Having just watched the Samsung Unpacked event, I think the Korean company has just fixed every major problem that existed with foldable phones. They’re now thinner, wider and more normal-looking, and yet even at the point where most of the kinks have been ironed out… I still find them a bit uncool.
There’s still something about unfolding a phone in 2026 that feels unnecessary and a bit like a throwback from the 90s. It takes something that has been refined into a seamless sheet of glass and puts a hinge back into the middle of it.
Sure, retro is cool, but foldable phones still feel stuck between two worlds to me.
Cheaper in Korea
Foldable phones are also still pretty expensive — I wasn’t the only one in the office raising an eyebrow at the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s eye-watering $2000+ price when it was announced— although at this point I’m tempted to blame AI for making everything more expensive, even if it’s up to 48% cheaper in Korea.
The new foldable phones look amazing, but it’s taken Samsung a while to get here — it launched its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold , back in 2019 — at the time we called it, “The most forward-thinking phone you shouldn’t buy”.
But the real cultural test of the foldable phone may not arrive until Apple does what Apple does best — walks into an established category, removes a few visible seams, adds a name that sounds like it came from a yoga retreat, and behaves as if everyone else had merely been beta-testing the future.
Under Steve Jobs, being best, not first, was Apple’s greatest trick. The iPod was not the first MP3 player. The iPhone was not the first smartphone. The iPad was not the first tablet. Apple’s genius was letting other companies prove there was a category, then making the version people could imagine actually buying.
It remains to be seen if the incoming CEO John Ternus has the ability to work the controls of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion machine in exactly the same way and convince people that Apple’s version of a folding phone will make them cool.
Enter the iPhone Ultra
That rumoured Apple foldable phone is the iPhone Ultra, which could arrive in September this year. I’d also be surprised if it wasn’t well over the $2,000 mark, too. Some reports suggest $2,500.
I haven’t gotten hands-on with the new Z Fold 8 Ultra yet, but I’ve used foldable phones before and they always felt incredibly geeky to me. They’re impressive but slightly awkward to use, especially in public, and mostly bought by people who like explaining their phone to strangers.
I understand that the foldable form factor makes it better for watching videos using that massive inner screen, or by using the design to prop the phone up on a desk so you can watch on its outer display without having to hold it or carefully balance it against something.
I get that a large screen is better for gaming, too, but I can’t remember the last time I played a game on my iPhone.
My problem is that I don’t want to attract attention to myself. Phones are expensive and waving a larger screen around in public seems like it could make you more of a target for thieves, or the simple curiosity of strangers. I’d rather be left alone to enjoy my journey in peace with a phone that doesn’t advertise my presence.
The real problem isn’t the hinge
All of which makes me think that in September, Apple’s biggest challenge might not be around making the perfect, seamless hinge, camera or screen aspect ratio.
It might be simply to convince people that foldable phones can be cool, even at their ridiculous prices, and that’s going to be a tougher task than any of the technical hurdles it will need to overcome.
Saying that, if anybody can make us think that folding phones are for everyone, it’s Apple. Samsung has done the brave work of making foldables exist. Apple’s job is to make them feel less like a magic wallet and more like an iPhone that has learned a party trick.
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