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Article on Cult of Mac: @/folding-iphone-model-hands-on
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0:02
Griffin managed to get hold of a folding
0:04
iPhone 3D printed mockup uh which is
0:08
sent to you right by a listener. Yeah.
0:11
Yeah. So this was uh printed and sent to
0:13
me by Matt Van Ormer.
0:15
Yeah. The you know from the information
0:17
they had leaked like the screen size of
0:19
the folding iPhone in a few dimensions
0:21
and I think from that people just
0:22
started making 3D models you know
0:24
because iPhone design has been kind of
0:26
consistent for the last few years. So
0:27
you can really those are really the only
0:29
few numbers that you need to like piece
0:31
together what we think is a uh
0:33
reasonable enough interpretation of what
0:35
it could be like. You know obviously
0:37
like the uh the hinges is different
0:40
because in order to be a 3D printed
0:42
thing it needs a different kind of
0:43
hinge. So the whole left side is
0:45
probably not terribly accurate. U but
0:48
we've got you know the the the thinness
0:50
the the size and ratio of the displays
0:52
both outside and in the you know the
0:54
folding works.
0:55
Wow. They did an amazing job with that.
0:58
Good god.
0:58
Oh, yeah.
0:59
That's the best one I've ever seen.
1:01
And it's cosmic orange.
1:03
Yeah.
1:04
Yeah.
1:05
That looks fantastic. Send it to me. I
1:08
want it.
1:08
I've been playing with this and so I
1:10
just have, you know, I it lets me get
1:12
some first impressions with what we
1:13
think the physical object might be. So,
1:15
the uh the inner display uh measures 6
1:18
1/2 in wide by 4 and 1/2 in tall, a 4x3
1:22
aspect ratio. The display on the front 3
1:24
in wide by 4 and a half inches tall. So
1:27
3:2 aspect ratio. It is the shortest
1:31
screen uh since the iPhone 4 or like
1:35
sorry. Yeah. Shortest.
1:37
You have one around.
1:39
Yep. It's It's weird. Like try and
1:41
picture this. A phone that's as short as
1:43
an iPhone 4 but still wider than the
1:47
widest phone Apple even currently makes.
1:50
It's it it's really kind of weird to
1:52
look at.
1:53
Shorter shorter and stubby.
1:55
It's stout.
1:57
Yeah, very stout
1:59
because it's so stout. Um I was curious
2:02
to see how that would affect how well it
2:03
rocks on a table and it's uh
2:05
surprisingly stable, at least in the
2:07
folded position and but then you unfold
2:10
it and it's like the worst you can
2:12
possibly imagine
2:14
because then when it's unfolded it's
2:15
much wider than any other phone has ever
2:17
been. Mhm.
2:18
Um, so the rocking is is interesting.
2:21
Um, holding it in the hand because it's
2:24
so wide. Um, I can't really reach my
2:28
thumb all the way across when it's
2:29
folded up. I can get like, you know, 80%
2:32
of the way so long as I'm like actually
2:35
gripping it on both sides with like my
2:36
fingers on one side, my palm on the
2:38
other side. Like I can't really reach
2:41
across because again, it's as wide as a
2:43
plus-sized phone. And that's before this
2:45
is even in a case. Um, but you know the
2:47
the nice thing is
2:49
for the first time in as long as I can
2:51
remember like I can actually touch the
2:53
top of the screen.
2:55
I just have to slide a little bit and I
2:57
can even touch the dynamic island on the
2:59
top.
2:59
I can touch where I can imagine the back
3:01
button or the status bar would be.
3:03
To be fair, you know, even I've got an
3:04
iPhone 17 Pro here in my hand now and I
3:07
can't reach the screen unless I shift it
3:09
in my grip. You know, like if I'm
3:11
holding the way you were holding it with
3:12
my
3:13
uh my fingers wrapped around the far
3:16
edge,
3:16
you you can't do that with your thumb.
3:18
You have to kind of shift around.
3:20
Like with with my current phone, I I
3:22
just can't reach the top at all.
3:24
And that's just something I've had to
3:25
live with.
3:26
And it's like it's it's nice that I can
3:28
imagine I'll get that back now.
