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Apple hasn’t said anything official about plans to introduce a foldable iPhone, but there’s little doubt that one is on the way. The rumors have been accumulating for years, and both Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo—two of the most reliable Apple tipsters in the business—say the device will launch in 2026.
Now, and with perhaps less than a year until the arrival of the foldable iPhone, Apple has dropped the iPhone Air. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if the iPhone Fold looked more or less like like two iPhone Airs with a hinge in the middle, which means the thinnest iPhone ever might be giving us clues about Apple’s foldable future.
Thinness and durability
Thinness is an absolute must with a foldable phone: No one wants two regular-sized handsets stuck together in their pocket or bag. This isn’t so much of an issue when a foldable is opened, but when it’s closed, any excess bulk is much more noticeable—so foldable phone makers are trying to minimize the problem, literally.
The Honor Magic V5 foldable is a mere 4.2 mm (0.17 inches) front to back when opened, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has exactly the same thickness. The iPhone Air is officially 5.64 mm (0.22 inches) thick, excluding the camera bump, which beats the 7.95 mm (0.31 inches) thickness of the regular iPhone 17 by a significant margin.
Credit: Apple
While the foldable iPhone will probably have to go even thinner, Apple is clearly heading in the right direction. Meanwhile, it’s also tackling another crucial characteristic of foldable phones: Durability. The extra moving parts and the additional screens involved with a folding smartphone mean that it has to withstand knocks and scrapes, and obviously have a hinge mechanism that lasts.
The iPhone Air is unique among the 2025 models in having the brand new Ceramic Shield 2 material (a kind of glass-ceramic hybrid) on the front of the phone, and the older Ceramic Shield material on the back. It’s a fully protected handset. While the Pro and Pro Max models have dropped titanium, the iPhone Air sticks with it for extra durability, to the point that it’s actually the most durable iPhone ever—so expect similar from the iPhone Fold.
Redesigned internals
Apple’s September 2025 launch event went into detail about how the internals of the iPhone Air had been redesigned from scratch to make as much room as possible for the battery. Most of the other components have been shifted up to the top of the chassis, which is one of the reasons why there’s only a single rear camera on the iPhone Air.
The physical SIM card slot has been completely dropped in a bid to give the phone as much battery capacity as possible despite its slim size, and foldable phones present a similar challenge; the batteries in these devices have to provide power to a tablet-sized display when they’re fully opened up.
Apple is likely to use a few similar engineering innovations when it comes to designing the iPhone Fold. There’s going to be double the internal space available compared to a standard handset of the same thickness, but there are also a lot of components to fit in, including the hinge mechanism.
When it comes to the grand unveiling of the foldable iPhone, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see another X-ray video showing its internals, and how Apple has made the most efficient use of the space possible. The iPhone Air required a new approach to fit the restraints of the form factor, and so will the iPhone Fold.
What the most recent rumors say about a foldable iPhone
Lifehacker rounded up the most prominent rumors round the iPhone Fold back in December, and there has been plenty more online chatter around the device in the months since. This speculation goes back a long way, pretty to when Samsung first started releasing foldables in 2019, but it seems the wait might be coming to an end.
Gurman has again gone on the record to say that we’ll get a foldable iPhone in 2026, followed by an all-glass, curved 20th anniversary iPhone in 2027. He predicts this will be a book-style foldable rather than a flip phone, and it[ll apparently have two rear cameras, one selfie camera on the main screen, and another selfie on the outer cover display. It’ll apparently be available in black and white.
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Gurman has also said that Apple is working hard to minimize the crease on the iPhone Fold, and make the hinge more durable than it is on competing models. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, meanwhile, has reiterated that the foldable will use a Touch ID sensor built into the power button, iPad-style (the iPhone Fold is effectively a mini iPad, after all).
As for pricing, it’s probably a good idea to start saving now: Supply chain sources are pointing towards a starting price of $2,100-$2,500, which is a little higher than the $1,999.99 starting price of the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
All of this above remains very much in the realm of rumor for the time being, and nothing is certain until Tim Cook appears on a livestream and tells us the iPhone Fold is real—but I think the iPhone Air has given us our most substantial look into the future yet.
