Apple's future iPhone Flip - all the rumors about a possible foldable iPhone

AppleInsider

The iPhone Fold may get the most attention as an upcoming foldable smartphone, but Apple is said to be working on a second option. This is what could be in store for the iPhone Flip.

A render of what the iPhone Flip could look like

The smartphone market has a number of folding devices on sale, including Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Flip smartphones. While other major rivals in the market have shipped some form of folding smartphone, Apple has yet to actually do so.

There are quite a few rumors about the iPhone Fold, with rumors of it being a large-screen iPhone that can open up like a book to reveal a large display. But there's also another option.

Rather than the book-style iPhone Fold, there has been some talk about an even smaller model, referred to as the iPhone Flip. This time, it would resemble a fairly standard iPhone when open, but it can fold in half so it takes even less space when closed.

This is what has surfaced in rumors about the fabled flipping phone.

iPhone Flip prototyping

While rumors about the iPhone Fold are plentiful, it's not likely that it will be the only smartphone with hinged capabilities in development. Indeed, the rumor mill thinks there are more in the works.

In February, a report claimed that Apple had contacted at least one manufacturer about components for two foldable iPhones of different sizes. Since the larger-screened iPhone Fold would count as one, it's logical to assume that the second would be a smaller model.

This smaller variant would therefore logically be the iPhone Flip.

The iPhone Flip could be quite close to being a flip phone in nature. Except it has a big screen.

It is almost certain that Apple has done some prototyping on foldable devices for quite some time. The numerous patents on the topic are an indication it has seriously considered the concept.

iPhone Flip gets a codename and a vertical fold

A July report insisted that Apple was working on another folding iPhone that isn't the iPhone Fold. Codenamed "v68," the model was said to share the iPhone's basic design of a long and narrow screen.

The Flip is described to be a top-down fold, which would be similar in function to the Samsung Galaxy Flip. Namely that the top half will fold down over the bottom half.

This could give the iPhone Flip similar capabilities to the Galaxy Flip, such as being able to be partially opened in an L shape so half of the display could be upright and not require a kickstand to be visible.

The iPhone Flip may be able to sit upright all by itself.

The report added that, since it was effectively an iPhone that folds in half, it would have approximately identical specifications to current-gen models.

It is unclear if there will be an external display, as with the Fold, but it may end up being a thinner device. Since folding it in half could double the thickness when closed, Apple may try to thin the chassis to counter that prospect.

The slim thickness is entirely possible for Apple to pull off. The iPhone Slim is expected to offer an iPhone in a much thinner body, potentially as thin as the 0.20-inch-thick iPad Pro, given Apple's aim to offer the thinnest devices on the market.

iPhone Flip could arrive in 2026 or 2027

As for when you can expect the iPhone Flip to actually surface, you can be sure that it will take a while to actually be introduced by Apple.

In June, a report insisted that Apple would bring out folding devices from 2027 at the earliest. The report followed an earlier March rumor that said a potential release in the fourth quarter of 2026 was pushed back into early 2027.

By July, reports promoted the idea of a 2026 launch for a foldable iPhone.

The hinge mechanism of the iPhone Flip will be especially important.

It's entirely possible for a company with the resources of Apple to come up with a folding smartphone by 2026. Two years is a comfortable timeframe for Apple to develop and produce a new standard iPhone.

While there are design considerations that will make the job harder, it's still a plausible timeframe for bringing out a new format of the device.

iPhone Flip display tech

To make the screen foldable, Apple has to come up with a display that can deal with the stress of repetitive folding on the same part of the device over and over again.

It's been working with supply chain partners since April 2022 to create flexible displays for an iPad or MacBook. By May, this had incorporated iPhone displays too.

By the September of that year, it was reported Apple had worked with LG Display and Samsung Display on creating screens that wouldn't crumple. This involved developing hybrid OLED panels combining inflexible glass with flexible plastic substrate panels.

Apple has to be wary of allowing the screen to crease.

The idea that Apple would work with its display partners on the project makes sense, considering Apple's close connections to its supply chain partners. The idea is also logical, since plastic can be made to flex whereas glass cannot.

Apple has also considered many different ways to bend the display without creases in patents. Complicated hinge mechanisms to support the screen at its most vulnerable point have been proposed, along with stretchable screens and other ideas.

Whatever Apple comes up with for the display's folding element, it's certainly considered many different issues and possible solutions.

iPhone Flip's familiar specifications

One area that hasn't really been touched by rumors is the potential specifications of the smartphone. There's an easy explanation for that: It's too early, and the display is the only real focus area for the device.

Occam's Razor points to Apple using the same specifications as whatever the Pro models of iPhone have at the time of its release. As a new flagship-level device, you would expect the best specifications to be in what could be a very expensive piece of kit.

When folded, the iPhone Flip could be extremely compact, if not thin.

What those specifications will be will depend entirely on what Apple intends from its main iPhone lineup for 2026 or 2027. Two years is a long time in the world of tech, so you can expect there to be a lot of change.

