Six years ago, Samsung took its first bold steps in bringing foldable smartphones into the mainstream, beginning a series of increasingly more advanced foldables culminating in the 2024 Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. It wasn’t long before Samsung’s success in the market inspired its Android rivals to follow suit, each in their own way. Motorola embraced the fun clamshell design with the Razr and Razr Plus, giving the Z Flip a run for its money, while Google’s Pixel Fold and the OnePlus Open have following the more professional book-like design of the Z Fold series.
With so many great Android foldables showing up over the past year or so, Apple’s absence has become even more conspicuous.
Neverthless, rumors of Apple’s work on foldable devices go back to at least 2016, when patent filings revealed the company was working on flexible OLED displays. Since then, there have been enough reports over the years to suggest that it’s not a matter of “if” Apple is working on a foldable iPhone, but merely when it will appear. Apple’s penchant for secrecy means we won’t hear anything official from the company until it has a product ready to announce, but rumors have been heating up significantly over the past year, suggesting the first “iPhone Fold” could be coming soon. Here’s everything we know so far.
iPhone Fold: design
For years, we had very little concrete information about the design Apple would ultimately use for its first foldable iPhone. Samsung already covered the two most obvious styles with the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series, but that doesn’t mean Apple has to follow suit. Apple has filed dozens of patents hinting at designs for a foldable iPhone, but these contain so many possibilities that it’s anybody’s guess right now as to what direction the company will go in. They can’t all be right.
Like Samsung, Apple may be exploring both of the traditional possibilities. According to a February 2024 report from The Information, Apple has been researching and building prototype folding devices for at least five years or more; not just iPhones, but also possible iPads and even a MacBook-like device. This corroborates previous reports that Apple has been developing and testing foldable OLED screens and hinges since at least 2016.
That early 2024 report was when Apple’s plans began coming into focus. Citing individuals with “direct knowledge” of the project, it revealed that two iPhone prototypes are currently in development, but suggested both would fold widthwise in a clamshell form factor. Apple also reportedly approached at least one supplier in Asia for the components required for these two foldable iPhone models, which would come in different sizes. But if the components do not meet Apple’s high standards, the foldable iPhone in development could also be canceled. Again, these are in very early stages of development, so don’t expect to see them any time soon; the earliest possible launch time frame would be at least 2026, but later reports have suggested this may not be the form factor we see first.
A foldable iPhone has always been a wild card for Apple, as its interest in such a product has fluctuated several times over the years. CEO Tim Cook supposedly asked designers and engineers about creating a foldable iPhone as early as 2018. Though he responded positively to a foldable iPhone demo with a 7-inch display, there are still concerns about the technical difficulties and durability issues.
Originally, the vision that Apple had for a foldable iPhone involved a display residing on the outside when the foldable is shut, but Apple engineers have expressed durability concerns with that particular design. Apple’s industrial design team also wanted to keep the thickness about the same as the current iPhones, even when closed, which would be impossible given what is currently offered for battery and display technology.
However, Apple is believed to have tested a few significantly different designs. Early in 2020, leaker Jon Prosser claimed to have seen a prototype device that used a two-screen design similar to Microsoft’s Surface Neo and Surface Duo rather than a single foldable display. However, by the following year, Prosser said his sources had informed him that after completing the first round of hinge testing, Apple would be putting all its efforts into a clamshell foldable iPhone with a design similar to the Galaxy Z Flip. Prosser also claimed this iPhone would come in more “joyful” colors to target “more mainstream customers.”
At some point around 2020, it appeared that Apple had paused work on a foldable iPhone and pivoted to a foldable iPad instead, which would be about the size of an iPad mini with an 8-inch display. The reasoning for this was that it could be thicker than a foldable iPhone, and users wouldn’t have to carry this in their pocket, so it didn’t need to be as durable. In early 2021, idustry analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicted an entirely new class of devices with a 7.5 to 8-inch display that would blur the line between the iPhone and the iPad. Unlike Prosser, Kuo didn’t claim to have seen any examples of this device.
Apple may still have two devices in the pipeline: a clamshell foldable “iPhone Flip” that’s designed for fun, along with a more serious business-class “iPhone Fold” or “iPad Fold.” However, a spate of rumors over the past several months have suggested the company is now putting all of its efforts into an book-like foldable.
