Apple's late arrival to the folding market puts huge pressure on the i Phone Ultra to finally level up the category — but is that even possible? | Tech Radar
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Apple's late arrival to the folding market puts huge pressure on the i Phone Ultra to finally level up the category — but is that even possible?
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)
I'm currently holding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 in my hands, only putting it down now to type this and tell you that, as I see it, it's the nearest thing we have at the moment to an i Phone Ultra, the folding i Phone we expect to meet in person on September 9. And what I wonder is not just if the real i Phone Ultra will be good enough to glow up the foldable category so that it eventually rivals standard flagship phones, but whether if it can rise above the foldable bar set by Samsung and, to a lesser extent, its rivals.
The i Phone Ultra will arrive on the tiny island that is foldable phones amid a group of well-established competitors. Apple's slow walk into this category has allowed Samsung, Google, Huawei, Motorola, and Oppo to hone their skills in creating thin, light, and powerful folding phones, often featuring excellent screens, battery life, and cameras.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is not the best of them. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent foldable phone, but it's not the thinnest, doesn't have the longest battery life, and has just two rear cameras. On the other hand, the passport shape (when folded) makes it compelling in a way that's hard to quantify and temporarily unique among current foldable options. When opened, it has a screen size that is nearly as large as those found on other foldables, but in an oddball 4:3 screen aspect ratio.
The design is intentional, with Samsung hoping to bridge the gap between the clamshell-style and fashion-forward Galaxy Z Flip and the far more powerful, productivity-first Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Samsung is filling the gap in the hope of vastly expanding what remains a very tiny market. I know there are reports that Samsung is selling out the Z Fold 8, with one report claiming that it sold out and is now rushing out a million more units. Overall sales for the Z8 line (Fold, Flip, and Ultra) might be in the 4-to-5M unit range. That sounds pretty good, but a look at typical i Phone sales after launch quickly puts those numbers in perspective.
The i Phone Ultra will finally make foldables mainstream — but not because of the hardware
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In 2024, i Phone 16 preorder sales reportedly reached 37 million units. Apple used to provide quarterly updates on i Phone unit sales, and they were, honestly, insane. In December of that year, the Cupertino tech giant sold more than 77 million units. The year ended with over 217 million i Phones sold.
What the industry believes, or at least hopes, is that the arrival of the i Phone Ultra cracks open the market in ways Samsung and its folding counterparts haven't yet. This notion is predicated on the assumption that the i Phone Ultra will be substantially better than Samsung's folding line.
Except it probably won't be. I fully expect it to be an exciting and excellent smartphone, but Samsung, more than any other company, has come close to perfecting the art of the fold. The Z Fold 8 Ultra unfolds flat, has an almost creaseless screen, and is as light and thin as a standard flagship, while offering twice the utility.
Gemini's AI rendering of the i Phone Ultra based on all available spec rumors. It's far from perfect but gives you an idea of what to expect. (Image credit: Gemini)
Apple's folding i Phone is not even expected to match the Z Fold 8 Ultra in style and features. In fact, it's a fair bet it will be in a form factor almost exactly the same as the Z Fold 8. That's right, we all expect Apple to produce the same kind of Passport-style foldable, right down to the pair of rear cameras with no telephoto lens in sight. This shouldn't be too surprising since most believe Apple is sourcing its folding display from Samsung Display.
Among the rumors I've read about the 5.5-inch (folded), 7.8-inch (unfolded) i Phone Ultra is that it will be built with a combination of aluminum and titanium, just like the Z Fold 8. It will, at 4,5mm, be no thinner than the Z Fold 8 when unfolded. The chief design distinction might be the use of what's rumored to be called "liquid metal" to try and fully erase the crease (something the Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Fold 8 have nearly done).
Apple might have an edge, though, where it counts: performance. Most expect the A20 chip paired with 12GB of RAM and Apple's own C2 cellular model. All of this could make this a faster foldable, even if the average user never notices.
Some believe that Apple doesn't need to make the world's best foldable; it simply needs to deliver it to a willing market. How many people have been holding off on buying a foldable because Apple doesn't offer one? That could be millions of people, and if that's the case, it might be the Apple cachet that grows the foldable phone market to a previously unimaginable scale.
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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.
Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.
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