3:29
And then when I unfold it, you know, I'm
3:31
holding it like
3:33
two-handed, you know, one hand on each
3:35
side, you know, I've got like really
3:37
incredible range over it. like there's a
3:39
sort of triangle in the top center that
3:42
I can't reach, but you know, my thumbs
3:44
can reach the top of both sides of the
3:46
screen, the whole bottom of both sides
3:48
of the screen, and you know, most of the
3:50
middle, like almost all of the content
3:52
area. So, I I'm looking forward to it.
3:56
Obviously, I can't really I can hold it
3:57
one-handed, but without having the real
4:00
weight, I can't really judge how well
4:02
that'll be able to work, but uh
4:04
surprisingly ergonomic.
4:05
Yeah. And about the size of an iPad mini
4:07
screen, too, right? So, not a bad size.
4:09
I think this is like 7.7 in and the iPad
4:12
mini is 7.9. So, it's basically an iPad
4:15
mini you can hold in your pocket and
4:16
it's even thinner than an iPad mini. So,
4:18
got that going for it.
4:19
And when it's folded up, how bulky is
4:21
it?
4:22
Yeah, that that's what people are
4:23
saying. Like, I don't want a phone
4:24
that's twice as thick, but
4:26
it's really not twice as thick. It's a
4:28
little bit thicker than an iPhone 16
4:31
Pro. Maybe like an extra 20% thicker,
4:35
but it's really not that much thicker.
4:37
Mhm.
4:38
You know, if you have a if you have a
4:39
case on your phone, then you've got a
4:41
thicker phone than this when it's
4:43
folded.
4:43
Wow.
4:44
Because, you know, it's it's based on
4:45
the iPhone Air engineering. So, it's
4:47
it's got that super thin
4:49
design all the way around the edge, you
4:51
know, with like what'll probably be
4:52
like, you know, the 3D printed metal
4:54
USBC port just so they can make it as
4:56
thin as humanly possible.
4:58
This got me thinking for the first time.
5:00
Um, what are they going to do with the
5:02
buttons? Because as you know, every
5:06
phone, every iPhone has the volume
5:09
buttons and now the action button on the
5:10
left side. But if you think about it,
5:14
this phone doesn't really have a left
5:15
side. It has a hinge on the left.
5:18
It has two right sides. So you might
5:21
think, oh, well, you know, just put the
5:22
volume buttons on one half and the power
5:25
buttons on the other half. But that
5:26
means that then when it's folded up,
5:28
like how are you going to tell which
5:29
button you're pressing?
5:31
then all of your buttons will be like
5:32
right next to each other,
5:33
right? Yeah, good point.
5:35
This model, I don't know how accurate it
5:37
is, like whether this is based on
5:39
information or something, but this 3D
5:41
printed model has like what looks like a
5:43
skinny like action button sized thing
5:45
and then one singular like pill-shaped
5:48
button below. So, those are the only two
5:51
buttons on it and they're both on like
5:52
the right edge. And if that's like based
5:56
on actual information, I mean, that
5:57
raises a lot of questions. Like, what
5:59
are these buttons and what do they do?
6:00
Maybe that's an action button. And maybe
6:02
they've found a way to like combine the
6:05
power and volume buttons into one, you
6:08
know? Maybe it's like a sort of like
6:09
triple maybe it's got like three micro
6:12
switches under it so that you can like
6:13
They did have that before, didn't they?
6:14
An old one of the one some Oh, what was
6:16
it? Um, an old iPod touch or
6:20
some because we did a story about this.
6:22
I'm sure we did it a couple years ago.
6:23
Like, let's bring back the old combined
6:27
uh home and volume button.
6:30
On on the wired headphones, they had
6:31
like one single pill-shaped thing where
6:33
like you had to click the top of it to
6:35
do volume up, you clicked the bottom of
6:36
it to do volume down, and then you
6:38
clicked the middle to to do like the the
6:41
middle action, right?
6:42
And that's could be what they do here.
6:44
This button doesn't really seem big
6:46
enough for that. But the other theory
6:48
that I had was maybe this is sort of
6:50
like a uh camera control style thing
6:52
where it's a button that clicks in for,
6:55
you know, sleep, wake, and the voice
6:57
assistant, but then you slide your
6:58
finger up and down to control the
7:00
volume, volume up, volume down. That
7:04
seems like the nightmarish kind of thing
7:05
Apple might do, honestly.
7:08
Well, what about putting up the home
7:09
button on the top? Um, like with some
7:11
iPads.
