Apple has been working on a foldable iPhone for multiple years now, and we've been hearing rumors for more than a decade. Information is ramping up, and it looks like we're going to see Apple introduce its first foldable iPhone in September 2026. The foldable iPhone will launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models.
Apple tested multiple fold styles and device sizes, including one with a clamshell design that would be similar in size to a current iPhone that folds in half vertically, and a book-like design that folds horizontally and opens up to a larger iPad mini-sized display.
In 2024, it was sounding like Apple would go with the clamshell design because it was testing prototypes in that style, but 2025 rumors have solidified around a book-like design. With the book style, the iPhone would have an outer display and camera that can be used when it's closed, and then a larger, inner display that offers up much more screen space to work with.
The foldable iPhone could have a titanium alloy casing with a hinge made from stainless steel and titanium with liquid metal components, and there could be a dual-lens rear camera along with a single front-facing camera.
Analyst Jeff Pu believes the foldable iPhone will have a frame that's made from titanium and aluminum. Apple could use titanium for the stress bearing parts of the frame to ensure that it doesn't bend, and aluminum in other areas for heat dissipation and to keep weight low.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple might not opt for Face ID, instead installing a Touch ID side button. It's possible that would allow Apple to save valuable real estate inside to keep the device as thin as possible, but it would be a definite change as Apple just eliminated Touch ID from the iPhone lineup with the launch of the iPhone 16e.
Apple will need to overhaul iOS to be able to better transition from a small display to a larger display, but luckily iPadOS already exists. The foldable iPhone will allegedly have a display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, much like the iPad.
Current rumors suggest that the foldable iPhone will feature a display that's around 5.5 inches when it's folded in half, and a larger 7.8-inch iPad-like display when it's opened up.
It could be as thin as 4.5mm when it is unfolded, and 9mm to 9.5mm when it is closed. If it is 4.5mm, when open, the foldable iPhone will be Apple's thinnest device by far. That title is currently held by the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is 5.1mm thick. Some rumors suggest it will be a few millimeters thicker, but it is expected to be thinner than current iPhones.
According to one leaker, the inner (unfolded) display will measure in at 7.76 inches with a 2,713 x 1,920 resolution, while the outer display (folded) will measure in at 5.49 inches with a 2,088 x 1,422 resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. Another leaker has suggested it will have a 7.6-inch display size when unfolded.
The 2026 foldable iPhone reportedly has no visible crease, a problem that affects most foldable devices on the market. Apple is said to have pursued eliminating the crease "regardless of cost," and the company has developed a "new material property" that makes the crease disappear. The crease has been described as "nearly invisible" when the iPhone is unfolded.
One of the reasons that Apple waited so long to release a foldable iPhone is because it struggled to make a device that did not have a visible crease, but it may be a problem that has now been largely solved given the uptick in rumors.
Apple is planning to use ultra-thin glass for the foldable iPhone, and Chinese manufacturer Lens Technology could be Apple's primary glass supplier. Corning is likely to provide the raw materials to Lens Technology, with Apple choosing the supplier because of its expertise in glass strengthening and minimizing side cracks after cutting.
The foldable iPhone will use a new type of display panel created by Samsung, using a custom display process that Apple has the trademark for. The process includes integrating touch sensors directly into the display panel, reducing overall thickness by approximately 19 percent. The engineering advancement brings a lighter build and a more rigid display structure, and the display meets Apple's requirements for thinness, power efficiency, and brightness.
The outer display of the foldable iPhone (which you see when it is folded) could have a hole-punch camera, while the inner display will feature an under-display camera.
Apple could use a structural glass mid-frame to minimize the visible display crease in the fold, while applying a color filter-on-encapsulation layer together with a circular polarizer module to improve color purity and light transmission.
Leakers suggest the iPhone Fold will have a crease depth that's under 0.15mm, which is shallow and should be less noticeable to the eye and to the touch than a crease that is deeper. The crease angle is under 2.5 degrees. The creasing angle describes how sharp the fold line appears when the display is unfolded. A smaller angle suggests a smoother, flatter transition across the fold.
Smartphone makers like Samsung do not publish details on crease measurements, so it is difficult to compare Apple's crease design rumors to existing foldable devices.
