Apple takes its sweet time in adopting a new trend or technology, but when it does, it comes up with one of the best implementations ever. That’s exactly what everyone is expecting from the company’s first foldable. Call it the iPhone Fold or the iPhone Ultra, the Cupertino giant has more riding on this launch than perhaps any product launched in the last few years, and it could break cover later this year.
The rumors have been building for months, but at this point, we have a clearer picture than ever, both of the engineering advancements Apple is pushing hard for, and the trade-offs it may have to accept along the way. We’re a couple of months away from the iPhone Fold’s launch, and here’s everything you need to know about it.
iPhone Fold / Ultra: At a glance
| Specification | Details | |
| Name | iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra | Apple yet to confirm the official name |
| Release date | To be announced in September 2026 | Availability possibly October–December 2026 |
| Starting price | $1,999–$2,500 | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB storage options rumored |
| Form factor | Book-style fold (horizontal) | Similar to Samsung Galaxy Z Fold but with a wider aspect ratio when unfolded |
| Inner display | ~7.76–7.8 inches, OLED | 4:3 aspect ratio; near iPad mini-sized when unfolded |
| Outer display | ~5.3–5.5 inches, OLED | Usable as a standard iPhone when folded |
| Crease | Near-invisible | Apple reportedly pursued elimination “regardless of cost” |
| Chip | A20 or A20 Pro | Based on expected September 2026 launch timeline |
| Biometrics | Side-mounted Touch ID | Face ID likely dropped to save internal space |
| Cameras | Dual rear (main + ultrawide), no telephoto | One front camera on inner display; one on outer display |
| Battery | 5,000–5,500 mAh | Largest ever on an iPhone, per Weibo leakers |
| Frame material | Titanium and aluminum | Could use liquid metal hinge |
iPhone Fold / Ultra: Latest News
- May 26, 2026 A report by Letem světem Applem (via PhoneArena) shows the purported iPhone Ultra inside protective case, revealing almost everything about the phone’s design.
- May 26, 2026 A claim from Instant Digital (via Weibo) suggests that Apple is facing problems in improving manufacturing yields during the pre-assembly process. The issue is related to Surface Mount Technology (SMT).
- May 19, 2026 Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station (via Weibo) shares that Apple could adopt a similar crease-free solution as Oppo Find N6.
- May 16, 2026 Chinese tipster Instant Digital (via Weibo) claims that Apple has achieved a visually crease-free foldable display with “long-term stability.” The core problem, however, is improving the hinge reliability.
- May 11, 2026 A report from MacRumors states that the first foldable iPhone could arrive in just two colors at launch.
- May 6, 2026 A Weibo post from the tipster Instant Digital claims that Apple’s first foldable could be easier to open and repair compared to other foldables on the market.
- April 27, 2026 Apple has reportedly locked in the ‘iPhone Ultra’ name for its first ever folding iPhone, alongside a MacBook Ultra, which could be the first-of-its-kind touchscreen OLED MacBook.
- April 26, 2026 Renders shared by a Korean tipster yeux1122 (via Naver) suggest that the iPhone Fold could have a folded body thickness of 9.23mm, slimmer than what initial rumors suggested (roughly 9.6mm).
- April 21, 2026 Chinese tipster Instant Digital (via Weibo) claims that the iPhone Fold could come with the Camera Control button.
- April 7, 2026 After rumors about Apple hitting a development snag with the foldable, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman pushed back by reinstating the September launch window.
- March 21, 2026 Fresh rumor suggested that the iPhone Fold might not start shipping until December 2026, three months after its initial showcase at the September 2026 launch event.
- March 16, 2026 Given that the device will run on iOS, and not iPadOS, it might miss out on some of the most popular apps or the advanced multitasking features built for iPads.
When will Apple release the iPhone Fold?
One of the most credible sources of information for upcoming Apple products, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, remains confident that the iPhone Ultra or iPhone Fold is on schedule for a September 2026 launch, at the company’s most important fall hardware event, which has also become one of the most important events in the consumer tech industry.
Apple has spent years watching from the sidelines, as Samsung, Google, and a couple of other Chinese companies reveal their foldables, and it wouldn’t risk revealing its first foldable through a separate event, one that might not have as much awareness or gather as much attention as its iconic fall event.
I believe the iPhone Ultra could be the last announcement, after the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max reveal.