7:12
Yeah, they could do that. They could
7:14
split it up so that you have a button on
7:15
the top. I mean, they haven't had a
7:16
button on the top since the iPhone 5S,
7:19
so that they could do that. Again, this
7:21
model doesn't have a button on the top,
7:22
but you know, it's again, I don't know
7:24
how accurate the buttons are on this.
7:26
Um, it says it was based on some like
7:28
CAD files, but I know we'll see. It also
7:31
got the uh the question of um what are
7:33
they going to do with the speakers and
7:35
microphones? Like the iPhone Air, it was
7:38
so limited on space that it only had a
7:40
speaker on top and that was its only
7:43
speaker and it just had like a
7:45
microphone on the bottom. This model it
7:48
had Yeah, I mean the folding iPhone it
7:50
has like I think I did the math over 75%
7:53
more area than the iPhone air. So
7:55
certainly they have room for more stuff
7:57
and they have more edges as well. But on
8:00
the bottom at least, you have the USB
8:03
port on one of the halves and then a
8:06
single set of holes on the other half.
8:10
And presumably if it's on the bottom, it
8:12
has to be a microphone, right? So that
8:13
when you're holding up to your ear, the
8:15
microphone's by your mouth. Um maybe
8:18
this is like a combined microphone and
8:20
speaker in the same set of holes. Uh but
8:24
that's kind of interesting. And then on
8:25
the top you have like a full set of
8:28
holes on one half and then just like two
8:31
holes on the other half. So presumably
8:33
that's another microphone because they
8:35
your your phone has a bunch of
8:36
microphones all over it just for you
8:38
know the the whole spatial audio thing
8:39
and noise cancellation. So presumably
8:42
that's another microphone and then
8:43
that's at least a speaker. But is that
8:46
the one and only set of speakers? It
8:48
would be kind of disappointing if you
8:49
spent like $2,000 on a phone that's like
8:51
the ultra iPhone and it doesn't have
8:53
stereo sound. So,
8:56
I I don't know how accurate this model
8:57
is, but I'm I'm hoping that the folding
8:59
iPhone has stereo speakers.
9:00
They would have to put to get that
9:01
stereo effect when when it's unfolded,
9:02
they'd have to have a speaker on one on
9:05
each side.
9:06
They're they're also on opposite halves.
9:07
So, maybe you've got like a speaker on
9:09
the bottom, left half, and a speaker on
9:11
the top right half. And so that way you
9:13
get stereo sound no matter which way
9:14
you're holding it. Portrait, horizontal,
9:16
you know, vertical, open, closed. Yeah,
9:19
that would be kind of funky. But, um
9:21
yeah,
9:21
that that's another unknown right now.
9:23
Well, you've been playing around with
9:25
it, right? Um, you know, what's it
9:26
what's it like to put it in your pocket
9:28
and just hold it up to your face and
9:30
putting it in your pocket, you know, uh,
9:32
because it's it's it's about as wide as
9:34
a plus-sized phone. So, it's, you know,
9:36
if you can fit a plus-siz phone in your
9:38
pocket, then you're already good. And in
9:40
fact, it'll be a little better than that
9:41
because it's not as tall. So, you know,
9:44
it's not going to stick out if you're of
9:45
your pocket if you have a shallow
9:46
pocket. Um the the annoying thing is
9:49
that you know the the cameras protrude
9:50
quite a bit, but that's not anything
9:53
unique to this phone. The the cameras
9:55
protrude on all of the phones now. Uh
9:58
the the one thing that's different about
9:59
it is that it's got the sharp corner.
10:01
The the corner on the final actual
10:03
production model won't be as like sharp
10:06
as this one. It'll be rounded a little
10:07
bit, but there's not that much Apple can
10:10
do to like round it too much because it
10:13
has to be, you know, part of the the
10:15
middle of the phone when it's unfolded.
10:17
So, you know, the the corner is
10:19
something to watch out for. Like, it
10:20
does catch on my pocket when I'm trying
10:21
to pull it out sometimes. Um, it it
10:24
catches a little bit when I'm trying to
10:25
put it in. Uh, you know, it it's not the
10:27
rounded corner that you're used to. So,
10:29
you do have to be a little more careful
10:30
how you put it in and take it out of
10:31
your pocket. But other than that, like
10:33
once it's in there, it's, you know, an
10:35
unusual shape, but it still fits in just
10:39
fine.
