What to expect from Apple's foldable iPhone launch

Apple’s foldable phone arrives more than five years after Samsung launched the category, and this year’s event is one of the company’s most anticipated in a while — coinciding with Tim Cook handing the CEO role to former hardware chief John Ternus. Leaks suggest the foldable “iPhone Ultra” will have a premium feel and open into a wide, iPad-like display, with a 5.5-inch cover screen expanding to 7.8 inches unfolded, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Folded, the device is expected to look shorter and wider than a typical iPhone, and reports say it will cost more than $2,000.

To fit the foldable form factor, Apple has reportedly made tradeoffs: the phone is said to skip the telephoto camera in favor of a dual-lens rear system with a main and ultra-wide lens, and rumor has it Apple will include MagSafe but forgo Face ID, relying instead on a side-mounted Touch ID button. The device is expected to support side-by-side multitasking like other foldables but will run iOS rather than iPadOS, reportedly powered by the same chip said to run Apple’s budget MacBook Neo. Apple has also supposedly worked to make the fold crease less visible than on rival devices.

Beyond the foldable, Apple is expected to release the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max at the event, with the standard iPhone 18 predicted to arrive six months later. The company is also expected to refresh the HomePod as part of its Gemini-powered Siri update, based on references to unreleased products spotted in a macOS preview build. That same preview reportedly revealed AirPods with built-in cameras that act as “eyes” for Siri and capture low-resolution visual information rather than photos or video, according to Gurman — a feature researcher Aaron Perris found demonstrated in a video showing someone using “Visual Intelligence” to save what they see.

Why it matters

If accurate, the leaks suggest Apple is betting its first foldable on premium pricing and camera compromises rather than matching rivals feature-for-feature — a wait-and-see approach that could either preserve margins or cede ground in a category Apple enters five years late.