPhone concept in action:
The market for foldable phones is still in its infancy. But a market analysts firm says eventually every major phone maker will produce them, including Apple. Once problems with early designs are worked out, shipments will pass the 100 million mark in a few years.
A foldable iPhone is probably somewhere in Apple’s future, but a concept designer shows us just how amazing it might look today.
The flexible display allows this dream device to be both phone and small tablet.
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold ran into a bunch of problems, but it seems many iPhone owners remain interested in seeing what Apple could do with the foldable form factor.
According to a new UBS survey of customers, iPhone owners show a “generally higher” level of interest in foldable handsets than other groups.
Deciding now that an folding iPhone is a terrible idea is premature. There just isn’t enough information yet to judge whether any such device is something you’ll want. And it’s betting against Apple’s history of success in areas where others have failed.
While the first foldable devices from other companies have serious flaws, that in no way means any eventual Apple device with a flexible screen will be equally bad. There’s actually plenty of reason to think it won’t.
This week on The CultCast: Samsung has been sending Apple foldable screens… is a folding iPhone on the horizon? Plus: Apple may have quietly fixed MacBook Pro’s ‘stage light’ flaw; Apple prepping products that will “blow you away”; and Tim Cook receives a brand new nick name from none other than Donald J. Trump, and his reaction is legendary.
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