My unpopular opinion is that the folding iPhone will happen long before Apple Car will ever be revived from the research and development graveyard (at the very back of the Walled Garden). I feel much more confident about a foldable iPhone arriving next year. The rumors about the iPhone 17 Air, the phone that’s supposed to precede it and set the tone, are getting louder and becoming more frequent. And so is the chatter about what a folding iPhone would be like that succeeds it.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst we’ve been following and citing for the past few iPhone releases, has plenty to say about Apple’s first folding iPhone. Nothing is confirmed, of course, until it comes directly from the mouth of Apple executives. But all the little bits and pieces give us plenty to work with as we think about what a folding smartphone from Apple might be like.
Kuo starts by setting the stage for the price of a folding iPhone. It could retail quite a bit—between $2,000 and $2,500 right out of the gate. It may seem exorbitant, but I remind you that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 6 start at $1,800, and unless you find some deal, you’ll probably end up spending upwards of $2,000 because you’ll want at least 256GB of storage space rather than the 128GB they start with, which costs $100 more.
Kuo then goes into hardware specifications. The folding iPhone will supposedly be a book-style device rather than a flip-phone. The inside screen could have a 7.8-inch “crease-free” display and a 5.5-inch outer display—much smaller than Samsung’s, but it may be wider, too, making that cover screen a little easier to use. (I have already complained that the screen is too narrow for the current Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 generation.) It could be between 4 mm and 4.8 mm when splayed open, likely partially helped by the foundation the iPhone 17 Air lays out.
The iPhone’s TouchID may make its grand resurrection from the dead as a side button, similar to how the Z Fold 6 and recently released Oppo Find N5 let you bypass the lock screen with just a touch. Kuo adds that Face ID may be “absent” because of the “thickness and internal space constraints.” The camera will have a dual-lens setup with what sounds like only one front-facing camera—I’d prefer this over an inside front-facing camera for video chats, which is what Samsung does.
Kuo tells us that the final specs “will be locked in” by the second quarter of this year, with the project officially kicking off by the third quarter and then production starting as soon as the end of the year. Second-generation iPhone foldable plans are also in the works for mass production in 2027. It’s an exciting time for iPhone lovers, especially if you’re feeling jealous about everything going on in Android land.
We’re only expected to get acquainted with the iPhone 17 Air this year. The much-rumored slim iPhone will debut alongside the rest of the iPhone 17 flagship family this fall. It is expected to be about 5.5 mm thin, setting the stage for whatever folding iPhone may be waiting in the wings.