To minimize the crease in the display, Apple plans to use liquid metal for the iPhone's hinge, which will improve durability. This is one technique that might allow Apple to get rid of the crease that has plagued other foldable smartphones. Apple's hinge will be higher quality than hinges used for other foldable smartphones.
Liquid metal, or amorphous metal, has a structure that is more resistant to bending, deformation, and denting than traditional metal. Its properties are derived from the manufacturing method, which involves rapid heating and cooling. Its structure makes it tougher than titanium alloy, and it has a stainless steel look.
Apple may also use a combination of titanium and stainless steel for the hinge.
The foldable iPhone could have an under-display camera for the interior of the device, with a single hole punch camera for the exterior when it's folded up. The under-display camera is not expected to feature Face ID, with Apple instead adopting Touch ID. The camera could have a 24-megapixel resolution, which would be an industry first. Some Android devices use under-display cameras, but not at that high resolution.
The foldable iPhone rear camera setup will have a Main lens and an Ultra Wide lens with no Telephoto lens. Rumors suggest that both lenses will be 48 megapixels, which isn't too surprising because current iPhone models have 48-megapixel lenses.
All-in-all, the foldable iPhone is expected to include four total cameras.
Apple is said to be planning to "stay away from fun colors" and stick to more traditional space gray/black and silver/white finishes for the iPhone Ultra.
One rumor has described the darker color as a shade of indigo rather than black. The color is said to be similar to the iPhone 17 Pro's Deep Blue finish. The Deep Blue color is one of the darker blues that Apple has debuted, but it is clearly a blue shade and not black.
Apple is prioritizing the thinness of the iPhone Fold, and several design decisions have been made to reduce the overall thickness of the chassis. One sacrifice is Face ID, which Apple may replace with Touch ID because there isn't enough space in the foldable iPhone for the Face ID components.
Instead, the foldable iPhone will use Touch ID for authentication, with the Touch ID sensor built into a side button on the device. Since the iPhone Fold is going to be around the same size as the iPad mini when it's unfolded, it makes some sense for it to have an iPad mini-like Touch ID button.
The foldable iPhone will use Apple's A20 chip, built on TSMC's 2nm process.
The transition to 2nm will allow for more transistors in each chip, which will boost performance. The A20 chips could be up to 15 percent faster and 30 percent more efficient than A19 chips. Apple is also expected to use TSMC's Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) chip packaging technology. WMCM will see RAM directly integrated on the chip's water with the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine.
Incorporating RAM this way could bring faster performance for overall tasks and Apple Intelligence, better thermal management, and improved Apple Intelligence.
The iPhone Fold is expected to feature 12GB RAM.
The foldable iPhone is expected to include Apple's second-generation C2 modem, a successor to the C1 modem. The C2 will be on par with Qualcomm's modems, and it will support mmWave 5G, unlike the C1.
Apple worked to increase the power efficiency of its first foldable display in an effort to maximize battery life, and rumors suggest that the foldable iPhone will have decent battery life despite a thin size. Apple reduced the display driver integrated circuit (IC) from 28nm to 16nm, which is a notable improvement. Apple plans to use high-density battery cells for the foldable iPhone.
The foldable iPhone could have a battery in the 5,400 to 5,800 mAh range, which would make it the largest battery capacity that Apple has used in an iPhone. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the current largest battery at 5,088 mAh.
Apple's foldable iPhone won't have a SIM slot and will instead use eSIM, much like the iPhone Air.
Apple's first foldable iPhone could cost nearly twice as much as the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple's foldable iPhone will be priced somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also suggested a similar price range. UBS Analysts believe Apple will price it between $1,800 and $2,000, and Fubon Research says it will cost $2,400.
The iPhone Fold will have three storage options, including 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. One rumor suggests that approximate pricing could be as follows:
The first hints of a foldable iPhone surfaced in 2016 when rumors suggested LG Display would be mass producing foldable displays for smartphones in 2018 and supplying them to companies like Apple and Google, but LG clearly did not end up supplying foldable displays to Apple at that time because no folding iPhone materialized.
A 2017 rumor kept the folding iPhone concept alive, indicating Apple was partnering up with LG to develop an iPhone with a foldable display. LG has a number of foldable display prototypes that use flexible OLED panels, including one that folds over like a book and a second that rolls up like a newspaper, and LG has been refining its technology every year.
