.png "Apple Foldable iPhone Ultra Concept Design")
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says he has spoken to several people who have already used the device now widely referred to inside Apple as the iPhone Ultra. Their four favourite things say a lot about what Apple is actually selling and about the trade-offs Apple has not yet admitted to.
By the PetaTech24 Technology Desk · Published August 24, 2026 · Last updated August 24, 2026
Editorial disclosure: Apple has not announced a foldable iPhone. Every specification, price and date in this article is reported by journalists, leakers or analysts — not confirmed by Apple. We label the confidence level of each claim below.
Apple's first foldable phone has now been handled by people outside Apple's product teams, and their reactions are on the record for the first time. In his August 23 Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote that he had spoken to several people who have used the device and the four things they singled out were the pocket fit, the hinge, the new iPad-like app layouts, and how well the big inner screen works as a camera viewfinder.
That list matters more than a spec sheet. Foldables do not usually fail because the screen is too small. They fail at the hinge, at the crease, and in software that treats a tablet-shaped display like a stretched phone. Those are exactly the three things early users reportedly liked.
At a Glance
- Reported by Bloomberg (Aug 23): several people have already used the foldable; they praised pocketability, hinge durability, iPad-like app layouts and camera-viewfinder use.
- Reported hardware: roughly a 5.5-inch outer display and a ~7.8-inch inner display that is wider than it is tall.
- Reported trade-offs: Touch ID instead of Face ID, and main + ultra-wide cameras with no telephoto.
- Reported price: upwards of $2,000; analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has cited a $2,300–$2,500 range.
- Reported timing: a September 2026 unveiling, with leakers warning that early stock could be "extremely limited."
- Not confirmed by Apple: the name, the specs, the price, the date all of it.
Why this matters to you
If you buy iPhones, this is the first year in nearly a decade where Apple's most expensive phone may not be the best phone for most people. A foldable iPhone at $2,000-plus, reportedly without a telephoto lens and without Face ID, is not a straight upgrade over an iPhone 18 Pro. It is a different product with a different job: a phone that opens into something close to a small tablet.
So the useful question is not "is the foldable better." It is "is the bigger canvas worth more to you than optical zoom, Face ID and roughly $700–$1,000."
The early impressions Gurman collected are the first real evidence for one half of that question and they cluster around usefulness, not novelty.
Table 1 What "5.5 inches outside, 7.8 inches inside" actually means
Screen numbers only help if you can picture them. Here is the reported iPhone Ultra measured against devices you can already hold today.
Two things to take from this. First, the reported inner display is about 94% of the iPad mini's 8.3-inch diagonal so "iPad mini in your pocket" is a fair description of the diagonal, though a folding panel and a rigid tablet are not the same experience. Second, the reported 5.5-inch outer screen is smaller than the 6.3-inch iPhone 18 Pro. Closed, this may feel like a compact iPhone, not a slab.
Gurman's sources reportedly liked how it fits in a pocket. AppleInsider's read of the same newsletter adds an important qualifier: testers described it as thick when folded, but still pocketable. Both things can be true, and only one of them is flattering.
The hinge is the story, and here is why
Every foldable review of the last six years eventually becomes a hinge review. Hinges collect dust, develop play, and decide whether the crease is a faint line or a visible valley after 18 months.
So when people who have used a pre-release Apple foldable reportedly volunteer hinge durability as a highlight, that is genuinely meaningful with one hard limit: praise from a short hands-on is not a durability test. No one outside Apple has run a fold-cycle test, a dust-ingress test, or a 12-month wear check on this device. Until they have, "the hinge feels solid" is an impression, not a measurement.
There is also a manufacturing signal worth noting. On August 17, 9to5Mac reported that Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital described challenges with hinge assembly, while still expecting mass production to proceed. Difficult to assemble and durable in the hand are not contradictory but they do suggest supply, not confidence, may be the constraint at launch.
Table 2 iPhone Ultra vs iPhone 18 Pro: who each one is for
Both are expected in September 2026. They are not competing for the same buyer.
Price figures are analyst and supply-chain estimates in US dollars. Apple has published no pricing for either device.
The honest summary: on cameras, price and availability, the Pro looks like the safer phone. The Ultra's case rests almost entirely on the software Gurman's sources praised.
Table 3 Apple's reported foldable vs the foldable you can buy today
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 went on sale in early August 2026 and it landed on a strikingly similar shape. This is the most useful comparison available, because one column is real and shipping.
The thing to notice is how close these two designs are. A 5.5-inch cover screen and a wide 4:3 inner screen is now a shared conclusion, not an Apple insight. Apple's differentiator, if there is one, has to be the app layouts which is precisely what early users reportedly noticed.
What happens next
Three things to watch between now and Apple's expected September event.
1. The name. "iPhone Ultra" is what reporters say Apple people call it. That is not the same as what the box will say one prominent leaker expects "Ultra" to be saved for a 20th-anniversary iPhone. Treat the name as unsettled.
2. Supply. Reports point to a 10-million-unit production target that could take three to five months to reach, with early stock described as extremely limited. A September announcement does not guarantee a September purchase.
3. Developer readiness. Side-by-side apps and sidebars only matter if the apps you actually use support them on day one. Apple's own apps will. Everyone else's is the open question.
FAQ
Bottom Line
The most useful detail in Gurman's newsletter is not that people liked Apple's foldable. It is what they liked. Nobody reportedly led with "the screen is big." They led with the hinge, the pocket fit and the app layouts the three areas where foldables have historically disappointed.
That is a genuinely encouraging signal. It is also, still, a set of second-hand impressions about an unannounced product with no independent testing behind it.
Should you wait? Wait if you specifically want a large-screen iPhone for reading, documents, email and side-by-side apps, and you can absorb a $2,000-plus price and a possibly constrained launch. Buy the iPhone 18 Pro if you need a phone soon, rely on optical zoom, prefer Face ID, or simply do not want to fund a first-generation hinge.
And if you want the foldable form factor today rather than in a rumour cycle, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 already exists at about $1,899 which is the clearest measure of what Apple's premium will have to justify.
Sources & Attribution
- Bloomberg — Power On newsletter, August 23, 2026 (Mark Gurman): early-user impressions of the foldable iPhone. Link (subscription)
- 9to5Mac — August 23, 2026: "Here's what people who have used the iPhone Ultra like most." Link
- AppleInsider — August 23, 2026: independent write-up of the same newsletter, including the "thick when folded" detail. Link
- 9to5Mac — August 17, 2026: leaks on release timing, limited initial stock, hinge-assembly challenges and doubts about the "Ultra" name. Link
- MacRumors — March 11, 2026: Bloomberg-sourced report on iPad-style multitasking, sidebars, side-by-side apps and side-button fingerprint sensor. Link
- Mashable: Ming-Chi Kuo's $2,000–$2,500 and narrowed $2,300–$2,500 price estimates. Link
- Mashable / SamMobile — July–August 2026: Galaxy Z Fold 8 specifications, $1,899–$1,900 starting price and on-sale date. Link
- CNET foldable-iPhone roundup: cited widely for the 5.5-inch/7.8-inch display and $2,000–$2,500 range. Link — the page returned an access error to our automated retrieval at the time of writing, so we have not relied on it for any figure that is not independently sourced above.
Corrections & updates: This is a developing, rumour-stage story. PetaTech24 will update this article if Apple announces the device or if reporting materially changes. Corrections are logged at the foot of the article.
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