The first foldable iPhone is only six months away, and leaks continue to reveal the behind-the-scenes story of its development. We already know exactly what the iPhone Fold will look like and what it will be called, but it turns out Apple was originally working on a completely different design, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, but ultimately completely abandoned the “flip phone” idea. An insider from Weibo explained what exactly went wrong.
Apple considered releasing a smartphone like this. Image: 9to5mac.com
What the First Foldable iPhone Could Have Looked Like
Foldable smartphones have been produced by Samsung, Google, and other manufacturers for a long time, but Apple still hasn’t introduced a single one. Everything will change in the fall of 2026, when the company finally unveils its first foldable iPhone. But the road to it turned out to be winding.
Would you buy an iPhone Flip? Image: macrumors.com
Back in July 2024, sources reported that Apple was developing an iPhone with a vertical top-down fold. And quite recently, there was even information that the iPhone Flip would actually be released, just a bit later. Essentially, this is the “flip phone” format, like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip line: a regular smartphone that folds in half and becomes twice as compact. It seemed like a logical choice for a first step into the world of foldable devices.
However, by March 2025, the development direction changed dramatically. Instead of a compact flip phone, Apple switched to a book-style fold format. This is a fundamentally different approach: the device opens like a book, transforming from a regular smartphone into a mini-tablet.
Why Apple Abandoned the iPhone Flip
An insider under the nickname Instant Digital on the Chinese platform Weibo published a post in which they explained the reasons for the rejection in detail. And the issue turned out to be not about technical problems, but about product philosophy.
According to the source, most employees within the company considered the flip phone design “unnecessary”. The main complaint: this format doesn’t create any fundamentally new use cases. Its only advantage was that the phone could be folded and tucked into the pocket of skinny jeans. But this, in Apple’s opinion, completely contradicted the company’s current hardware development focus.
Simply put, Apple concluded that folding a phone just for the sake of compactness wasn’t a compelling enough reason for a new product. The company is accustomed to releasing devices that unlock new possibilities, rather than simply changing the form factor.
What Problems the iPhone Flip Had
But the issues weren’t limited to philosophy alone. The insider also pointed to quite specific engineering drawbacks of the flip format. The internal space of a compact foldable phone is awkwardly divided in half by the hinge. Every cubic millimeter inside the casing becomes worth its weight in gold. Battery capacity ends up being limited, and cameras require serious compromises in quality.
The final verdict within Apple sounded roughly like this: if the goal is simply to make the phone smaller, then the company prefers to simply “optimize” existing models rather than create a separate device with a bunch of compromises.
In the end, Apple’s foldable will look like this. Image: @UniverseIce
This aligns with what we know about the current iPhone Fold. According to the latest data, it will feature a book-style format: when folded, it’s a compact smartphone, and when unfolded, it’s a full-sized screen close in size to the iPad mini. This approach truly creates a new use case: a “two-in-one” device that allows seamless switching between smartphone and tablet modes.
Will Apple Release an iPhone Flip?
But here’s what’s interesting: the flip phone story doesn’t end here. Recent reports indicate that Apple is once again exploring the possibility of creating an iPhone in the flip format for a future model. No final decisions have been made yet, but the company is clearly keeping this design in mind as a possible lineup expansion.
When unfolded, the iPhone Fold will resemble an iPad mini. Image: blog.stls.store
And this makes sense. Users consistently show that they love large iPhone screens. With a flip-style foldable design, Apple could make the screen even bigger without turning the device into a “paddle” that doesn’t fit in a pocket. If foldable display technology becomes mainstream and affordable, having a diverse lineup of foldable devices would be a perfectly reasonable move.
So it’s quite possible that a couple of years after the book-style iPhone Fold, we’ll also see a compact iPhone Flip. Apple simply decided to start with the format that, in its opinion, offers the most innovation.
The book format and the flip phone solve different tasks. Apple has chosen the first for now, but the second hasn’t been canceled forever.
The first foldable iPhone is already on the home stretch: the design has been approved, and the company is moving toward mass production. The book format instead of the flip phone isn’t a compromise — it’s a deliberate choice in favor of a device that truly changes the user experience. However, Apple knows how to surprise, and who knows which format will come next.