Rumors in 2019 suggested that Samsung offered to supply foldable displays to Apple, and Apple supplier Corning was rumored to be working on a foldable glass solution that Apple might adopt.
In September 2020, rumors indicated that Samsung was providing foldable display samples to Apple for a future foldable iPhone, but years later, there is no indication that Apple is planning to use Samsung's technology.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who often has reliable insight into Apple's plans, said in 2021 that development on a foldable iPhone had not yet kicked off, but he later claimed that Apple experimented with an 8-inch foldable iPhone with a flexible OLED display and a 9-inch foldable device.
In 2021, Bloomberg claimed that Apple had started "early work" on an iPhone with a foldable display, but that it had not committed to releasing a foldable device at that time. Development in 2021 had not expanded beyond a display, and Apple did not have full foldable iPhone prototypes.
In 2024, The Information said that Apple built two foldable iPhone prototypes with a clamshell design that folds widthwise, but we didn't hear much else about it.
This year, foldable iPhone discussion picked up with Kuo suggesting that Apple was working on a book-style foldable iPhone that could be released at the end of 2026 or in early 2027.
Apple patents all kinds of things that never become finished products so patents aren't necessarily a reliable way to predict what's in development, but Apple has a few foldable iPhone patents.
Apple's first foldable iPhone patent surfaced in 2016, describing a smartphone that folds in half horizontally using a flexible OLED display and a hinged metal support structure. Both halves of the display remain accessible when the phone is shut, and there are also drawings depicting devices with multiple folds.
A 2019 patent application describes foldable smartphone with a built-in heating element or display heating feature to cut down on failures at the fold in cold temperatures, a problem that has the potential to impact foldable smartphones.
Apple in February 2020 was granted a patent for a foldable device with a hinge mechanism that utilizes movable flaps to help prevent the display from being creased or damaged when folded.
The hinge mechanism is designed to ensure adequate separation between the first and second parts of the display. When the device is unfolded, movable flaps extend to cover the gap, and then retract when the device is folded.
An Apple patent granted in March describes a unique alternative to a foldable iPhone, explaining a system that would allow two or more devices to act as one when brought close to each other through the use of proximity sensors.
The patent envisions two separate devices that automatically detect one another when placed together with a shared display. The wording of the patent seems to suggest that Apple could create a single bendable device comprised of two displays in seamless communication with each other.
A 2020 patent filing suggests Apple is exploring a protective layer for a foldable iPhone that would resist cracking. The iPhone would feature a hardcoat layer that would fill pre-existing micro-cracks to make it harder for a larger crack to appear.
The extra layer would be placed directly on top of the display and would resist punctures and scratches.
Samsung unveiled its first foldable smartphone way back in 2019, and has continued releasing new models every year since then. Other companies like Google, LG, Motorola, and Huawei have also followed in Samsung's footsteps, so there are multiple Android-based foldable smartphones to choose from.
Galaxy Z Fold 5Most foldables on the market have the book-style folding mechanism, and as Apple waits to debut a foldable device, Android smartphone makers are getting better and better at hinges, crease-free foldable displays, and more. Samsung is on its seventh-generation foldables.
Galaxy Z FlipMultiple rumors suggest the first foldable iPhone will debut in September 2026 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models, but it could launch a bit later due to production difficulties. Some rumors say it will launch in October, and that supplies will be constrained.
Apple is testing a foldable iPhone that has a flip-style design, which could compete with the Galaxy Z Flip if Apple decides to move beyond the prototyping stage.
The iPhone Apple is working on has a square, clamshell-style design, and it would come sometime after the foldable iPhone we're expecting in 2026.
Along with a foldable iPhone, rumors suggest that Apple is exploring other foldable devices, including iPads and MacBooks that have foldable OLED displays. Initial rumors suggested that Apple would unveil a foldable iPad or Mac before a foldable iPhone, but now it sounds like the foldable iPhone is coming first.
After Apple launches its first foldable iPhone in 2026, it will introduce a second-generation model in 2027. The 2027 foldable iPhone will fall on the 20th anniversary of the iPhone's launch.
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