iPhone Ultra might be Apple’s biggest innovation yet, but you may not be able to buy one at launch
Follow UsApple’s first foldable iPhone might be its biggest innovation in years
Production challenges may limit iPhone Ultra supply at launch
Priced above $2,000, the iPhone Ultra may be hard to buy at launch
Apple’s first foldable iPhone is strongly expected to debut next month, and if Mark Gurman is right, this might be the company’s most exciting new product in years. The iPhone Ultra, as it is widely expected to be called, is set to be unveiled alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup at Apple’s ‘Surprise and shine’ September event. But there is a catch: actually getting one may be considerably harder at launch. Mark Gurman, in his latest newsletter, describes the foldable iPhone as Apple’s most exciting new product in several years, and that feels about right. Apple has released plenty of important products and updates over the past decade, but very few have fundamentally changed what an iPhone can be. A foldable does.
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I have been using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (read review) as my primary phone, and the experience of using a foldable is always different than a traditional candy bar design. For me, the Fold 8’s form factor is so refreshing and comfortable that I have started wondering why conventional phones are so tall in the first place.
That is also why I think Apple’s entry into the foldable smartphone category matters. The iPhone Ultra is expected to follow a similar book-style design while being extremely thin. Gurman says people who have already used Apple’s device have praised its pocketability, hinge and larger display, along with new iPad-like layouts designed for the foldable screen. The problem is that making something this thin and complicated at Apple’s scale is not easy.
Gurman has previously reported that the complexity of the foldable iPhone may limit initial supply. Apple is still targeting a September launch, but that does not necessarily mean everyone who wants one will be able to walk into an Apple Store and buy one immediately. The company’s plans have also shifted over the course of development, with Gurman previously reporting that the foldable may arrive after the iPhone 18 Pro models.
And then there is the price. Gurman expects the foldable iPhone to cost more than $2,000, putting it firmly into early-adopter territory. At that price, Apple will have to convince buyers that this is more than an expensive iPhone with a folding screen. And that may be difficult, especially because even the Galaxy Z Fold 8 shows that compromises still exist. In my review, I found the Fold 8 remarkably easy to live with, but the lack of a telephoto camera remained one of the few things I wished Samsung had included.
Apple is apparently making some compromises of its own. Gurman says the iPhone Ultra will not have a telephoto camera and may use Touch ID instead of Face ID. For a phone expected to cost over $2,000, those are pretty big omissions.
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Still, I think the main highlight is going to be the form factor itself. Apple may be arriving late, but if it gets the foldable experience right, the iPhone Ultra may very well make foldable phones mainstream in a way other phone makers haven’t quite managed yet. The irony is that the people most excited to try Apple’s biggest hardware change in years may be the ones who have to wait the longest to actually buy it. And Apple has been here before. The iPhone X, launched in 2017, was arguably the last time Apple introduced a genuinely radical iPhone design, and production problems meant it arrived later than the rest of the lineup and remained difficult to get for months. A decade later, it could be the same story all over again — or even worse.