The last we heard of the “iPhone Flip” clamshell design was in July 2024, when The Information reported that Apple moved it beyond the concept stage into a tangible project, codenamed V68. However, it appears that Apple put that on the back burner, as a significant shift had occurred by early 2025, with multiple reliable sources reporting that Apple was focusing on a book-style deisgn instead. Those include Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities, Jeff Pu of GF Securities, and display industry analyst Ross Young.
The consensus is that the “iPhone Fold” will follow in the footsteps of other foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold series and Pixel Fold, although we’ll undoubtedly see Apple put its own spin on it. Reports have suggested that it will measure between 9.0 and 9.5mm when folded and 4.5 to 4.8mm when open, making it thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which comes in at 12.1mm folded and 5.6mm unfolded. This aligns with Apple’s recent pursuit of making devices that are as thin as possible, as we saw with the “impossibly thin” M4 iPad Pro and are expecting from the rumored iPhone 17 Air.
One of Apple’s main goals for the iPhone Fold is to lead the market in durability. Apple has reportedly been testing hinges for at least seven years. Its original goal was believed to be finding one that could survive up to 100,000 folds, which would be more than double that of most laptop hinges. However, Samsung has long since surpassed that; the Galaxy Z Fold 4 can survive at least 200,000 folds. It’s likely Apple plans to at least meet that standard, if not exceeding it.
According to Kuo, the hinge for Apple’s first foldable will combine stainless steel and a titanium alloy. Another leaker revealed it could also incorporate liquid metal, also known as amorphous metal or metallic glass, inside the hinge mechanism. This advanced material would mean greater durability and longevity as well as a smoother folding experience.
A 2023 patent pointed to touch-sensitive control areas, including solid-state buttons, on the surface of the current iPhone design, as well as a folding one in the future. With this patent, Apple could add touch sensitivity to every side and edge of the iPhone, foldable or not. The name of this patent is “Electronic Devices With Display And Touch Sensor Structures,” which shows that it would be convenient to tap, swipe, or just touch an iPhone to control it.
Apple has reportedly been working on solid-state buttons for its traditional iPhones, so this patent partly applies to those. Howver, it also makes a distinction between the edges that can be found on the current iPhone design and the curved edges on a potential folding device, which are referred to as “sidewalls.”
It’s important to note that even though Apple has been granted these new patents that show a foldable device, it doesn’t guarantee that anything will come of it. Still, this looks like a promising development for a potential foldable iPhone.
iPhone Fold: display
In 2016, LG began mass-producing foldable displays, indicating it planned to supply them to several companies, including Apple. That notion gained more steam in late 2017 when sources claimed Apple and LG had actively partnered to develop specific foldable display technology for a future iPhone — a partnership that’s still ongoing.
By 2020, Apple and Samsung Display had reportedly signed a deal in which the display maker would supply a “large number” of foldable display samples over a year to be used for testing foldable iPhone prototypes.
However, Apple’s supply chain was sending so many different styles of displays for testing that it was difficult to nail down a final design until more recent reports have pointed to a near-finalized design.
Today, multiple sources agree that we can expect the folding iPhone to have an internal display that measures around 7.8 inches when open, plus a fully functional 5.5-inch cover display that can be used when the device is folded shut. Those dimensions rougly correspond to other foldables; the Galaxy Z Fold 6 displays are 7.6 and 6.3 inches, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 8.0 and 6.3 inches, and the OnePlus Open comes in at 7.82 and 6.31 inches.
There’s no final word on the width and height of the iPhone Fold, and it’s hard to draw conclusions from only diagonal measurements. Some leakers have pointed to resolutions of 2713 x 1920 for the inner display and 2088 x 1422 for the cover display, but these would result in a somewhat unusual 7:5 aspect ratio; other reports have suggested the inner display will be 4:3. By comparison, other leading foldables use a 20:9 aspect ratio for their outer screens and nearly square inside displays.
Apple’s engineers are also trying to eliminate the possibility of a crease that forms in the middle of the display, which is a big problem for pretty much every foldable on the market right now. OnePlus has come the closest to eliminating it, but Apple wants it gone entirely.
Multiple sources claim that Apple won’t be satisfied with anything less than a crease-free display. Over the years, this has often been cited as one of the reasons we don’t already have an iPhone Fold; the technology simply hasn’t been ready until now. In addition to advanced OLED and hinge technology, Apple has also filed an intriguing set of patents for self-healing screens that use elastomers or polymers that could repair minor scratches. However, like most patents we wouldn’t bet on this one turning into anything tangible right away.