The big question mark lies with the rear cameras, as they are components that need a lot of depth. There has been proposals that the iPhone Slim could have just one rear camera due to its thickness, and it's entirely possible Apple could do the same with the iPhone Flip.

That said, there's nothing stopping Apple from upping the thickness a little bit and retaining a triple rear camera setup like the Pro models. A folded iPhone is already going to be thicker than a standard body, so adding a few millimeters probably won't be too problematic for such a groundbreaking device.



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blastdoor

I’d be much more interested in a new phone with a less fragile screen than a more fragile screen. 

A “flip” style phone with two screens that have a clever hinge that aligns the screens to appear to be one when open, and reduces the potential for damage when closed, sounds interesting to me.

A foldable screen that is more fragile than my current screen and exists only to justify Samsung’s investment in the technology does not interest me.

lordjohnwhorfin

I’ve seen the super expensive flip phones some people buy and I’m puzzled. Who would spend over a grand on a thick phone with a hideous, very visible and distracting crease going through the center of the screen? Not to mention the extreme fragility and short life. I can’t imagine Apple shipping a foldable product until these issues are resolved. Unlike Samsung, they don’t ship garbage.

M68000

People have questioned the need for a folding phone, myself included.  I saw a TV ad recently about Samsung phone that did have a really interesting use.  Two people were using it for realtime language translation.  One side of the screen in one language and the other side in the other language.  That is pretty cool.

surgefilter

Looks like sharp edges on the hinge’s back edges to potentially snip the skin on people’s hands as it opens. 

 Hopefully, if the real thing ever happens, that’ll not be the case in the wild.

blastdoor

M68000 said:

People have questioned the need for a folding phone, myself included.  I saw a TV ad recently about Samsung phone that did have a really interesting use.  Two people were using it for realtime language translation.  One side of the screen in one language and the other side in the other language.  That is pretty cool.

Seems gimmicky. I wonder how many people really do that. 

A better gimmick would be to have two people, both wearing AirPods Pro, standing in front of each other and talking in their native languages, but each hearing the other person speaking in their native languages (I'm trusting folks to parse the pronoun ambiguity). 

9secondkox2

Not again. 

Please no. 

If you need something to flip, fold, etc. just get a laptop. 

Let the phone be sturdy, rugged, and free of gimmicks. 

fred1

So Apple has gone from Steve Jobs’s “I don’t ask people what they want because they don’t know what they want.” (which worked extremely well for years) to “We try to do better what others are doing already, even with limited interest.”
Hmmmm. 

AppleZulu

fred1 said:

So Apple has gone from Steve Jobs’s “I don’t ask people what they want because they don’t know what they want.” (which worked extremely well for years) to “We try to do better what others are doing already, even with limited interest.”
Hmmmm. 

Apple hasn't done that. This is a rumor site, publishing rank speculation. Apple won't be making this device, as there is no point to it beyond novelty, and there are plenty of compromises necessary to implement the novelty. I can't think of an example where Apple produced a device that was more expensive but inferior in every other way just to chase a novelty form factor. 

Apple probably has been researching folding screens, but if one shows up in production, it'll be an iPad. There'd be utility in an iPad that folds for more compact portability. Unlike an iPhone, a folding iPad wouldn't be prone to quickly wearing out from neurotically opening and closing dozens or hundreds of times a day to check messages and doom-scroll social media as people do with phones. 

kiowawa

Sign me up.  If Apple makes it, it will be good. And I love the idea!  Naysayers are ones who don’t want one.  I want one.  But Apple universe!

fred1

AppleZulu said:

fred1 said:

So Apple has gone from Steve Jobs’s “I don’t ask people what they want because they don’t know what they want.” (which worked extremely well for years) to “We try to do better what others are doing already, even with limited interest.”
Hmmmm. 

Apple hasn't done that. This is a rumor site, publishing rank speculation. Apple won't be making this device, as there is no point to it beyond novelty, and there are plenty of compromises necessary to implement the novelty. I can't think of an example where Apple produced a device that was more expensive but inferior in every other way just to chase a novelty form factor. 

Apple probably has been researching folding screens, but if one shows up in production, it'll be an iPad. There'd be utility in an iPad that folds for more compact portability. Unlike an iPhone, a folding iPad wouldn't be prone to quickly wearing out from neurotically opening and closing dozens or hundreds of times a day to check messages and doom-scroll social media as people do with phones. 

That’s a relief that Apple will never produce a folding phone. 

I never stated that Apple made “a device that was more expensive but inferior.” They only make superior products, but have turned from creating new ideas to improving on the ideas of others. 

thefred

I would just like a 3 inch phone that’s thin but doesn’t need to be foldable. The flip part could be a foldable cover for the screen so when it’s in your pocket at the beach, it doesn’t get sand scratches. 

geekmee

Remind me again, what problem does this solve??

jido

Current phones are too big for the pocket. I hope that comes to be, although it feels a little unlikely. 

