A recent leak has stated that Apple could make it so that the foldable iPhone could cost more than the best MacBooks.
The rumor comes from leaker Instant Digital, who posted about the possible price change on the Chinese social media site Weibo. According to the post, the iPhone could cost between $2,100 and $2,300 at release. For reference, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 costs $1,899 at its lowest, while the 1TB version costs $2,259.
However, Apple is in for a challenge if it wants to break into the foldable market with that price point. It's worth noting that the foldable market isn't what it used to be; there are many options out there. For instance, most of the best foldable phones that we've seen, like the OnePlus Open ($1,699) and Oppo Find N5 (around $1,800), can be bought for much more affordable prices.
If Apple wants to sell the foldable at that cost, then it would need to pull out some impressive hardware. Unfortunately, at least to my eyes, none of the rumored specs appear to show that.
What do we know about the iPhone foldable?
The first thing anyone looks for when it comes to a foldable phone is the size of the display. Now, we've heard several different rumors about the foldable iPhone's screen, but none of them scream "spend 2K on me!"
The first rumor we've heard is that the foldable iPhone features a 7.8-inch primary display when unfolded and a 5.5-inch cover display when folded. That means the inner display will roughly be the same as the cheaper OnePlus Open (which again costs $1,699.) Now, there are rumors that Apple has solved the crease issue seen in other foldables, but even that isn't enough.
Other rumors have indicated that the phone could have a 7.74-inch inner display offering a 2,713 x 1,920p resolution. Meanwhile, the 5.49-inch outer display will have a resolution of 2,088 x 1,422p. That would put it closer to the Oppo Find N5.
Alternatively, we've seen a rumor that the screen could be as large as 12 inches when unfolded. Now, that's certainly impressive and would be visually distinct, while at the same time being completely impractical. Here's the thing: you still need a phone to be a phone, and while the phone is tipped to be the thinnest yet, there's no easy way to fit that in your pocket.
Plus, the idea of opening a 12-inch screen on public transport is just... horrifying.
Next, we have the cameras, which are hinted to include a main lens, an ultrawide lens and possibly an under-display selfie camera. It isn't the most impressive lineup, although to be fair, we don't know much about their specs. At the end of the day, however, I wouldn't buy a foldable phone for the camera, usually because they often feel more lacking than the more standard devices.
When it comes to the inner hardware, we've heard that the foldable iPhone could feature a 5,000mAh battery. That's a pretty decent battery, but the big news is that Apple has reportedly upgraded the screen's integrated driver circuit from a 28nm process to a smaller 16nm one. This would, in theory, allow the same performance while minimizing the power draw.
While impressive, it isn't "over $2,000" impressive. It would help if we knew more about the chips in the phone, but so far, we can only guess that it will at least feature the same chips as the iPhone 17 series.
One possible option for Apple is to push Apple Intelligence, including new features exclusive to the foldable iPhone. However, I say could because Apple hasn't exactly set the world on fire with Apple Intelligence. This is especially true when you realize we still don't have all the promised features for Apple's AI. For instance, look at the delayed release of Siri 2.0. Imagine paying 2K for a phone where the features are always "coming soon."
The biggest problem Apple is going to face is that when it eventually does release, which is rumored to be happening around Q2 of 2026 at the earliest, the competition will be even steeper. At that point, we expect that we'll have seen the release of the OnePlus Open 2, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and possibly the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. All of these developers have more experience with foldables, and Apple will struggle to find a place.
So, how likely is this price? Well, that's hard to say at this point, but the leaker has been right before. As such, it's worth taking note of, but it is still very early days. With that said, I wouldn't buy a $2,000 foldable iPhone based on what we know now, but Apple could surprise me.
So let me know, would you pay 2K for a foldable iPhone, or is that just too much for you to even consider being worth it?
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