Apple also wants to make it so that the hinge can allow for a display that opens up completely flat, since it reportedly intends to allow the Apple Pencil to be used with the iPhone Fold.
Apple is reportedly pulling out all the stops, but won’t release its first foldable iPhone until it can create a perfect, crease-free display.
iPhone Fold: cameras and other specs
While reports of the design and display have begun to gel into something that finally seems like a real product, they’re much vaguer on the internal specs.
Cameras in paritcular remain an open question. Kuo has predicted a dual-lens rear camera system, simlar to what’s used on Apple’s standard iPhone models, rather than the triple-lens system of the iPhone Pro. This suggests that Apple will adopt a similar strategy to most other foldable manufacturers, saving its best cameras for its non-foldable premium flagships. In the case of the iPhone Fold, Apple is likely looking to keep costs down and avoiding adding the extra bulk of a telephoto lens.
The front facing camera could adopt under-screen technology, but that’s far from a sure thing, as there have been conflicting reports that point to a hole-punch camera cutout instead. In either case, it’s expected to forego Face ID — one of the things that’s arguably held back under-display cameras on Apple’s other iPhones — adopting a Touch ID sensor in the side button instead, similar to the iPad Air and iPad mini. That’s not surprising, since a foldable iPhone would require two sets of Face ID sensors to make the feature work seamlessly whether open or closed. A single side Touch ID button can serve both purposes.
While there’s no word on what chip will power the iPhone Fold, it’s a safe bet that it will adopt the latest A-series chip of its era. With a predicted launch in late 2026 or early 2027, that’s likely to be the same A20 chip that will go into the iPhone 18 lineup.
iPhone Fold: software
While most of the leaks and reports have focused on the hardware and design of a folding iPhone, Apple is also likely hard at work on the software side of things. Neither iOS nor iPadOS, as they exist today, will easily translate to a foldable design.
Given Apple’s meticulous attention to user experiences, the company is likely already tossing around ideas for a foldable version of its mobile operating system. Depending on what direction the iPhone Fold goes, we might see an entirely new derivative of iOS appearing on it.
Rumored changes coming in iOS 19 and iPadOS 19 could help pave the way for the iPhone Fold. While uncorroborated, one interesting rumor is that Apple plans to bring full external display support to iOS 19, including a Stage Manager interface.
iPhone Fold: release date
With Apple reportedly testing foldable iPhone designs over the past several years, it’s not surprising we’ve had more than a few false starts. Otherwise reliable analysts have often been led to believe it’s just around the corner, only for those dates to come and go with no sign of the mythic iPhone Fold or iPhone Flip.
A few years ago, analysts and leakers predicted a foldable iPhone would arrive by 2021, which eventually became 2022, and then 2023.
In 2023, display analyst Ross Young, who has a pretty solid track record when it comes to anything concerning screen technology, shared that he’d been told by sources in the supply chain that a foldable iPhone won’t be appearing before 2025, and that’s a very preliminary estimate. “The company does not appear to be in a hurry to enter the foldable smartphone market, and it may even take longer than that,” Young noted in his February 2022 foldable/rollable display shipment and technology report. Kuo corroborated this timeline a few months later.
While 2025 seems a bit optimistic, the reports have gained enough steam for us to actually believe that the iPhone Fold could arrive in late 2026 or early 2027. It’s no longer one or two random analysts saying this, but even Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and the Wall Street Journal’s Aaron Tilley. While there are minor variations in this timeline, it’s the most well-corroborated estimate we’ve ever seen. It’s also notable that 2027 would represent the 20th anniversary of the iPhone.
Sadly, don’t expect this one to come cheap. There’s remarkable consensus among analysts that the iPhone Fold will be somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500, making it the most expensive iPhone ever. In addition to the cost of research, development, and engineering of its first foldable, some analysts believe Apple wants to test the waters and avoid disrupting its iPhone Pro lineup too much.
Still, that price isn’t out of line with competing foldables. Apple also isn’t expecting the first-generation iPhone Fold to be a hit; sources say the company is only aiming for 3 to 5 million units in the launch year, potentially growing to 20 million only after the second-generation model arrives. For comparison, Apple sells well over 200 million iPhones each year, but all current foldable phones combined only add up to around 19.3 million in unit sales, so the iPhone Fold would still represent a healthy piece of that pie.
