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Apple Pencil for iPhone Ultra Was Tested

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Apple has internally prototyped, tested, and considered launching an Apple Pencil for the upcoming foldable iPhone, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. However, he said it is unlikely that the accessory will be released.

Apple-Pencil-Pro-iPad-Pro.jpg

In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the Apple Pencil tested for the foldable iPhone is stubbier than the versions for iPads. He said the Apple Pencil for the foldable iPhone was designed to magnetically attach and charge on the side of the device.

Steve Jobs famously mocked smartphone styluses when he unveiled the original iPhone in 2007.

Apple is expected to unveil the foldable iPhone during its September 9 event, and it has been rumored that the device will be named iPhone Ultra.

Article Link: Apple Pencil for iPhone Ultra Was Tested
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/30/apple-pencil-for-iphone-ultra-was-tested/
The whole reason we still have iPads is the pencil. If the iPhone also had one, the iPad Mini would become pointless and it would get cannibalized by the cheaper iPhone Ultra (which would maybe less than cost of an iPhone + cost of an iPad Mini). I think a pencil would be awesome for the iPhone but Apple doesn't want to kill the iPad mini.
 
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A stylus is one of the reasons I used a Samsung Note for years. It is very handy to have and use. But, they need to be stored inside the phone body, which is what Samsung did.
 
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A £2,500+ foldable iPhone with an iPad-sized inner display really should support Apple Pencil — otherwise Apple would be deliberately holding back one of the most obvious uses for that screen.
The funny part is durability. Foldable displays are still soft enough that pressure from a fingernail can leave marks, so Apple couldn’t simply use a normal Pencil tip. It would probably need a special softer or pressure-limiting design, similar to Samsung’s Fold-specific S Pen.

Otherwise Apple could launch the Apple Pencil Chisel Edition — perfect for taking notes and permanently engraving them into your £2,500 display. 😄
 
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Just like almost everything Steve said, people keep taking this one comment out of context.
His argument was that a stylus should not be the only input method for a phone.
He never said anything about using one as an artistic tool, in fact, macOS has supported handwriting recognition natively since like Jaguar.
Steve was literally the person who introduced Jaguar.
 
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Lepton said:
I’m still not clear on the charging. Does it do wireless charging at all?
Click to expand...
I believe it doesn't have the hardware for Qi standard wireless pad charging. But I believe the USB Type C port will support Power Delivery 3.2 SPR AVS charging with a steady charging rate of 40 watts and a short burst charging rate of 60 watts.
 
nikusak said:
"Steve Jobs famously mocked smartphone styluses"

Jobs mocked styluses which were needed with resistive displays to use the device at all.

Apple Pencil is not a "stylus".

You know this perfectly well. It's all still online in YouTube.
Click to expand...
Agree wholeheartedly. If Jobs were still here, the Apple Pencil would almost certainly also still exist. The idea of replacing a student or employee’s messy stacks of pen and paper with a single digital tablet they can hand write reports or jot down maths equations on is a real and permanent tool in the modern world. It is not a gimmick. And it is not what Steve was referring to at all when he dismissed resistive touch styluses in 2007.
 
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"Who wants a stylus? You have to get 'em and put 'em away, and you lose 'em. Yuck! Nobody wants a stylus. So we're going to use pointing devices that we're all born with—our fingers." - Steve Jobs
 
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If you need a device with a stylus, buy an iPad. That’s the play here, and I’ve been saying it for months. As much as Apple says they don’t care if they cannibalize their own products, there’s just no way this is being marketed as an iPad replacement.

Just like the iPad, they’ll continue to make half steps towards a product that does it all while intentionally limiting its abilities to perform the functions of multiple devices.

I mean, they removed the ability to use an iPad as a dedicated smart home management tool…Right as they are rumoured to release a dedicated iPad-like smart home display.

My M4 iPad Pro with 16GB of RAM is completely outperformed in every metric by my M4 iMac with 16GB of RAM, and Apple loves that for me because they can keep selling me two devices instead of one.
 
I think an Apple Pencil for the folding iPhone (saw someone call it iPhone Folio and I like that name over iPhone Ultra) would be an awesome little improvement. The first thing that came to mind was how awkward it’d be to have the pencil sticking to the phone extending beyond the length of the side it attached to. Then I remembered the Apple Pencil (USB-C) with its telescoping cap. If Apple applied that to both ends over most of the length, the pencil could sit within the same dimension of the side or attaches to and telescope to the full typical Apple Pencil length.
 
Just what we need… yet another Apple Pencil that is only compatible with certain devices. Apple, how about making the Pencil Pro compatible with all your touchscreen devices?
 
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I’m holding a mini straw right now, that’s less than the thickness of a 17e, about as thick as a iPhone Air. TBH it would make a great stylus to use for iPhone idk why it’s a trouble. I’d use a stylus for iPhone. Mainly to keep screen from getting dirty.
 
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One worry about making a stylus that is stored inside a half-depth folding device like the rumored iPhone is that the stylus itself will need to be very narrow, which affects comfort and usability. Pick up a normal pen or pencil and ask yourself if you want a device more than twice as thick. I know Cross pens, for example, are seen as elegant but they are really on the slim side for sustained, comfortable note-taking.

So if Apple is going to make these two devices work together, I'd think it would not slide into the phone body for storage.
 
nikusak said:
"Steve Jobs famously mocked smartphone styluses"

Jobs mocked styluses which were needed with resistive displays to use the device at all.

Apple Pencil is not a "stylus".

You know this perfectly well. It's all still online in YouTube.
Click to expand...
Yes, 100% correct!

Yet still to this day people go full retard in regards to Steve's comment about Styluses.

Anyone with basic comprehension stills can ascertain that Steven's comment was about being forced to use a styles to operate a mobile, since the competition back then, used resistive displays paired with ery small UI elements requiring the use of a fine tipped stylus. You were not able to use your fingers for quick and easy navigation, hence he mocked them.

But yes... never go full retard.
 
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