I'm going to try to wait another year before I upgrade my 16 Pro Max. I do want to check at the feel of the small form factor (when closed) of the Ultra. It just seems like it would be weird to use closed (presumedly taking phone calls) after all these years of the larger Pro Max.
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iPhone Ultra Wows Early Testers, Except for Its Camera
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Do you want to guess what aspect ratio content people watch more on their devices? More YouTube, instagram, ticktock than anything else. Apple has all of the data regarding people’s use case for their phones.
I don’t think you should advise people to remove this as it would most likely void their warranty.
Definitely, though it actually being slightly shorter than the mini may help a little hopefully!
Vincent Hanna
macrumors 6502
Because those are terrible user experiences that only appeal to a tiny number of nerds?
okieoutwest
macrumors 6502
Some years ago I tried out going macOS free. I had a watch, iPhone mini, iPad mini, and iPad Pro plus I tried out different keyboard solutions. My goal was a lightweight and ultra portable hardware stack.
I also had a pretty “email job” job and freelanced entirely from this hardware and iOS app suite, mostly producing and editing written documents, nothing like photo or video editing. I was a prime target for some subset of the key user of a foldable phone.
But iPadOS is still limited in multitasking compared to macOS, and a screen this size “for productivity” doesn’t make sense without a physical keyboard attached in my opinion after trying it for years.
I’m not going to try again. I wonder who will besides tech enthusiasts.
I also had a pretty “email job” job and freelanced entirely from this hardware and iOS app suite, mostly producing and editing written documents, nothing like photo or video editing. I was a prime target for some subset of the key user of a foldable phone.
But iPadOS is still limited in multitasking compared to macOS, and a screen this size “for productivity” doesn’t make sense without a physical keyboard attached in my opinion after trying it for years.
I’m not going to try again. I wonder who will besides tech enthusiasts.
capamac
macrumors 6502a
Very much depends, if you are getting an iPad mini and you want it to have the same storage as your iPhone, 256 gigabytes, and a cellular data plan, you’re looking at almost $1000 out the door. $849 before tax.
Add onto that the $1199 iPhone 17 Pro Max and you’re looking at $2048 before tax.
Then factor in the fact that you have to pay for two separate data plans, two separate AppleCare agreements, and the price of the folding iPhone doesn’t look so bad after all.
And this is the current iPad mini with a chip from three years ago and an LCD display, it’s very likely the OLED model is going to be at least $100 more expensive, if not more.
The “it’s cheaper to purchase an iPhone and iPad separately” argument kind of goes out the window if you actually try to do a apples to apples price comparison.
Now obviously, if you compromise on storage and only get 128 gigabytes, and you compromise on the cellular data plan, and you compromise on getting the regular iPad instead of the mini, then maybe it becomes significantly cheaper to buy the two separate devices.
But we are a long, long way from the days when you could easily get an iPad mini for $300 to $400.
Even a regular iPhone 17 Pro and a base iPad are closer to $2000 than $1000.
I fundamentally do agree, however, I do think that Apple has kind of locked themselves into a corner with the iPad.
That is a device category that desperately needs a reboot, and it has reportedly been reflected in the sales over the last two years.
The issue is that Apple continues to expand all of their other products into folding iPhones, HomePods with displays that are similar to iPads, MacBooks with touchscreens…
And especially with products like the folding iPhone and the touchscreen MacBook, and even the MacBook Neo, it continues to beg the question… What is the point of the iPad?
I recently traded in my iPad Pro to Apple, I used it for two years to get through classes, but for the most part, it functioned as a bedside TV and then collected dust.
I absolutely loved using it, I thought it was a wonderful device, but everything I did on it was significantly more convenient to just pull out my phone to do, and anything more serious was best on the MacBook.
iMac The Knife
macrumors 68000
I think it is because from a liability perspective, it is better to have a screen protector from the factory than to not have one. Also, not everyone takes care of their foldables like I do. I've seen some nightmarish photos online of people's foldables, and they look like hot garbage.
iMac The Knife
macrumors 68000
With RCS, it really doesn't matter anymore. And if you know anyone who uses iMessages without RCS enabled, you know they are not worth talking to. I'm kidding, but seriously who uses SMS/MMS over RCS in 2026? Anyway, from the rumors the Apple foldable should be a lot like the Z Fold 8 design wise, so hopefully it won't even matter for you much longer. If you like the passport style anyway, which I prefer and I've owned a ton of foldables.
iMac The Knife
macrumors 68000
It doesn't void your warranty...at least not on any foldable sold in the USA. Screen protectors bubble over time no matter what, and when this happens, the screen protector will need to be either removed for good or removed and replaced. Simple. They cannot void your warranty for something that is inevitable, unless they explicably state this in writing. I verified with customer support that removing the inner screen protector would not void the warranty on multiple foldables, like the Z Fold's (after the first gen), the Pixel Folds, and the Motorola Fold. This has been a myth ever since the first Samsung Fold was released, because with that specific foldable you actually couldn't remove the inner screen protector without voiding the warranty due to the type of adhesive they were using at the time, which was garbage. A person would literally destroy their display if they removed the inner screen protector from the original Samsung Fold.
iMac The Knife
macrumors 68000
I'm with you on this. My only complaint about the Z Fold 8 is the camera tumor on the back of the phone, which to be fair pretty much all phones have anymore. Give me a flush mounted camera system that doesn't take "professional" grade photos any day!
