Foldable iPhone's Crease-Free Display Tech Spotted at CES 2026

[The Game 161]

Agreed. I've owned several foldables to date and a couple of flips, and I've never had as much as a hairline scratch on any of the inner displays. I even remove the screen protector from the inner display on day one, and still zero scratches.

People just love to find fault With things that they either aren’t interested in or can’t afford. I do feel the latter is more likely

 

[Anaxarxes]

Oh, cool. Another ‘revolutionary’ foldable Phone.

Because what I’ve always dreamed of is carrying a fragile, bendy, pocket-stabbing piece of origami that I have to treat like it’s made of glass fairy dust. Newsflash: I don’t want a foldable phone - I want a solid, unkillable slab of iPhone glory with a multiday battery and a screen that doesn’t even know what a bezel is.

Foldable? Cute.

You mean you wanted an iPad that you can accidentally snap in half? Apple, just make the iPhone Pro PRO. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel and just give me a phone that feels like it’s worth the $2k without praying to a tech god every time I pull it out of my pocket

So basically you want a 17 pro max.

 

[iMac The Knife]

People just love to find fault With things that they either aren’t interested in or can’t afford. I do feel the latter is more likely

Yeah, and I hear the same things repeated over and over regarding foldables: fragile, crease, compromises...it's so obvious that they've never actually owned one. Everyone that I know who has tried a foldable phone has loved it. Small sample size of course, but it's still 100% of users who have been happy with them. And if foldables aren't for you, that's fine. But, when you spout off like you have experience with a product but you've never actually owned the product, I stop listening immediately once this fact has been exposed.

 

[the 12th Doctor]

I'll buy it when you can roll up the screen 🙂.

I’m only buying one when I can fold it into a ninja star and fling it at my wife.

 

[iFunk]

I find it mind blowing (just my opinion so don't get upset) that people say things like they find it hard to justify a $1,000 price tag on a new phone every 4-5 years etc.

I've said it before and I will say it again? I get not everyone makes the same amount of $$$... but how can you not justify this?

There are COUNTLESS ways you can easily make money to offset a tech device that you can do pretty much anything with.

Social media monetizing including YouTube, posting items on classifieds (Marketplace & various other apps), using your phone as a basic business expense if you are using it to field calls for a business or side business or to book business dealings.

Like lets say you get a phone every 36 months and you cheap out on an entry level iPhone 17 (just for argument and you don't select like the previous year model). The prices starts at from $799 in the US divided by 36 months comes out to $22-$23 a month. How is that not in the budget for someone? Lets say you buy a premium coffee every day for 5 days a week. What does that come out to? That can easily be $25-$35 a week! Ok, so you say I can't drop $800 at one time... umm every single company, including Apple, offers ZERO interested financing so its literally billed to you. Ok, so lets say you hate Apple (but your on this website for some reason)... umm any decent phone is gonna call you $15-$20 a month in a device payment if you don't pay for it all at one time.

You can LITERALLY make $$ by sitting on your couch and posting classified ads, making content for YouTube etc. I have a buddy that works 40 hours per week and uses his car trailer on the weekends to move golf carts, vehicles, lawn mowers, etc. and he make a good bit of dough as a side hustle... all booked though his Android device.

Ok, rant over but how can anyone in 2026 not justify spending a few bucks a month on a smartphone (any brand)?????

PS, people's feelings get so bent out of shape over the foldable devices. Why? I met a 70+ year old guy in Dec 2025 at a local car show who had a Samsung foldable. Dude was taking out the phone and handling business for people renting from his properties. Buy what YOU like and what makes YOU happy and what makes YOU money!

 

[Luftkopf]

If this is what floats your boat, get one if you can afford it, and enjoy the hell out of it!

For me though, having tried Samsung and Google’s folding phones, I can’t figure out how they would be useful. It’d be nicer to read ebooks on, sure, but that’s about it. Not a single thing I use iPads for would be better on a folding phone. Not worth spending extra on. It still looks like combining a phone and tablet to get the worst of both worlds.

I just don’t get them.

 

[The Game 161]

Yeah, and I hear the same things repeated over and over regarding foldables: fragile, crease, compromises...it's so obvious that they've never actually owned one. Everyone that I know who has tried a foldable phone has loved it. Small sample size of course, but it's still 100% of users who have been happy with them. And if foldables aren't for you, that's fine. But, when you spout off like you have experience with a product but you've never actually owned the product, I stop listening immediately once this fact has been exposed.

