Apple may launch its first foldable iPhone in 2026

For the past several years, there have been multiple reports of Apple working on a foldable iPhone, but so far it has not been able to launch the product.

Now, a new report from South Korea has emerged that Apple has made significant progress in testing bendable displays for iPhones and is finalising the supplier.

If the sources of ET News are to be believed, Apple has almost finalised Samsung Display as the primary supplier of the foldable display for the hybrid iPhone by April this year.

It is believed that the company after years of testing has managed to considerably reduce the visibility of the crease at the point where the display bends. Also, the other critical components such as the hinge that holds the two panels, have passed durability tests.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6.

For long, Apple has been very strict with the build quality. Given how expensive the devices are, it has robust durability screening methods to ensure the devices serve the customer long. It is why Apple took its own sweet time to bring OLED panels to its devices.

It is the same for Apple Intelligence features, as the company did not want to get panned like Google, Microsoft and others faced for errors in bringing the right results to search queries. Yes, it did flay over its AI notification summaries due to inaccuracies. The company has temporarily paused it and was saved from major consumer backlash.

Similarly, for the foldable iPhone, Apple is taking it slow to fully test the durability of the bendable screen and most importantly, may achieved breakthrough in reducing the crease on the display. Many players, who have launched multiple fodable phones are yet to achieve this feat.

If all things go as planned, Apple is expected to unveil the company's first-ever foldable phone in the second half of 2026 around September or October, which is the same timeline, when Apple unveil new iPhones every year.

In a related development, Apple's latest iPhone 16e is set to hit stores later this week on February 28 worldwide including in India.

The new iPhone 16E sports a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display and supports FaceID biometric security.

The device is powered by 26-core Apple A18 silicon. It housesa 6-core CPU, 4-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. It is optimised for large generative models and runs machine learning (ML) models up to 6x faster than A13 Bionic.

Also, with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, the device will be able to deliver more realistic lighting and reflections while playing graphics-rich AAA games available on Apple Arcade and the App Store.

It also supports several Apple Intelligence features such as the Clean Up tool, Gemoji, smart writing tools, language translations, Visual Intelligence and more.

Apple iPhone 16e is the company's first device to boast C1, a propreitary modem designed by Apple. It is touted as the most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone. It promises to deliver fast and reliable 5G cellular connectivity.

The new iPhone 16e comes with a 2-in-1 48MP Fusion camera. It can capture super-high-resolution photos. It supports 2x Telephoto to zoom in with optical quality to get closer to the subject and easily frame their shot.

On the front, it houses a 12MP TrueDepth camera for FaceTime calling and selfies.

Apple iPhone 16e comes in two colours--black and white. It is available in three storages-- 128GB, 256GB and 512GB-- for Rs 59,900, Rs 69,900 and Rs 89,900 in India.

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