iPhone Fold Dummy Unit surfaces, looks exactly like the CAD renderings

Photo credit: Digital chat station
The latest iPhone Fold dummy floating around online gives a good look at what could be Apple’s first foldable phone. This mockup is made of 3D printed plastic and based on leaked screen information and specifications. It folds up into a nice little rectangle before opening up to reveal a much larger screen.

When closed, the device is about the same height as an ancient iPhone 4, but slightly wider than the current 17 Pro Max. The reason for the width is a 5.3-inch outer screen with an oddly short 2:3 aspect ratio, which is very different from the super-large, slim screens Apple has used since the iPhone X. One-handed use feels very awkward as your thumb covers most of the screen, but it’s difficult to reach the other side without changing your grip. The little square corner at the bottom left, which is shaped by the positioning of the hinges, is bound to get caught somewhere in your pocket, although Apple will probably fix that before production.

When you open it, a 7.7-inch inner screen appears, laid out in landscape orientation and with a square 4:3 aspect ratio that’s more suited to an iPad Mini than a phone. When fully extended, the device is approximately 167.6mm wide and 120.6mm high, providing enough space for two apps side by side or a full keyboard without feeling cramped. One thing’s for sure: you can now use both hands and your reach now extends across almost the entire screen, with the exception of a small area at the very top.
The camera is positioned horizontally at the rear, with two lenses next to each other in landscape mode. This should allow you to film all kinds of beautiful spatial footage, and it works well with all the other camera features you’ve come to expect from previous iPhones, like wide-angle and ultra-wide settings for all that lovely macro and portrait work. The pill-shaped camera appears to have been carried over from another recent phone model, but the mockup remains simplistic, without any attempt to block out real lenses or sensors.

What about the buttons and ports? There’s a prominent button near the camera that could be an action button, and another at the bottom that can control the power or volume. Those speaker grilles look a bit strange, with one small hole at the bottom and two at the top, which doesn’t give us much confidence that the audio output will be equivalent to that of a conventional iPhone.

In terms of thickness, it appears to be around 9.6mm when folded in CAD renderings, which is slightly higher than some of the current iPhones, but reasonable considering the complexity of the folding mechanism. In terms of weight, the plastic mockup weighs almost nothing, so who knows what it will be like when they start putting real glass, aluminum and components in it. The hinge itself opens and closes quite easily, but this differs when you consider the precision damping and magnets you’d expect from an Apple device.

According to leaks, it will launch in 2026, possibly alongside the iPhone 18 series. The screen sizes seem to be about consistent across the board: 5.3 to 5.4 inches on the outside and 7.7 to 7.8 inches on the inside. Apple is aiming for a small device that happens to branch out into tablet territory, rather than the tall, book-style fold that other manufacturers use.
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