It may be some time before we see an iPhone Flip foldable Apple phone, but here’s all we’ve heard about what might come.
While the name ‚iPhone Flip‘ is a name fans are using as a placeholder, it refers to a much-rumored device: Apple’s anticipated upcoming foldable phone, which we know about through rumors and reports more than concrete information from the company. How long Apple has been working on a foldable phone – which may end up being called the iPhone Flip, or maybe iPhone Fold depending on its form factor – is unclear, but the tech giant infamously keeps its projects under wraps until it’s ready to reveal them. Likewise, Apple has typically taken its time releasing its own take on new devices, so we weren’t surprised the device didn’t debut alongside the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro in October 2020. We possibly won’t see it with the iPhone 13 either. But getting a foldable phone with a level of Apple polish sure is enticing. Only a few of the devices have been widely released, and phone makers haven’t ironed out some of the bigger issues, like display durability and battery life. There’s the old sentiment that the age of the smartphone didn’t truly arrive until the first iPhone came out in 2007 – and while that oversimplifies phone evolution, it also speaks to how much Apple’s product designs influence types of devices. For better or worse, there’s a reason we have widespread facial recognition but far fewer headphone jacks, for instance. But the resulting Apple product will very likely be the most refined version of a foldable we’ve yet seen. Here’s everything we’ve heard – which, right now, isn’t much – and what we’d like to see in a foldable iPhone. Sadly, we haven’t heard anything remotely close to an idea of when the device will be coming out, much less a solid foldable iPhone release date. We’ve only heard rumors about patents and leaks, like this one from Jon Prosser, that talk about a ‘current prototype,’ suggesting that Apple may not have even finalized a design. Prosser went on to confirm that the tech giant was working on a foldable, but implied that it wouldn’t be coming this year. One source suggested we wouldn’t be seeing a foldable iPhone until 2023 at the earliest, and that report even suggested it may be later than that as well. We may be a ways off from a commercially-available foldable iPhone – but given how well the company keeps its new designs under wraps, the device could be farther along than we suspect. We also don’t know how much this is set to cost when it does land, but considering a lot of foldable phones costs well over the $1000 / £1000 / AU$2000 you should expect it to be a high price to pay. As for the name, we’ve only heard rumor that it could be called the iPhone Flip, likely referring to the Galaxy Z Flip-like patents we’ve seen that hint at a clamshell folding format.
