We’re half a decade into foldable phones, with plenty of devices from Samsung, Google and Motorola (as well as others from Oppo, Huawei and more) for consumers to choose between. Yet among big phone makers, only Apple still lacks one in its lineup. The latest flexible-screen devices, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Motorola Razr Plus reboot and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold show mature designs and robust bending displays, leaving the foldables niche handily dominated by Android devices. Recurring leaks and rumors suggest Apple is still  developing its own folding device, which we’ll refer to it as the iPhone Flip until a proper name is revealed. 

The iPhone 16 series launched in September 2024 with an AI camera button and AI features in iOS 18 that are still rolling out, and the more affordable iPhone 16E launched with Apple’s first in-house modem. Still, we’ve yet to see any official word on a foldable iPhone. Apple’s recent focus has been on Apple Intelligence, a suite of generative AI tools now in the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which is also coming to updates for Apple devices in other product families. Apple might be slowly tinkering away at a folding iPhone while software and AI have taken center stage during its product showcases.

Some rumors have even suggested that Apple is working on foldable displays for its other portable devices, the iPad and MacBook, though the company may have encountered obstacles. In a post on X back in September, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said challenges with folding displays have pushed back mass production of either model to 2027 or even 2028. Since other rumors have suggested the iPhone Flip could come out as early as 2026, we could see an iPhone that folds before an iPad or a MacBook with a flexible display.

It’s unclear if or when Apple will switch focus from AI to bring an iPhone Flip to market, though the most recent rumors suggest progress continues. A report back in July, as covered by The Verge and first reported by The Information, suggests Apple has gone all-in on a clamshell-style foldable iPhone and moved it beyond the concept stage to give it a code name, supposedly internally referring to the device as “the V68.” If all goes well, the iPhone Flip could get a release date as early as 2026, the report said. 

The newest rumor reaffirms the possible 2026 release window for the iPhone Flip, with noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posting on X production may kick off next year. Market rumors suggest Apple has placed orders for 15-20 million iPhones to be sold in 2026 and the following years, Kuo continued, though with many components like the hinge not yet being finalized and assembly supplier Foxconn not officially starting the project yet (they’re expected to begin in the third or fourth quarter of this year), this timeline could shift.

This follows Kuo’s report in early March that Apple’s device could launch at the end of next year and will have a 7.8-inch crease-free inner display and 5.5-inch outer display — which would make it a book-style foldable like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 rather than a clamshell foldable, as other rumors have suggested Apple was focusing on. 

Accordingly, Kuo believes the price would match other similar folding devices at $2,000 to $2,500. Despite that high price tag, he says projected shipments are 3 to 5 million devices initially, which is a confident estimate given only 19.3 foldables were sold in 2024, market research firm IDC reported. 

This reaffirms previous rumors and news. A new patent granted to Apple last July, which was applied for years ago, shows how long the company has been working on a folding iPhone, although many reports have focused on the company’s struggles to eliminate the crease within the internal folding display. Creases have haunted foldable phones since they started coming out in 2020, and although the most recent Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 have reduced the crease, you can still see and feel it.

Previous rumors suggested Apple had been working on iPhone Flip models in two different sizes, though there have been difficulties in making the devices to Apple’s demanding standards. The company may also be working on a folding tablet with a screen around the size of an iPad Mini. 

Then again, we may not see an iPhone Flip for years. By mid-2024, market analysts at TrendForce estimated that issues with the display crease might push back an Apple foldable until 2027, according to 9to5Mac. Prior rumors said Apple may not launch its own flexible screen device until 2025, and Samsung hasn’t let phone fans forget it by releasing an app that will let Apple phone owners experience a Z Fold-esque experience by placing two iPhones side-by-side. At the very least, an investor note seen in August suggests Apple’s foldable may not reach its 2025 schedule for mass production due to display issues, according to MacRumors.

Years ago in 2017, folks predicted that a foldable iPhone could launch in the then-near future of 2020 — which didn’t happen. Analysts and leakers have been kicking the release date down the road ever since, and rumors and wish lists have hung around as phone fans keep their hopes up. Absent any confirmed details from Apple, here’s everything we know so far about the company’s future foray into foldables.

