Yesterday saw a couple of claimed leaks about the iPhone Fold, one of them unremarkable, the other somewhat more surprising.
The first of them is almost certainly true, coming from a leaker with a good track record and in line with existing expectations. The second is a bit more of a wild card, but it does make sense to me …
iPhone Fold battery report
Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital said that the iPhone Fold will get a 5500 mAh battery, the largest one ever seen in an iPhone.
That one is entirely unsurprising. The iPhone Fold will, of course, have the largest display ever seen in an iPhone, and that will naturally draw more power from the battery. It’s also consistent with an earlier report suggesting a battery in the 5400-5800 mAh range.
Unusual button placement
The second report suggested that Apple would be breaking with tradition in terms of button placement for the upcoming device.
The volume buttons are not on the left side, but are instead placed directly on the top right side of the device (similar to the volume button placement on the iPad mini), which will challenge users’ phone usage habits. The power button (integrated with Touch ID) and the AI button (camera button) are still on the right side.
That one comes from Instant Digital, a leaker with a more mixed track record. However, it is backed by reasoning which makes sense to me. In part, keeping the left side of the unfolded device free from physical buttons maximizes the space for the battery, but there’s also a secondary factor.
Why this placement? The motherboard is on the right side, and they didn’t want to run wires across the screen to the left side for the buttons.
In other words, Apple would reduce the number of ribbon cables that need to run through the hinge mechanism.
Every eliminated fold vulnerability is worthwhile
The fold itself is of course the weakest point in a folding phone, with Samsung discovering to its cost just how many things can go wrong with the mechanism.
The display is obviously the most vulnerable element here, needing to be able to survive constant folding and unfolding movements. But it also creates vulnerabilities for any other components that need to be able to fold and unfold repeatedly, which includes ribbon cables needing to cross from one side to the other.
It’s not possible to entirely eliminate these, but any reduction in their number will improve the robustness of the device. The more cables that need to cross the fold, the more things that can potentially go wrong. Having all of the buttons be on one side of the phone eliminates several of these cross-fold connections, which is a very worthwhile design goal.
While I wouldn’t put money on it, I do think there’s a solid chance that this leak is accurate.
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