Apple’s foldable iPhone may be closer than ever, and if the latest reports are accurate, it’s going to look like nothing else in Apple’s current lineup—except maybe two iPhone Airs fused together.
In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims the so-called iPhone Fold will resemble “two titanium iPhone Airs side by side,” effectively taking the ultra-thin design Apple just introduced and doubling down on it. That framing makes a lot of sense: the iPhone Air already feels like a proof of concept in how thin and light Apple can push its hardware, and now it seems to be laying the groundwork for the company’s first foldable. Gurman even describes the device as “super thin and a design achievement,” though he also warns it’ll be “ridiculously expensive” — at least $2,000, making it the priciest iPhone Apple has ever shipped, more expensive than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Design-wise, Apple is reportedly opting for a book-style fold, pairing a large inner screen with a smaller external cover display. The main panel is said to measure 7.8 inches, with the outer display clocking in at 5.5 inches. Apple is also leaning heavily on Samsung as a display partner, which suggests we’ll see similar folding mechanics to Samsung’s devices — though rumors point to Apple working aggressively to minimize or even eliminate the visible crease. Thickness is another major play here: unfolded, the iPhone Fold could measure just 4.5 to 4.8mm; folded, around 9mm. That would make it slimmer than the iPhone Air, which was already Apple’s thinnest phone to date.
Other rumored specs include a 5,000–5,500 mAh battery, on par with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which should offer more endurance than the wafer-thin iPhone Air. The mix of ultra-thin design, a potentially crease-free display, and larger battery capacity suggests Apple is betting big on industrial design finesse and long-term usability — not just delivering a foldable for the sake of having one.
Apple has remained predictably coy on the matter, but John Ternus, Apple’s senior VP of hardware engineering, hinted after the iPhone Air launch that many of the company’s advances in “material science and miniaturization” often bleed into other product lines. Reading between the lines, the iPhone Fold feels like the natural culmination of those lessons.
If Gurman’s timeline holds, the iPhone Fold will headline Apple’s 2026 lineup, arriving in the usual fall window. That gives Apple roughly a year to fine-tune what could be its boldest industrial design experiment in over a decade.
via Bloomberg