iPhone Fold

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: all the latest expectations for next year’s iPhone 18 lineup, including iPhone Fold and iPhone Air 2, based on current rumors.

Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup has officially been unveiled, but the best reason to skip this year’s flagships is a brand new model debuting next year: the iPhone Fold.

The dream of an edge-to-edge iPhone display with no cutout could come true sooner than we thought. Per a new analyst report, next year’s iPhone Fold might be the first iPhone to move camera components under the display, thus offering a truly all-screen design.

Apple’s first ‘iPhone Fold’ is still about a year away from launching, but according to a new analyst note, the company recently raised shipment expectations significantly for the new model.

It seems clear we’re still a year away from the first iPhone Fold, but the rest of the market isn’t standing still. Samsung is planning to launch its first trifold phone this year, and Huawei is already onto its second-generation model.

On a pedantic note, I would argue that as they have two sets of hinges, they are bifold rather than trifold, but the industry seems to have adopted the latter term, so I guess we’re stuck with it now …

A new survey of US iPhone owners claims that almost a third of them would consider switching to either Samsung or Google in order to get a folding phone this year, rather than waiting until the expected launch of the iPhone Fold next year.

There’s a mix of good and bad news for Apple in the rest of the findings, but the headline claim seems a real stretch …

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said back in March that he expected the iPhone Fold to have Touch ID on the side button rather than using Face ID. He has today reiterated this.

While there have been some suggestions that Apple might use an in-display ultrasonic Touch ID sensor, Kuo says this is “unlikely” …

Apple’s first foldable iPhone is launching next year, a full seven years after Samsung’s original Galaxy Fold debuted. But based on quotes from Samsung, it seems Apple’s launch timing for the iPhone Fold could be nearly spot-on.

As Apple prepares to unveil the iPhone 17 lineup in a few weeks, investor attention is already shifting to what could be a much more significant update in 2026, with the introduction of a foldable iPhone.

That includes JPMorgan, which just released new predictions on what to expect.

At this point, it’s getting increasingly harder to believe that Apple won’t launch a foldable iPhone, than the alternative. From Ming-Chi Kuo to Mark Gurman, from reports to leaks, the timeline and hardware details have started to align. And now, yet another analyst has joined the chorus.

Act surprised: Apple is soon expected to formally kick off development of iOS 27. This year, Apple will have a big task: updating the iOS experience in preparation for its most radical new iPhone yet.

This fall will be all about the iPhone 17 lineup, but rumors for next year’s iPhone Fold are already ramping up. A pair of new rumors indicate Apple’s foldable iPhone could have a more affordable price than expected, and be thinner—when unfolded—than Apple’s current thinnest product.

Following a recent Digitimes report that Apple’s foldable iPhone has reached the initial P1 prototyping stage, two new reports now claim that Samsung Display is preparing to begin panel production by the end of this year, including Ming-Chi Kuo.

An iPhone Fold production line is being prepared in readiness for the launch of the first folding iPhone next year, and a new supply-chain report says that this is almost ready to begin production. The news follows a recent report that Apple is currently testing realistic prototypes of the device.

The plant will reportedly have the capacity to produce displays for around twice as many devices as Apple actually expects to sell …

The long-rumored iPhone Fold – the colloquial term used for the company’s unannounced folding iPhone – is reported to be on schedule for a potential launch in the second half of next year.

The device is said to have reached the Prototype 1 (P1) stage last month, which is the first point at which the company creates fully-functional devices …

We’re getting closer to September’s launch of the iPhone 17, but Apple is already well on its way to finalizing its 2026 lineup. The first iPhone Fold is expected to arrive next fall, and a new leak has outlined the device’s display details, cameras, and more.

Ming-Chi Kuo is out with an update today on Apple’s highly-anticipated foldable iPhone. According to the analyst, Foxconn is set to “kick off the project” later this year in late Q3 or early Q4. At this time, however, many of the component specifications for the foldable iPhone “have yet to be finalized.”

Apple’s WWDC sessions usually offer a mix of developer guidance and subtle hardware tea leaves. And last week, one passing comment during the explanation of an SDK change caught attention for what it might suggest about a particular future device.

Next year’s iPhone Fold will introduce an entirely new form factor to the iPhone lineup. One of its design features, though, will reportedly follow the pattern of new 18 Pro models launching at the same time.

Despite the fact that the iPhone Fold display is being made by Samsung, it looks like it might be more advanced that the one so far used in the Korean company’s own Galaxy Z Fold series.

A leaker with a decent track record cites supply-chain sources as saying the upcoming Apple device will use a thinner and more advanced display than used in any of Samsung’s own products …

Next year’s foldable iPhone is expected to boast several advantages over competition. But what I expect will be the iPhone Fold’s biggest selling point has been more than a decade in the making, rooted in a well-established app feature.