I want the iPhone Fold to be like the Galaxy Z TriFold but better. That’s not going to happen
An iPhone that becomes an iPad, replaces a Mac and that doesn’t cost the earth? Not coming your way in 2026…
Apple isn’t always first, but when it enters a new market, it always strives to be the best. The most famous example is perhaps the iPod, which instantly made every other MP3 player look like a relic when it waltzed in with its sleek design and even sleeker interface. So if you’re betting against Apple making an impact with the iPhone Fold, think again.
The rumour mill’s been churning away about this device for years now. But as its likely debut creeps into view, clickbait fever dreams are coalescing into shapes that are becoming clearer. Short of everyone being spectacularly wrong, the iPhone Fold seems destined to be a book-style device rather than a clamshell. Which is handy, because I’d sooner have an iPhone that can moonlight as an iPad mini than one that lets me pretend I’m starring in an Apple TV remake of The Matrix.
So what else? Leaks point to an exterior that will resemble a chunky iPhone – an anti-iPhone Air but with a display only a touch bigger than an iPhone mini’s. But when the device is unfolded, you’ll apparently get to gawp at a display sharper than any iPad’s. In fact, rumours suggest the pixel count will rival what you’d get on a 13in iPad Pro.
The ambition doesn’t stop there. Assuming every leaker’s mouth isn’t full of wrong, there’ll be a 24MP under-display camera that leapfrogs efforts on Android and the biggest battery ever in an iPhone. There are even claims Apple has “solved the crease problem”. Although as someone who can’t ignore even the most microscopic scratch on a touchscreen, I’ll believe that when I see it. Or, rather, run my finger over it several thousand times, trying to pinpoint the slightest bump.
Tri hard
If Apple nails this, great. But there’s also a sense it’s skating to where the puck has been, while Android manufacturers ditch sports metaphors for sci-fi futures. We first saw this with the trifold Huawei Mate XT, which Stuff Deputy Supreme Ruler Tom Morgan-Freelander likened to “living in the future”. Albeit a flawed future that was hideously expensive.
More recently, Samsung waved its Galaxy Z TriFold in everyone’s face. It looks set to be a relative giant of a device – a 6.5in smartphone (which in Apple land means iPhone Air territory) that unfolds to become a 10in tablet akin to a full-sized iPad. Unlike Huawei’s effort, Samsung’s inner screen is fully covered in smartphone mode. And Samsung promises full DeX (desktop mode) support on the bigger screen.
But the Galaxy Z TriFold isn’t without problems. The resolution of the inner screen barely betters the iPad mini, despite the display being larger. DeX is hampered by Android’s miserable tablet app ecosystem. And the price is terrifying. All of which means I can’t help but dream of an iPhone TriFold. Imagine existing iPhone Fold rumours dialled up, with larger displays, optional iPad windowing (which we now know already exists inside every iPhone running iOS 26), and a price that doesn’t leave your bank account begging for mercy.
Whether any of that’s likely, who knows? Probably not. Apple likes money. It wants you to buy more devices, not fewer. But some of the iPhone Fold’s lustre will be lost if it costs more than an iPhone and an iPad combined, yet lacks the capabilities of the latter on its own iPad-sized screen. And that’s whether it folds in two, three or 20.
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
