Knowimagination
macrumors 68020
What do you mean? it will fit in a pocket just fine and the shorter height may even make it easier to fit.
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The MacRumors Show: Apple's Foldable iPhone 'Ultra'
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Just for Dan to know, I am an iPhone Air user and I love it. So there are people who use it out in the wild. I work from home so charging is rarely an issue. I actually find the battery to be just fine. When I travel, I take another camera. The iPhone Air is the best iPhone, hands-down, for e-reading. I also don’t care about the speaker because I have AirPods. So, this phone is great for me.
bbeagle
macrumors 68040
That's an old tired meme.
Apple has plenty of products that are failures.
Did the Vision Pro sell?
The same they were chasing with smart watches, home speakers and AVP, to not be the only company without an offering. That's the problem they have, they want to not be left behind of what could be a great market
realLucaR
macrumors regular
Well, considering the fact it basically is an iPhone and iPad mini in one, I would not consider it to be a bad value.
hooks
macrumors newbie
Since when does Apple chase established markets? Remember the iPod, iPhone, iPad? None of these were the first, but they changed the respective markets completely. This is what Apple has always done.
hooks
macrumors newbie
Apple's MO has never been to join trends or try to catch up.
hooks
macrumors newbie
You could also argue that an iPhone is a mini iPad, or an iPad is a large iPhone. Tadaa, 2 devices in one! 😌
CaptFuzzyBuns
macrumors member
I still think we’re getting a folding iPad Mini, not an iPhone. Especially if they are opting for TouchID over FaceID.
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss all of the rumors surrounding Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone, now said to be called the "iPhone Ultra," which is shaping up to be a comprehensive redesign unlike anything the company has shipped before.
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The iPhone Ultra is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max this fall, though reports suggest it will ship after the Pro models, potentially as late as December. Pricing is expected to start at over $2,000, making it the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever sold.
The device will have a book-style, passport-shaped design with a 4:3 aspect ratio, wider than it is tall and unlike any foldable currently on the market. When closed, it will have a 5.5-inch outer display; when open, a 7.8-inch inner OLED panel takes over, making it just slightly smaller than the 8.3-inch iPad mini. According to design leaks from Instant Digital, the device will measure just 4.5mm thick when unfolded, which would make it Apple's thinnest iPhone to date. The outer frame is said to be made of titanium for durability at that thinness, while the inner frame uses aluminum. The back features a glass finish with a shorter, iPhone Air-style camera plateau housing two horizontally arranged rear cameras.
The same leak revealed that volume buttons are relocated to the top edge of the device, aligned to the right. The inner display features a single punch-hole cutout resulting in a smaller Dynamic Island, while a Touch ID power button and Camera Control remain on the right edge. Reports indicate the iPhone Ultra will support iPad-style multitasking and layouts for running apps side by side when unfolded, befitting its iPad mini-sized inner display. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has described it as the "most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history."
Achieving that ultra-thin form factor comes with tradeoffs, and the iPhone Ultra will be missing several features that iPhone users have come to expect, in some ways echoing the compromises Apple made with the iPhone Air. The iPhone Air went without stereo speakers, a SIM card slot, and multiple rear cameras to achieve its 5.6mm frame; the iPhone Ultra faces similar constraints at an even more demanding 4.5mm. The ultra-thin chassis leaves no room for a triple-lens camera setup, so the telephoto lens found on iPhone Pro models is absent, leaving just a dual 48-megapixel rear system. More significantly, there is no space for the TrueDepth sensor array required for Face ID, meaning the iPhone Ultra will rely on a side-button Touch ID module instead.
Under the hood, the iPhone Ultra is expected to feature Apple's A20 chip paired with 12GB of RAM. Storage options are said to include 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, while color options could simply be black and white. Battery capacity is reportedly in the 5,400mAh to 5,800mAh range, which would put it among the largest ever in an iPhone despite its slim dimensions.
The scale of Apple's production ambitions for the iPhone Ultra has already been tempered by manufacturing realities. Kuo initially indicated Apple placed orders for 15 to 20 million total foldable iPhones, though he noted demand would likely be limited due to the device's cost. By December, Kuo warned that early-stage yield and ramp-up challenges could mean smooth shipments may not occur until 2027, with potential shortages lasting through at least the end of 2026.
The high asking price is expected to be a further constraint on volume: IDC projects the device will capture over 22% unit share of the foldables market in its first year, but that market remains a niche segment overall. The iPhone Air's underwhelming sales performance, with Kuo reporting suppliers cut production capacity by more than 80% after demand fell short of expectations, may serve as a cautionary tale for premium iPhone form-factor experiments.
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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Apple's Foldable iPhone 'Ultra'
ppdix
macrumors 6502a
How is Touch ID going to work on a less than 4mm button? Touch ID has always been round on iPhone and Mac Book Pro to accommodate the whole finger print. It won't be very reliable IMO...
lilkwarrior
macrumors 6502a
The Vision Pro isn’t a mainstream product and spatial computing hardware never intended for mainstream audiences shouldn’t ever compare to products that are.