On the flip side, analyst Tim Long has flagged the shipments for iPhone Fold might not begin until December 2026, implying that the announcement and arrival could be separated by almost three months, corroborating a report by Nikkei Asia about Apple hitting development snags with the foldable, related to engineering problems.
| Date | Rumored milestone | Status |
| Sep 2026 | Announcement alongside iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max | Most Likely |
| Oct–Nov 2026 | Limited availability after a staggered launch | Possible |
| Dec 2026 | Wider availability as mass production ramps up | Contested |
| 2027 | Full launch pushed due to hinge engineering failures | Disputed |
I think it makes sense, and for one good reason. Releasing the foldable iPhone about three months after the regular iPhone 18 Pro models ship would give customers and Apple stores a chance to catch their breath, and, at the same time, create more hype for the foldable. It would also allow people to make up their mind about spending a fortune on an iPhone that folds in half or settle for the Pro or Pro Max.
How much will the iPhone Fold cost?
On pricing, there’s a rare agreement among the sources: the iPhone Fold won’t be cheap, not by a long shot. Ming-Chi Kuo places the starting price between $2,000 and $2,500, a range that Gurman seems to agree with. However, we’ve also heard rumors about the starting price being less than $2,000.
I believe that a $1,999 starting price could be the sweet spot that is high enough to reflect the technology but just below the psychologically daunting $2,000 ceiling.
| Storage | Rumored price | Source |
| 256GB | ~$1,999–$2,320 | Gurman / Kuo: “at least $2,000” Instant Digital (Weibo): ~$2,320 |
| 512GB | ~$2,500–$2,610 | Kuo upper estimate: ~$2,500 Instant Digital (Weibo): ~$2,610 |
| 1TB | ~$2,900 | Instant Digital (Weibo) only No corroboration from other sources |
Design and display
Apple’s first foldable iPhone is going to follow a book-style foldable, similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 or the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. However, unlike them, the iPhone won’t go after a tall-and-narrow design. Instead, it is believed to sport a wider form factor that looks like an iPad mini when unfolded.
The dummy models shared by Sonny Dickson on X in April 2026 make this immediately apparent. Both the cover screen and inner screen are noticeably broader than existing book-style foldables; Apple is clearly charting its own way.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the foldable iPhone could come with a 5.5-inch outer display and a 7.8-inch inner screen, both measured diagonally, both featuring an OLED panel. A MacRumors report goes further, citing specific resolutions: 2,088 x 1,422 on the 5.49-inch cover screen, and 2,713 x 1,920 on the 7.76-inch inner panel.
The inner screen could be closer to a 4:3 aspect ratio, as opposed to Fold 7’s 10:9, to better handle side-by-side app multitasking and video consumption without the black bars on the top and the bottom. While the inner screen could get Apple’s ProMotion display technology (up to 120Hz refresh rate), the cover screen could be limited to 60Hz, though that might not sit well with buyers who’re shelling out $2,000 for the smartphone.
There should be a punch-hole cutout on the cover screen. The inner screen will also have a front camera, though whether it will be a punch-hole or under-display remains unconfirmed. On the back, the phone might feature a camera visor, similar to the one we’ve seen on the Pixel phones, with a double-camera array toward the left and LED flash and microphone on the right side.
The power button is rumored to double as a side-mounted Touch ID sensor, alongside a Camera Control button, with volume keys repositioned to the top-right when held horizontally. On the thickness front, the device may measure around 4.5-4.8mm when unfolded and 9-9.5mm when folded, thinner than most non-foldable flagships.
The frame could use a combination of titanium and aluminum. The most important design challenge, for Apple, is the foldable’s crease. On the crease front, Apple reportedly pursued a dual-layer ultra-thin glass structure and a liquid metal hinge to minimize it.
Prototype testing in May revealed a hinge rattling issue, but a follow-up leak on May 19 from DCS claimed Apple had since locked in both the hinge and panel design (via Notebookcheck), with the solution mirroring the near-crease-free approach used on the Oppo Find N6.
Performance and software
Under the hood, the iPhone Fold or Ultra will most likely run on one of Apple’s A20 chips, built on TSMC’s 2nm fabrication process. With more transistors on the chip, the chips could be up to 15% faster and 30% more efficient than the A19 series (via WCCFTech). Whether the foldable gets the regular A20 or the A20 Pro chip remains a point of contention.