10:39
Yeah. Jeff Hawkins, I remember, um, he
10:42
was the inventor of the Palm Pilot.
10:44
Remember that? The old Palm Pilot.
10:46
And, um, he carried around a model of
10:49
the Palm Pilot for about a year, which
10:52
he pretended to use. It was, you know,
10:56
it was a, it wasn't a working model. Um
10:58
but he was writing that that he invented
10:59
this uh handwriting technique called
11:01
graffiti that was um made it easy to
11:03
input um to do the handwriting
11:05
recognition on the device. And uh I
11:08
thought it was really funny that he
11:09
carried around for about a year or so
11:10
just to sort of see what the use case
11:12
was like and to refine it. And I guess
11:14
you know you should be doing that with
11:15
that with this thing as well.
11:18
Oh yeah. Yeah. I again I've been I've
11:20
been picking it up like every few hours
11:21
on my desk. It's hard to resist. It's
11:23
just you know it's a it's a dummy thing
11:25
but it's it's still just so cool. the
11:27
outside screen when you turn it over. I
11:29
mean, that's that's kind of an odd
11:31
looking device.
11:32
It is an odd view. Unfolded on the back,
11:34
you've got like the back of a phone but
11:36
stubby and then like half of black glass
11:39
on the other half. It's It's an odd
11:41
look. I I'll I'll give you that.
11:43
With uh you know, with the with the
11:44
current folding devices, does that
11:45
outside screen continue to function when
11:47
it's unfolded or do they disable it?
11:50
No. Like once you open like it moves to
11:52
the it moves to the inside and then it
11:54
sort of stops. And some of them have
11:56
like special like camera modes where you
11:58
can sit it up and you know use both both
12:01
screens at once like you know to help
12:03
you take a picture or something. But um
12:06
or you know some of them have a mode
12:07
where you can unfold it but like you
12:10
know if you're trying to take a selfie
12:11
you can you can hold it like this where
12:13
you've got the the nice cameras pointing
12:15
at you and you've got a preview on on
12:17
your screen on the other half to try and
12:19
take a picture.
12:19
Yeah.
12:20
It enables a few neat things. or you
12:22
can, you know, prop it up like this so
12:24
you've got the back of it down on the
12:26
surface and then you can sort of hold it
12:28
up and watch a video on the outer
12:31
screen. But, um, generally like, you
12:33
know, for using it once you open it,
12:35
like it it turns off the outer display
12:37
so that your your fingers on the back of
12:39
it aren't aren't messing with anything.
12:41
It's it's quite delightful. I'm super
12:43
excited about it. That um I can't wait
12:45
to see this thing. That model is
12:46
amazing. I I can't wait to see it, but I
12:49
cannot
12:50
imagine what would make me buy that.
12:53
The the you know, the fact that it's a
12:54
little iPad mini, although I'm not a
12:55
huge fan of the iPad mini, I find it too
12:56
small. I prefer, you know, large screen
12:58
iPad for for iPad-like things. But um
13:03
the idea of having a little tiny
13:05
computer in your pocket um that this
13:08
affords more so than than a than an
13:10
iPhone. I I bet current iPad uners users
13:13
who like love the iPad for the iPad will
13:16
probably not be satisfied with this. But
13:18
for the people like me, I don't want to
13:19
have to buy both a phone and an iPad.
13:21
It's kind of like I've got like a, you
13:23
know, a small iPad for free because
13:25
I've, you know, built into the same
13:27
device
13:29
for free.
13:30
Well, not for for
13:33
a giant amount of money, but yeah.
13:35
Well, Matt Matt uh did an amazing job
13:38
there. Thank you so much, Matt. That is
13:39
look absolutely fantastic. What a great
13:41
model.