I understand what you’re saying. It eventually comes down to Apple products cannibalizing Apple products and that’s okay. Apple rather cannibalize their own products instead of another company doing it for them.
However the iPad isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s a staple in many schools and hospitals across the US.
The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
can't wait, any downsides with camera is ok given i have pro max for that and likely my vivo for photos too.
Oh, I absolutely agree that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
But I still stay by what I said, if any Apple product needs to be completely rethought, especially from a software perspective, it’s the iPad.
As MacBooks continue to move down closer to iPad prices, and both the iPhone and macOS continue to grow more and more iPad like, the iPad will continue to struggle.
But it, of course, will always have its markets.
The thing that very few of the folding devices have addressed is that for a decent amount of potential usage, the unfolded state isn’t that helpful.
If you’re going to treat your phone as a productivity device (and Apple may have an advantage here as the iPad still seems to be the preferred laptop alternative) then you might get good use from the unfolded layout — except that most of the people I see using an iPad as a productivity device/laptop alternative have a keyboard case of some kind. Whether the onscreen keyboard will be sufficient, or accessories/cases appear to fill that gap I don’t know. Perhaps simply reducing the amount of time you need to have your laptop/ipad with you will be enough to justify the purchase.
For content consumption, most of the folding devices so far have folded in such a way that for tv, movies and vertical video, they’re either not much bigger than a standard phone in landscape orientation, or no different at all. If you happen to watch a lot of 4:3 aspect content then you’ll definitely see a large increase in picture size but otherwise …
No doubt the ultra (or whatever it’s called) will sell well for a device at its price point - apple’s audience includes plenty of people who will be prepared to pay. I’ll be interested to see how many of them stick with the ‘ultra’ line as subsequent versions are released. Apple do have a track record of releasing products in a category when they think their product has a meaningful advantage/improvement over the existing devices, so the ultra could be the device that makes folding phones ‘mainstream’ with certain types of users…
If you’re going to treat your phone as a productivity device (and Apple may have an advantage here as the iPad still seems to be the preferred laptop alternative) then you might get good use from the unfolded layout — except that most of the people I see using an iPad as a productivity device/laptop alternative have a keyboard case of some kind. Whether the onscreen keyboard will be sufficient, or accessories/cases appear to fill that gap I don’t know. Perhaps simply reducing the amount of time you need to have your laptop/ipad with you will be enough to justify the purchase.
For content consumption, most of the folding devices so far have folded in such a way that for tv, movies and vertical video, they’re either not much bigger than a standard phone in landscape orientation, or no different at all. If you happen to watch a lot of 4:3 aspect content then you’ll definitely see a large increase in picture size but otherwise …
No doubt the ultra (or whatever it’s called) will sell well for a device at its price point - apple’s audience includes plenty of people who will be prepared to pay. I’ll be interested to see how many of them stick with the ‘ultra’ line as subsequent versions are released. Apple do have a track record of releasing products in a category when they think their product has a meaningful advantage/improvement over the existing devices, so the ultra could be the device that makes folding phones ‘mainstream’ with certain types of users…
You’re underestimating the amount of social media people consume, and that app developers will optimize their apps for both the inner and outer displays.
Every year Apple proves y’all wrong.
If the Fold has better cameras, I'll try it despite my skepticism.
If the Fold has lesser cameras, I'll skip it despite my curiosity.
If the Fold has lesser cameras, I'll skip it despite my curiosity.
Vincent Hanna
macrumors 6502
That's what I thought too. But it turns out that there's a TON of things on your phone that it uses the other lenses for without you noticing. 0.5 mode, any level of decent zoom, Macro (hope you don't want to take picture of food!), and even a lot of the best parts of Portrait Mode photos are only possible because of how the camera uses multiple lenses to capture things.
I thought as you do. I ran an analysis on all my photos using a few smart filters in Photos and I was like "Oh I only use like 3% of the time, I won't miss it." When you take pictures enough, you miss it.
Also the battery life was godawful. One 30 minute wireless CarPlay commute and it was down 40% right out of the box.
Yep. And if you never open it to use the larger screen, the battery life should be pretty good too. iPhone Ultra is really just the Mini 3.