Yep

Just pick the type of phone you want. That’s why there is plenty of choice now

 

[iMac The Knife]

I find it mind blowing (just my opinion so don't get upset) that people say things like they find it hard to justify a $1,000 price tag on a new phone every 4-5 years etc.

I've said it before and I will say it again? I get not everyone makes the same amount of $$$... but how can you not justify this?

There are COUNTLESS ways you can easily make money to offset a tech device that you can do pretty much anything with.

Social media monetizing including YouTube, posting items on classifieds (Marketplace & various other apps), using your phone as a basic business expense if you are using it to field calls for a business or side business or to book business dealings.

Like lets say you get a phone every 36 months and you cheap out on an entry level iPhone 17 (just for argument and you don't select like the previous year model). The prices starts at from $799 in the US divided by 36 months comes out to $22-$23 a month. How is that not in the budget for someone? Lets say you buy a premium coffee every day for 5 days a week. What does that come out to? That can easily be $25-$35 a week! Ok, so you say I can't drop $800 at one time... umm every single company, including Apple, offers ZERO interested financing so its literally billed to you. Ok, so lets say you hate Apple (but your on this website for some reason)... umm any decent phone is gonna call you $15-$20 a month in a device payment if you don't pay for it all at one time.

You can LITERALLY make $$ by sitting on your couch and posting classified ads, making content for YouTube etc. I have a buddy that works 40 hours per week and uses his car trailer on the weekends to move golf carts, vehicles, lawn mowers, etc. and he make a good bit of dough as a side hustle... all booked though his Android device.

Ok, rant over but how can anyone in 2026 not justify spending a few bucks a month on a smartphone (any brand)?????

PS, people's feelings get so bent out of shape over the foldable devices. Why? I met a 70+ year old guy in Dec 2025 at a local car show who had a Samsung foldable. Dude was taking out the phone and handling business for people renting from his properties. Buy what YOU like and what makes YOU happy and what makes YOU money!

Not to mention everything you are getting in one (approx.) $2000 device...mini tablet & smart phone in one, phone (for phone calls), camera, camcorder, calculator, email/web access, MP3/Video player, alarm clock, compass, GPS navigator, voice recorder, video game system, and so on. $2000 is nothing for what you are getting.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Is this the kind of advancement where each new year we see "even more crease-free" than the year prior? Like how dish soap companies claim every two years their recipe is twice as good as before, at which juncture by now it should be pure hydrochloric acid — i.e. the foldable display in not in fact crease-free, but is in fact a liberal use of the English language. Otherwise known as a lie.

 

[ayephoner]

I find it mind blowing (just my opinion so don't get upset) that people say things like they find it hard to justify a $1,000 price tag on a new phone every 4-5 years etc.

I've said it before and I will say it again? I get not everyone makes the same amount of $$$... but how can you not justify this?

I'll add that I think a lot of people underestimate or just don't understand how much these phones get for a trade in, especially on promotions. I traded in a 12pm to buy a 15pm and got over $800 toward the new purchase, then traded in the 15pm for a 17pm (with a carrier switch), but that got me right at $800.

I plan on keeping the 17pm for several years, but will also trade it in, probably in 3-5 years and hopefully get another new phone for very little money.

 

[Jamie0003]

It’s fake news to say it’s easily scratched when it isn’t. Any device can be scratched that’s clear. Any intend to scratch something will be the same no matter if it’s a foldable or not

Cope

 

[Kireyin]

[…] has no crease at all in comparison.

I'm sorry but who wrote this? "has no crease at all" is a statement that should not rely on comparison, it has crease or not or it has more or less crease than, but not "no crease at all in comparison".

So, does it really has no crease at all or significantly less crease than the other screen?

 

[wikiverse]

Yeah, it doesn't remotely appeal to me - I keep buying iPads and then NEVER use them. They get charged up a handful of times a year, and I update the apps and OS. For some reason, I thought I’d use the iPad mini and bought it - and I don't.

I guess this sort of device appeals more to Gen Z and maybe ironically, Boomers. They can have a bigger display and perhaps do everything they used their iPad for on one device. Gen Z seems hell-bent on consuming media on the biggest phone screen they can get hold of, so it'll suit them (still, everything they consume seems to be portrait, so I’m not sure how much use a large 4:3 screen is going to be to them).

I'm happy with my iPhone Pro, but I’d pick an iPhone Air over a fold any day.

The iPad is garbage without a pencil. With a pencil, it has some use if you're doing artistic things, or making notes on documents. I don't think a foldable is going to work well with a pencil and i doubt apple will even make it compatible. Removing the visible crease isn't the thing that might make me consider getting any brand of foldable, it's pencil support.