Read more: I Visited Samsung’s Home Turf to See if Foldable Phones Are Really the Future

What Apple’s new patent says about the iPhone Flip

After years of rumors that Apple was working on foldable phones, a patent was finally granted to the company that confirmed it’s been working toward a folding iPhone. The 22-page patent (PDF), simply titled “Electronic Devices With Durable Folding Displays,” was filed in November 2021 and granted on July 16, 2024.

Sadly for folding iPhone hopefuls, the patent doesn’t offer much illumination of what an iPhone Flip might look like. Most of the pages show figures depicting cross-sections of potential displays that fold about a hinge, but not the device they’re folding around. 

There are some tidbits deeper into the text of the patent that hint at potential design choices Apple might make, like a hinge that holds the display flat when unfolded but which would let the display “slightly fold about the bend axis when the electronic device is jolted during the drop event” — in other words, if dropped, the device would fold inward slightly so that it lands on its edges to protect the inner display. 

It’s important to note that all evidence shows Apple working on a foldable iPhone, but the patent broadly applies to folding displays in general — to wit, some figure schematics describe a device that “may be a cellular telephone, tablet computer, laptop computer, wrist-watch device or other wearable device, a television, a stand-alone computer display or other monitor” or screens as far-ranging as on vehicles, in kiosks, in media players or other electronic equipment. 

The rest of the patent describes what an Apple device with a folding display may have, and categorically lists things like batteries and wireless charging, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, LED or LCD displays, microphones and capacitive sensors, haptics and so on. There’s explicit mention of a display folding 180 degrees, or fully flat, which follows most other foldables — presumably, Apple isn’t going to leapfrog the competition in following Samsung’s concept displays we saw at CES that unfold nearly 360 degrees. 

Two foldable iPhone Flips?

Foldable iPhone hopefuls will at least be encouraged that Apple seemingly continues to tinker with an iPhone Flip design. The company is said to be working on two sizes of folding iPhones: a book-style and a clamshell-style, according to an older report by The Information, although this may be countermanded by a newer report by the same site suggesting Apple had settled on the latter for a smaller device. This aligns with prior rumors hinting the iPhone Flip will be in the clamshell format like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series or Motorola Razr Plus. 

It sounds like Apple’s been struggling to meet its high expectations: The company’s design team wants the iPhone Flip to be half as thin as current iPhone models and to have displays on the outside that are visible when the device is folded shut, according to the report.

Development on the iPhone Flip was halted around 2020, the older report noted, in order to focus on a new project, a folding iPad. This device would have an 8-inch display to be around the size of the iPad Mini. The foldable tablet supposedly had less strict durability and thickness requirements, as it wouldn’t need to fit in pockets like an iPhone Flip. Apple was still working on ways to reduce the crease in the middle of the folding display and get the iPad to lie fully flat. 

Release date: The iPhone Flip launch could be in 2025… or 2027

The latest indications of an iPhone Flip release date came in June, when analyst Kuo suggested production could kick off in 2026 with phones coming out that year. This follows Kuo’s earlier prediction in March that the company could release a crease-free foldable by the end of 2026. Furthermore, this would likely be a book-style foldable with a 7.8-inch internal display and 5.5-inch external screen, which is counter to other predictions anticipating a clamshell-style foldable. 

It’s possible that these timeline predictions apply to one or the other, or due to the vague nature of rumors, even both — that is, Apple could be working on both a book-style and clamshell style foldable, though it’s less clear if release date expectations would be interchangeable or if Apple would stagger their release.

It’s been an open secret for years that Apple is working toward a foldable iPhone. The company has been registering patents for foldable technologies for almost a decade, and while there’s no guarantee that one will come out even after all that research (remember AirPower?), there’s still been buzz and possible release dates floated for years — though still not one solid enough to get excited about. 

Early rumors pointed as far back as 2021 as a potential target date, but the year passed with no foldable iPhone in sight. A March 2021 report from longtime Kuo (via MacRumors) suggested 2023 might be more realistic (though that year has come and gone). According to Kuo, Apple still needs to figure out technology and mass production issues before bringing a device like this to market, hence the wait. Speculation later in 2021 from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman aligned with Kuo’s predictions: In his Power On Newsletter, Gurman said that the foldable iPhone may not arrive for another two to three years.

Since then, new rumors have pointed to an even later release. Reliable display analyst Ross Young said in February 2024 that the foldable iPhone had been pushed back to 2025, and Kuo reaffirmed his predicted release window in a tweet in April 2022.