The Vision Pro has components not intended to scale to mainstream volume and its supply chain and infrastructure gains are to build out such things for mainstream stuff not even necessary in the spatial computing category in the same way Pro Display did for more mainstream high-end products.
Air itself is niche mainstream hardware by design; it never was intended to outsell the baseline and cheapest phone models regardless.
Greenmeenie
macrumors 68020
Definitely an interesting shape choice. Looks like Apple plans to maximize the iPad like feel when folded out. Hence the squarish folded shape. When unfolded it’ll have a very usable iPad mini sized screen. The foldable smartphone market is not as large as the regular smartphone market worldwide, but I like that Apple is doing something different with theirs. I wonder if it’ll be compatible with the Apple pencil 🤔 Artists would love that kind of convenience of combining their smartphone & iPad mini.
H.E. Pennypacker
macrumors 6502a
Naraxus
macrumors 68030
Agreed on all points up until and including FaceID.
The rest doesn’t bother me, but TouchID on the power button is a huge turn off for me and will be the single reason I don’t buy it.
I’ve been desperately waiting for exactly “A phone, a tablet, a camera” to carry everywhere in my pocket, but I can’t compromise on the unlock and authentication process being slowed down, especially it is used constantly, even after unlock.
I like FaceID too but have you ever compared it to a modern fingerprint reader for a longer period of time? I just ran the Z Fold 7 for a few months and even though it was awkward at the start I quickly adapted and it didn’t really cause any delays.
Now that I switched back to my iPhone I get locked out and need to enter my passcode a lot more since FaceID doesn’t work properly when I go outside and the sun is shining straight ahead.
permanoob
macrumors newbie
This is an interesting idea. There are many office jobs that are doing primarily documents, calls, emails and don’t need pro processing but they do switch very often from work at their desk and to their phone on the go. What if you just needed one device for that?
There would be some efficiencies not having to transfer files, or wait for cloud uploads and downloads, or not needing to make sure the app you use could get on every one of your devices with the same settings and functions in each place. When I switch settings or email accounts I find it a pain to go do that on every instance of the app on all my different devices.
If you are on a video call at your desk but need to go on the move, you just pick up the phone and start walking without switching devices annoyingly, with different settings, or leaving the meeting and reconnecting. This is so much of work these days. You might be working with an AI tool at your desk and you just pick up the phone and keep the conversation going seemlessly without switching devices.
I have an iphone, an ipad air that I use mostly for media consumption and games, or a little work if I have it without my laptop nearby, and a macbook pro that I use for my work. But I hardly do anything that pushes the pro. Everything I do for work could be powered by the computer in your pocket device idea. A phone when I want a phone, a tablet when I want a tablet for media, and a desktop when it goes into a dock. That honestly sounds pretty good. If the docking desktop experience was pretty close to the efficiency and internet browser functionality and files functionality of MacOS, and not ipad OS, it would def be fine for all my work.
Maybe the apps work a little differently in phone mode but you will have all your files, settings, and info up to date on your devices without needing to wonder about it or snyc anything. That’s honestly pretty appealing to me. But maybe I’m the only one.
I wonder if that is a more secure set up as well. I wonder if a lot of companies that provide employees tech would prefer to buy one device like that instead of seperate phone and laptop or desktop.
If this was such a good idea though, there must be a reason it doesn't exist or isn’t already popular. Maybe switching like that is a challenging tech problem.
Even if I had this for work I might still get a mac mini for the desk for creative projects like video and music, might be nice to keep that separate anyway. Interesting idea.
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noiceT
macrumors 6502a
The main problem I foresee about the fold, is the "extra two-handed" step. Foldable non-smart flip phones in the past were great because you could just flip it open with one hand and use it. But this extra step of having to use two hands to open the phone I wonder if it will be too much. Granted you can just use the phone unfolded, but then why have it then?
Thinking in everyday usage: waiting for the train, walking to work, sitting at a table at a restaurant. These situations seem inconvenient to open and unfold with two hands an ipad mini sized device.
It just seems realistically like the "usage" ratio of open vs close is going to be pretty large. Like 80:20, or 70:30.
Thinking in everyday usage: waiting for the train, walking to work, sitting at a table at a restaurant. These situations seem inconvenient to open and unfold with two hands an ipad mini sized device.
It just seems realistically like the "usage" ratio of open vs close is going to be pretty large. Like 80:20, or 70:30.
From using Android foldables I’d say that when out and about I rarely open it because it isn’t needed. But once I’m sat down and want to do something that isn’t just a quick thing I’d unfold it.
But when I sit down and unfold it I usually spend some time.
The mock up reminds me of the fat boy iPod video they made back in the day. I dislike it immensely.
klasma
macrumors G4
30:00 @Hartley @Dan Barbera The volume buttons are not in the traditional place because that’s where the hinge is, and putting buttons on the hinge (assuming it’d be technically possible) would be strange and inconvenient when folded open. Personally I think they should have put the power button on the top like it was before the iPhone 6, and have the volume buttons with the action button on the right side.