The first foldable iPhone is on track to launch in September 2026, coming seven years after Samsung released its first foldable smartphone. Seven years. That is not caution. That is a company watching someone else take every arrow, cataloging every failure, and waiting until the problem is actually solved before putting its name on it. Whether that strategy pays off is the only question worth asking right now.
The real story is not the press release. The real story is whether Apple's engineering team actually cracked the two problems that have made every foldable before this one feel like a prototype: the crease and the hinge. If they did, this is one of the most consequential hardware releases in a decade. If they did not, Apple just handed Samsung a very expensive gift.
What the Supply Chain Is Actually Saying
The device entered the New Product Introduction phase at Foxconn in March 2025, while a November report from Chinese site UDN reported that the device had entered the engineering validation stage. Foxconn is expected to officially start producing Apple's foldable iPhone early in the fourth quarter, and a recent report has suggested Apple is already stockpiling components for pre-production. That is not rumor territory anymore. That is a production schedule.
Apple has submitted production line orders for its upcoming foldable iPhone, effectively confirming that the device will launch this year, according to a Chinese leaker. According to the Weibo account "Fixed Focus Digital," assembly lines recently received the orders from Apple, which has apparently allowed the leaker to learn the crease measurements for the device's 7.8-inch inner display. Assembly line orders are about as close to "it ships" as you get before an actual announcement.
The specs that keep showing up across independent sources: the iPhone Fold measures about 9.6mm thick when folded and 4.8mm when unfolded, with a width of 83.8mm and a height of 120.6mm. The inner display is said to be 7.76 inches with a resolution of 2713 × 1920. The outer display measures 5.49 inches at 2088 × 1422. When multiple leakers who don't talk to each other converge on the same numbers, that's signal, not noise.
The chip situation is straightforward: Apple will use the 2-nanometer A20 chip for its fall 2026 iPhones, including the foldable. The foldable iPhone will use Apple's second-generation C2 modem for cellular connectivity, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Good. Proprietary silicon solving proprietary problems is exactly how Apple wins hardware races. The C2 modem in a device that thin is not a small achievement.
One notable tradeoff: the foldable iPhone will skip Face ID and instead use a side-mounted Touch ID sensor integrated into the power button. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has backed this claim, noting that removing Face ID components could free up valuable internal space. People will complain about this. They will be wrong. Touch ID on the iPad Air works beautifully, and trading Face ID for 2mm of internal real estate to squeeze in a bigger battery is a reasonable engineering call. The device allegedly features the biggest battery ever used in an iPhone. I will take that trade every time.
The Crease Problem Is the Only Problem That Matters
Every other foldable spec is table stakes. The crease is the thing. I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Fold 6. The crease is the first thing you see when you open it in sunlight. It's the thing your brain cannot stop noticing. It is the reason most people who buy foldables go back to a flat phone within a year.
The 2026 foldable iPhone reportedly has no visible crease. Apple is said to have pursued eliminating the crease "regardless of cost," and the company has developed a "new material property" that makes the crease disappear. The crease has been described as "nearly invisible" when the iPhone is unfolded. "Regardless of cost" is either the most reassuring phrase in this entire rumor cycle or the most dangerous one, depending on your level of skepticism.
Apple is said to be using liquid metal in the hinges to improve durability and help eliminate screen creasing. Liquid metal, manufactured using a die-casting process, has been chosen by Apple to address this common issue with foldable devices. At CES 2026, Samsung showcased a new crease-less foldable OLED panel, which several sources including Bloomberg suggested could be the same technology Apple plans to use. According to these reports, the panel combines a flexible OLED with a laser-drilled metal support plate that disperses stress when folding. Laser-drilled metal support plates and Liquidmetal hinges. This is not incremental engineering. This is seven years of compounding investment aimed at one specific failure mode.
But here is the tension: it seems like the foldable iPhone won't be able to eliminate the crease entirely, despite that being the one reason Apple delayed a foldable of its own for years. If that report holds, Apple made a pricing concession that undermined its own stated rationale for waiting. That would be a significant miscalculation.
The Price Is Either Justified or Catastrophic, Depending on One Variable
The iPhone Fold isn't going to be cheap, and rumors suggest the price will be between $2,000 and $2,500. The most recent information is on the higher end of that range. That is real money. That is two MacBook Airs. That is a device most people will read about and never buy.
And yet. Analyst Kuo says Apple's loyal customer base could view it as a "must-have device" if it delivers meaningful improvements over existing foldables. The pricing is defensible if and only if the crease is actually gone and the hinge survives two years of daily use. That is the entire thesis. A $2,400 device with a visible crease is a catastrophe. A $2,400 device that genuinely feels like an iPad mini in your pocket and survives without the display film peeling is a product people will wait in line for.
Apple watched Samsung iterate through six generations of Z Fold hardware, absorbing all the early-adopter pain, the warranty claims, and the Reddit threads. Apple appears to be treating foldables as a serious product line, but it's still wrestling with the same hard constraints everyone else faces: hinge durability, crease visibility, camera placement, and a battery in a very thin chassis. The physics do not care how long you waited. If this ships in September and the engineering is what the supply chain reports suggest, Apple will have built the best foldable ever made. If the crease is visible and the hinge squeaks by year two, the seven-year wait will look like arrogance, not patience.
I will be at the Apple Store the day this thing is available to touch. Not to buy. To open and close it in direct sunlight until I can see the crease. That is the only review that matters.
