In summary:
- Macworld analyzes Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold, which is expected to have a book-like design with 5.5-inch external and 8-inch internal displays for more than $2,000.
- The device can run iPadOS on the inner screen, creating a hybrid iPhone/iPad experience with Apple Pencil and keyboard support.
- Success will depend on unique software capabilities beyond folding, as current iOS isn’t optimized for wider screens and the novelty factor alone won’t support long-term sales.
Foldable phones are everywhere. There are plenty that our friends at TechAdvisor have maintained best foldable phone guide for several years. In fact, Samsung just came out with a triple phone, in a very “we made a razor with even more blades” kind of approach.
And while foldable phones have become quite good in recent years and are quite popular considering the high price they command ($1,500 or more for the top models), expectations for Apple’s highly anticipated foldable iPhone are a lot higher. Apple has avoided making a foldable iPhone for years, even though the problems with screen creases and wonky hinges have been more or less solved. A foldable iPhone will have to be more than just “it’s an iPhone, but it folds.” It should allow you to do things you can’t do with a non-folding iPhone.
Go their own way
A plethora of leaks have given us a good idea of what the iPhone Fold will look like: a book-style foldable iPhone, slightly stocky and wider than its contemporaries in the Android space, with an external screen of around 5.5 inches and an internal unfolded screen of just under 8 inches.
The back will have two cameras arranged in a horizontal “plateau”, similar to the one on the iPhone Air. It has Touch ID in the power button instead of Face ID, and volume rockers along the top edge. Most of the left side of the device will be taken up by the screen and battery, giving it the highest battery capacity of any iPhone yet (rumors say north of 5,000 mAh).
Subsyxx/Reddit
But that’s all just hardware. It matters, of course, but it doesn’t give you a reason to spend twice as much on a foldable iPhone. People aren’t clamoring for a wider iPhone that costs $2,000 or more.
The real reason to buy the iPhone Fold will have to be the software, and that’s the one part of the picture we just don’t have any real information about.
What can you do with a foldable iPhone?
Clearly, foldable phones make for good ‘sit back on the couch and consume content’ experiences. When unfolded, the two-hand experience and larger screen make for better web browsing and video watching. But the sleek design and “it’s bigger on the inside” are unlikely to make the foldable iPhone a success. The iPhone Air put a premium on design at a high price, and for all intents and purposes, that was true not do it right. Apple will need to add significant capabilities to iOS if it wants the Fold to be a success.
iOS just isn’t made for a screen that’s wider than it is tall. The external display may look and behave more or less like your iPhone (but with these dimensions, many apps will need interface updates). But what happens when you run an app on the interior display? Is it just a wider version? Will Apple let you run two apps side by side in split screen? It seems obvious that this would be a possibility, but again, that’s what any foldable Android phone can do, and it’s not something that will make anyone rush to spend two thousand dollars on a phone.
Apple
Since iPadOS is already “iOS with extra features for a big screen,” maybe the foldable iPhone will actually run iPadOS? On the outside, apps would run in full screen, just like on an iPhone, but on the inside you’d get a dock, multitasking, keyboard and mouse/trackpad support, and everything else added in iPadOS 26. Add in support for Apple Pencil, and the iPhone Fold could essentially be a “hybrid iPhone/iPad” device that starts to make a lot more sense. After all, the iPad mini has a screen size of 8.3 inches, just half a centimeter larger than the reported size of an unfolded iPhone Fold. They even seem to have similar aspect ratios.
Maybe you wouldn’t pay $2,000 for an iPhone that unfolds into a bigger screen, but would you pay that much for an iPad mini that folds and fits in your pocket?
Yet I still expect more than that. For starters, every foldable phone has to deal with the daily use of “I have something open on the outer screen and then I unfold my phone to use the inner screen.” What happens to that app – how it behaves during that transition – is an area ripe for innovation. The easy thing to do is to simply display that app on one half of the inner screen, or perhaps provide an option to open such apps on the entire inner screen. I hope Apple thinks about it a little deeper and surprises us with something delightful.
Accessories are another option to do something special. Housings would have to be specifically designed to work around the hinge. Maybe they could do other things like provide a fold-out stand for watching videos or work with a keyboard and trackpad? Maybe the phone is too thin to attach an Apple Pencil to it for charging, but can the case provide the necessary stability?
Lucas Baker
More than just an iPhone that folds
iPhone is a brand so popular that Apple could certainly sell some if it was nothing more than an iPhone on the outside and a larger iPhone on the inside. Even at its rumored price of over $2,000, just because it’s the first foldable iPhone, with a chic design and excellent marketing, would make it a must-have gadget of the holiday season.
But over time, selling an iPhone that costs twice as much as an iPhone Pro will have to involve more than just the gamble factor. The ‘wow factor’ of foldable phones will be in the rearview mirror for several years, and the novelty of being Apple’s first will certainly be short-lived. To keep selling foldable iPhones month after month, year after year, Apple will have to survive do something that no other iPhone can do, except fold in half.
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