“Apple may launch its first foldable product in 2025 at the earliest, which may be a foldable iPad or a hybrid of iPad and iPhone,” Kuo wrote in the tweet.

Another rumor, first noticed by MacRumors in February of 2024 by Weibo-based blogger Fixed Focus Digital, suggested that the foldable iPhone project is delayed for the foreseeable future. The problem? Apple, which is rumored to be using Samsung folding panels for its iPhone Flip’s display, was dissatisfied with the screens’ performance after they broke down a few days into testing.

That’s echoed by the most recent estimate by TrendForce market analysts, reported in 9to5Mac, which predicted that an Apple foldable might not be released until 2027 at the earliest. Why? Apple’s strict requirements for reliability and the phone display’s crease. But Kuo’s more recent March 2025 predictions explicitly noted a crease-free foldable display, suggesting Apple might have moved past this roadblock — if all these rumors are to be believed, of course.

Read more: Top Foldable Phones for 2024

Design: What will the foldable iPhone look like?

A 2021 report from Bloomberg indicated Apple already had a working prototype of a foldable iPhone display. While it wasn’t a working model, it was a step up from a patent — which, until then, was all we had seen. 

Apple seems to have taken out every patent under the sun when it comes to foldable displays, including an origami-style folding display, a flip-up display and even a wraparound display. We don’t know which one will make the final cut, but both Kuo and Bloomberg seem to agree that the current prototype is more of a traditional fold-out design.

Unlike Microsoft’s Surface Duo, which has hinges on the exterior, Apple’s would have one continuous display with a hidden hinge mechanism like the Galaxy Fold. 

Apple leaker Jon Prosser reported in early 2021 that the iPhone Flip will likely use a clamshell design and come in several “fun colors.” Between the bright pastels of the iPhone 15 and Plus and the sleeker deep blue of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, an array of fun colors for Apple’s first foldable device is definitely a possibility.

YouTuber ConceptsiPhone also gave us a glimpse into what the iPhone Flip could look with concept art of the foldable iPhone in the colors blue, red, gold and green.

In March 2025, analyst Kuo had some very specific but non-clamshell predictions: that Apple would release a book-style foldable with a 5.5-inch outer screen that unfolded to have a 7.8-inch internal screen, and be 4.5-4.8mm when unfolded but 9-9.5mm thick. It would have the same high-density battery cells as the “ultra-thin iPhone 17” and a hinge with stainless steel and titanium alloy (a favorite material of Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max as well as the Apple Watch Ultra 2). 

Per Kuo’s predictions, the foldable will have two rear cameras and a front-facing camera on both the external and internal displays. Most interestingly, Kuo also expects that Apple’s book-style foldable will see the return of Touch ID as a side button, as Face ID might be left out due to space constraints — presumably for the array of depth-of-field sensors and cameras needed for the tech. 

Roadblocks: What still stands in Apple’s way? 

Samsung and others have been testing the waters, but Apple has been learning from the pain points of their foldable devices and figuring out how they’d be used.

One of these pain points is the crease. A lot of the current cover materials, including the glass and plastic mix that Samsung uses for the Z Fold and Z Flip, show a visible crease when folded out to full screen. To avoid it, Apple would likely have to wait for Corning, Apple’s glass provider, to create some kind of bendable version of its Ceramic Shield screen. The company is already working on a bendable glass but hasn’t announced a launch date for it. 

Kuo tweeted in April 2022 that Apple was testing a foldable OLED screen. Korean tech news site The Elec also reported that Apple was working with LG to develop a foldable OLED panel. 

Cost: Foldable phones don’t come cheap

Price is another major problem for these types of devices. Although Samsung still has the most affordable folding phone with the clamshell Z Flip 5 at $999, most others in the category are book-style foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Pixel Fold, which are around twice the price of most flagship phones. We wouldn’t expect a foldable iPhone to be cheaper than its rivals. Apple’s foldable needs to be in line with current foldable and nonfoldable models to be able to compete against other brands and entice iPhone users to ditch their single-screen devices and pay more for a foldable.

A report last year found that half of American consumers are interested in buying a foldable phone, though Apple customers are slightly less willing to make the leap than Samsung or LG users. Perhaps the “Apple effect” will change those stats if and when a foldable iPhone ever becomes a reality.

For more, check out all of the models in the iPhone 15 line. You can also see the most exciting phones to look out for in 2024.