 

[FyrStrike]

I bet once its in the stores and you touch and feel it you're going to want one.

 

[karnac]

How do I put a case on a folding phone?

 

[iMac The Knife]

How do I put a case on a folding phone?

I don't use cases on my phones, but I've bought a few foldables that came with cases so I put them on just to see how what they were like. They just snap on, it's easy. Some offer hinge protection as well.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I find it mind blowing (just my opinion so don't get upset) that people say things like they find it hard to justify a $1,000 price tag on a new phone every 4-5 years etc.

I've said it before and I will say it again? I get not everyone makes the same amount of $$$... but how can you not justify this?

There are COUNTLESS ways you can easily make money to offset a tech device that you can do pretty much anything with.

Social media monetizing including YouTube, posting items on classifieds (Marketplace & various other apps), using your phone as a basic business expense if you are using it to field calls for a business or side business or to book business dealings.

Like lets say you get a phone every 36 months and you cheap out on an entry level iPhone 17 (just for argument and you don't select like the previous year model). The prices starts at from $799 in the US divided by 36 months comes out to $22-$23 a month. How is that not in the budget for someone? Lets say you buy a premium coffee every day for 5 days a week. What does that come out to? That can easily be $25-$35 a week! Ok, so you say I can't drop $800 at one time... umm every single company, including Apple, offers ZERO interested financing so its literally billed to you. Ok, so lets say you hate Apple (but your on this website for some reason)... umm any decent phone is gonna call you $15-$20 a month in a device payment if you don't pay for it all at one time.

You can LITERALLY make $$ by sitting on your couch and posting classified ads, making content for YouTube etc. I have a buddy that works 40 hours per week and uses his car trailer on the weekends to move golf carts, vehicles, lawn mowers, etc. and he make a good bit of dough as a side hustle... all booked though his Android device.

Ok, rant over but how can anyone in 2026 not justify spending a few bucks a month on a smartphone (any brand)?????

PS, people's feelings get so bent out of shape over the foldable devices. Why? I met a 70+ year old guy in Dec 2025 at a local car show who had a Samsung foldable. Dude was taking out the phone and handling business for people renting from his properties. Buy what YOU like and what makes YOU happy and what makes YOU money!

I don't really care about the money, but I wouldn't side-hustle for cash to buy a phone...Take that money and build a 3-6 month buffer or pay of debt. Phones just aren't worth it (to me).

It's whatever you're interested in, I guess! Wife and I sure do spend a lot of money on our house and land. I've put two foldables worth of money into an antique tractor I'm restoring, and not even halfway there.

We personally buy our phones outright and then use them until they get handed down, or aren't supported. At the end of the day, another iPhone is another iPhone. The newness is gone in a week or so:

 

[WarmWinterHat]

How do I put a case on a folding phone?

Coworker has a case on his foldable. The case has some hinge system itself that kinda swings back and away when it's opened.

 

[Reywas]

A shame you are going to be forced to buy this then. I on the other hand would love to have one device that is my phone and is an iPad that still fits in my pocket.

I agree completely. That is my ideal.

 

[waltermitty]

The first comment in this thread was obviously written by AI.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

The first comment in this thread was obviously written by AI.

They have 32k posts and have been here for 16 years..I don't think so. It reads like a non-native English speaker.

 

[Dredd67]

I still see the crease, so what's the point? I'm not convinced with foldables.
More screen estate? Yes! At the price of a phone + a tablet? What's the point, isn't this akin the infamous toaster-fridge?

I was more on board with the dual screen notebook approach from Microsoft, but of course that failed as it was poorly made but the "unapologetic" split between the two screen looked better than a crease.

Better no makeup than bad makeup... YMMV.

 

[Momento_Mori]

Can't wait for the foldable iPhone. Great progress has been made with these displays for sure..

More leaks there are the more I can't wait to buy it. Foldable iPhone will certainly be apple's focus on 2026

Let’s hope the foldable iPhone isn’t Apple’s focus for 2026. Not appealing to the masses so why waste RD resources? Apple truly needs to focus on OS optimization and AI for the rest of us 😊.

 

[The Game 161]

That's why people use screen protectors. Do they work on foldables?

All foldables have screen protectors built in. Curious if apple will do same and shop them built in

 

[The Game 161]

Let’s hope the foldable iPhone isn’t Apple’s focus for 2026. Not appealing to the masses so why waste RD resources? Apple truly needs to focus on OS optimization and AI for the rest of us .

I'm talking new releases. iPhone 18 pros will all be minor spec bumps

Software needs to be the focus big time for this year.

As colour OS for one is way smoother and way more stable than iOS