Pema

geekmee said:

Remind me again, what problem does this solve??

It solves a problem that I would describe best as 'vision block'. Apple, since the passing of Jobs and the departure of Jony Ives has no idea what to do next other than milking the iPhone to death. This is another attempt to breath life into a dying product by folding it. Ask Samsung how well their folding phone is doing and you will get a Korean swear word thrown back at you. Every retailer that I have visited in the last year has the Galaxy Fold front and centre as you walk in with salespeople pleading with the customer to take it off their hands. 
Why would Apple step into that pit? Who knows? Perhaps the same reason that they invested billions in the infamous Apple Car, followed by the just as famous Vision Pro. 
Watch this space for the next doozie. 

charlesn

Pema said:

geekmee said:

Remind me again, what problem does this solve??

It solves a problem that I would describe best as 'vision block'. Apple, since the passing of Jobs and the departure of Jony Ives has no idea what to do next other than milking the iPhone to death. 

You, my friend, are the person with vision block about Apple's accomplishments since Jobs's death:

Apple Watch: Within a few years, it became the biggest selling watch, by far, in the 200+ year history of watches, outselling the entire Swiss watch industry combined. (Which, let's not forget, includes the mass market brand, Swatch.)

Airpods: Nothing to see here. They merely established the whole mass market category of wireless audio and remain the biggest selling wireless earbuds of all time and one of the most successful audio products ever introduced in the entire history of audio equipment. Airpods, along with Apple Watch, formed the completely new category of wearables for Apple that didn't exist under Jobs. But yeah, ho-hum.

Apple Services: A non-existent company division under Jobs, it now generates almost 30% of Apple gross revenue at a mind-boggling 70%+ profit margin. Apple Services alone generates more profits than most entire companies on the S&P 500. But what company would want that? Yeah, silly Tim Cook, he can't do anything other than create the biggest generator of profit and the 2nd largest generator of revenue in Apple's entire lineup. 

Apple Vision Pro: Merely an entirely new kind of computing platform, but don't let that interfere with the false narrative that Apple innovates nothing under Tim Cook. Instead, keep criticizing Vision Pro for not being a mass market product upon release even though its $3500 price tag and seriously constrained production capacity due to manufacturing complexity make clear that it was never intended to be mass market, Apple should have been more like Meta! And nevermind that Meta's mass market Quest headset loses A BILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH. 

williamlondon

Yo @pulseimages

You should read Charlesn's great comment directly above, referencing your comment stating the same thing troll Pema said.

daven

I’ll take a wait and see stance. I don’t see a big advantage of a foldable phone for me.

radarthekat

blastdoor said:

I’d be much more interested in a new phone with a less fragile screen than a more fragile screen. 

A “flip” style phone with two screens that have a clever hinge that aligns the screens to appear to be one when open, and reduces the potential for damage when closed, sounds interesting to me.

A foldable screen that is more fragile than my current screen and exists only to justify Samsung’s investment in the technology does not interest me.

I presented an idea here, years ago, that would allow two perfectly machined displays to meet at a seamless edge, with a hinge mechanism that both draws them apart when folding (so they don’t grind against one another in the process) and also provides a felt (or equivalent surface) that would step in to protect each edge when folding and would step out of the way at the very last sub-milimeter when unfolding, just as the two displays were coming together to form a single uniform flat surface.   

The tolerances of such a movable hinge mechanism would need to be insanely precise and it would still invite dirt and particles to potentially intrude, but something like this is what it would take to create a foldable display that retained the important durability and touch-ability attributes that modern smartphone touch screens are known for and that users expect.  

I just don’t see Apple going through that exercise unless and until there becomes a very compelling must-have case for foldable displays.  Simply making a phone half the footprint (but at the cost of being twice as thick) when folded doesn’t cut it.  At all.  

jblongz

I understand the rationale in prototyping these kinds of builds for research purposes.  Apple's ambition to master display technology is a widely discussed driver of this kind of initiative. They likely have all kinds of bizarre device concepts in their lab.  I hope this one never goes into production.

charlesn

radarthekat said:

I just don’t see Apple going through that exercise unless and until there becomes a very compelling must-have case for foldable displays.  Simply making a phone half the footprint (but at the cost of being twice as thick) when folded doesn’t cut it.  At all.  

Exactly and thank you. If you want to see folding phones in use a lot, check out the new season of Netflix's Emily in Paris series--I guess Samsung must have paid a product placement fee because all the lead characters have them. Two thoughts occur repeatedly: why would anyone want a phone that you have to open each and every time you want to use it, and then close afterward, to no advantage whatsoever? And second, how the thickness of the folded phone would make pocketing it uncomfortable. Folding phones are just the latest and most expensive chapter in the long Android history of using pointless gimmicks as a differentiator in the marketplace. That said, the latest premium non-folding phones from Samsung and Google are very competitive with iPhone Pro, and Apple would do well to remain focused on staying ahead in that form factor and not get distracted by foldability.