Given what the company might charge for the device, customers will likely hold out for the A20 Pro chip, it doesn’t matter if it’s a binned version to control the performance and thermals. What’s less debated, however, is the packaging. Apple could use TSMC’s Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) technology, which stacks RAM directly onto the chip’s wafer, alongside the CPU, GPU, and the Neural Engine.
The result could be faster RAM access, leading to better performance, less heat generation, and improved on-device Apple Intelligence performance. For those wondering, the iPhone Fold could ship with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, the same amount as the iPhone 17 Pro and the purported iPhone 18 Pro. Storage could span across three tiers: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
On the connectivity front, we could get Apple’s second-generation C2 modem (same as the iPhone 18 Pro), the successor to the C1X modem on the iPhone 17e, which would also bring mmWave 5G support to the foldable. The device could also be eSIM-only, given the limited internal space.
As I mentioned earlier, the iPhone Fold or Ultra will most likely feature Touch ID instead of Face ID, a compromise that might sting in the beginning, but given that fingerprint authentication is already present on existing iPads, shouldn’t take long to get the hang of.
Out of the box, the iPhone Fold is expected to run iOS 27, and a special version of the operating system no less, which will be built around utilizing the additional screen real estate on the foldable.
It might sound like iOS 27 for the foldable iPhone is taking a lot of inspiration from iPadOS, after all it’s designed for a bigger-screen iPhone, but the Fold won’t run iPadOS entirely, nor will it support iPad apps out of the box. Apple might make it easier for developers to transition their apps from an iPad to the iPhone Fold, but that would be the extent of it.
Apple should give us a glimpse of iOS 27 at the WWDC 2026, which is also when the public beta of the next operating system should come out. The stable version should ship after Apple concludes the September 2026 event.
Cameras and battery
On paper, the iPhone Fold or Ultra’s camera systems don’t look as good as the iPhone 18 Pro, or the iPhone 17 Pro for that matter, and for a device that might cost twice as much, that isn’t a trade-off worth ignoring.
The iPhone Fold is expected to come with two 48MP sensors on the back, similar to the baseline iPhone 17, one with a wide lens and another with an ultrawide lens. What’s missing here, you might ask? It’s the telephoto lens found on the Pro models, and I think it’s likely due to space constraints in the foldable’s chassis that Apple might not include a dedicated zoom lens.
A November 2025 JP Morgan forecast (via MacRumors) also claimed that Apple might drop the LiDAR module and optical image stabilization on the foldable. While the first might be okay, the second could be a dealbreaker, especially for a smartphone that costs around or over $2,000. If I were to presume, the company will lean on computational photography and the A20’s NPU to compensate for the lack of hardware.
The same forecast also says about a 24MP under-display selfie camera on the inner screen. Whether it will retain the Center Stage functionality from the iPhone 17 series is something that isn’t clear yet, and so is the resolution for the punch-hole camera on the cover screen.
Talking about the battery, the iPhone Fold is rumored to ship with the largest battery on an iPhone, ever. According to Chinese tipster Fixed Focus Digital (via Weibo), the foldable could sport a 5,000 to 5,500 mAh battery, which, if true, could be bigger than the Fold 7’s 4,400 and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s 4,821 mAh battery.
The Razr Fold has a 6,000 mAh battery, but Cupertino’s foldable might beat it in terms of usage time, primarily due to better hardware-software optimization and its chip’s superior efficiency. Initial rumors hinted toward the presence of a silicon-carbon battery on the purported foldable, but none of the most credible sources have supported the notion.
Contrary to earlier rumors, the iPhone Fold’s recent pictures, via a leaked case listing (via PhoneArena), suggest that it might feature MagSafe charging after all. However, if that doesn’t happen, the iPhone Fold will be the first high-end iPhone to move out of the production line without MagSafe, since the iPhone 11 Pro, a genuinely baffling omission at $2,000.
Bottom line
The iPhone Fold is shaping up to be one of the most consequential product launches in Apple’s history, and one of the most expensive. While the company might actually achieve a crease-free display and create an ultra-durable foldable that passes the test of time, the compromises are hard to ignore, especially at an asking price north of $2,000. Apple needs to do what the company does best: stick with its core instincts and make the product work at all costs.