13:42
I had one final thought about the
13:43
cameras. Um I my guess is they're
13:45
probably going to be like a regular
13:47
camera and the ultrawide camera just
13:49
because that's what Apple does whenever
13:50
they have a phone with two cameras these
13:52
days. But you know when I really saw
13:54
them saw them arranged this way like you
13:56
know it's kind of imagine like the
13:58
iPhone Air plateau and then the cameras
13:59
are side by side like along the top edge
14:02
of the phone. You know it that's not how
14:04
Apple arranges their cameras on normal
14:06
phones. they're always, you know, top
14:09
and bottom instead of side by side like
14:11
this, you know. And that got me thinking
14:13
a bit like usually this is such an
14:17
obvious thing that nobody ever thinks
14:18
about it, but you know, on every other
14:20
iPhone, the the camera sensor is always
14:24
like oriented the same way that the
14:26
screen is. So, you know, when you're
14:28
holding your iPhone in portrait and you
14:30
take a picture, you've got a portrait
14:32
picture, right? But this phone doesn't
14:35
really have a fixed portrait or
14:38
horizontal mode. It has a portrait
14:40
screen and a horizontal screen. So I was
14:43
thinking like, well, which way is the
14:46
camera sensor going to go? I think this
14:48
might actually be the first iPhone that
14:50
has a horizontal camera sensor in it
14:53
because if if you think about it, like
14:55
if you unfold it, then you've got a 4x3
14:58
horizontal screen and that's the screen.
15:00
you'll want like the big excellent, you
15:03
know, camera preview, not letter boxed
15:05
or anything. If you're taking a picture
15:07
like unfolded, you'll probably want a
15:10
horizontal camera sensor. And especially
15:11
if you're trying to take spatial video,
15:13
you know, you need the two lenses to be
15:14
side by side for that so that they they
15:16
can do like the sort of human eye style
15:19
like stereoscopic vision. And that also
15:21
needs them to be horizontal. So that
15:24
that also means that when you're taking
15:25
a picture on the front screen, you'll
15:27
have like a horizontal camera image on a
15:30
vertical screen. And that'll like I I
15:32
guess I haven't researched how other
15:34
foldable phones like approach this
15:35
problem, but uh and we'll see how Apple,
15:38
you know, solves for those like weird
15:41
little design problems.
15:43
Yeah.
15:43
So, it's only made me more excited for
15:45
this phone really. It's still eight
15:47
months away.
15:49
Yeah. And have there been there haven't
15:51
been any um supply chain leaks about it
15:52
yet. No components, no ribbon cables.
15:55
Supposedly they've entered like design
15:57
validation testing. So they've you know
15:59
done a small production run of these and
16:01
validated those. But uh I mean as they
16:04
start ramping up production in like the
16:05
the summer or so. Well that I think
16:07
that's when we'll see the flurry of
16:08
stuff.
16:08
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm quite
16:11
excited about it especially in the
16:12
orange color. Are you still in love with
16:14
the orange color, Louis?
16:16
H it's fine. I don't wake up every day
16:18
going, "Wow, my phone's orange."
16:21
What about the stickers? Is there room
16:23
for stickers?
16:24
That's the most important question.
16:27
Oh, yeah. Plenty of room for stickers on
16:29
this thing.
16:30
Put a put a couple stickers on there for
16:32
sure.
16:32
What kind of case is it going to have? I
16:34
mean, the case is going to have to have
16:35
uh some kind of um
16:37
That's what I was wondering. I I bet
16:38
it's gonna have to be like a two-piece
16:40
case almost because otherwise it's going
16:42
to have to bend and bend and bend and
16:44
bend and bend a million times without
16:46
fraying. You know, I saw somebody who
16:48
had a a foldable phone, one of the newer
16:50
Samsung foldables over the holidays, and
16:52
they had a really interesting case where
16:54
it's sort of like a bumper case where it
16:56
has like a two separate pieces that go
16:59
on each half, but then it has a spine
17:01
going down the middle like a book. So
17:03
that when you unfold it, you know, that
17:05
each half of the case goes like sort of
17:06
into the spine and then the spine can
17:08
like
17:09
unfold into be like a little kickstand.
17:12
So maybe that's the kind of thing
17:13
that'll do.
17:14
If it does have a spine like a book,
17:16
then it uh it's going to be even more
17:18
would that create will that help with
17:20
the stability with the cameras or make
17:22
it even more unstable? Probably. It's
17:24
going to be like a crumb catcher
17:26
if it um
17:27
I mean I don't know if they could do
17:28
that kind of a case on this one because
17:30
it has the camera plateau that goes all
17:32
the way out to the middle. So they
17:34
wouldn't be able to have like it
17:35
perfectly centered. I don't know. It
17:37
It's interesting. We'll see what we'll
17:38
see what the third party people do.
17:40
All right. Cool. Well, very interesting.
17:42
Really good demo. You got a really good
17:43
feel for it now.