Mark Gurman says Apple's first foldable iPhone will keep MagSafe, open to a 7.8-inch screen and start above $2,000, one week before its Sept. 9 debut.
Key Points:
- Gurman says MagSafe magnets are present, settling one of the last open questions about the hinge design.
- The phone pairs a 5.5-inch cover screen with a 7.8-inch inner display and Apple's newest Pro chip.
- He expects it to ship alongside the new Pro models, not months later.
Gurman Details iPhone Ultra Specs
Gurman laid out the hardware in a video interview published Tuesday. He said the device pairs a 5.5-inch cover screen with a 7.8-inch inner display, driven by Apple's newest Pro chip and the company's own cellular modem. Touch ID reportedly replaces Face ID, and the phone carries no telephoto lens, a trade-off Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 also makes.
MagSafe had been the last open question, since packing a ring of charging magnets into a folding body complicates a chassis that is already crowded with hinge hardware. Gurman said the magnets are in, an advantage over the Fold 8, which ships without built-in magnets of its own.
The crease survives, barely. Apple has come close to erasing it, he said, and a liquid metal hinge should keep the fold line from deepening over years of opening and closing.
The internal brief, according to Gurman, was to make the folding phone about as durable as any other iPhone, and durability absorbed much of the engineering effort.
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Foldable iPhone Timing And Price
Gurman also brushed aside months of talk about a long delay. He said he would be very surprised if the foldable failed to reach shelves alongside the new Pro phones, or within a few weeks of them, rather than in late October or November.
Price still sets the ceiling. Gurman repeated a starting figure above $2,000, well clear of the $1,899 Fold 8, and he called the device a status symbol rather than a necessity.
Apple is separately expected to raise iPhone 18 Pro prices as memory costs climb, though Gurman expects a new leasing program to blunt the monthly cost for buyers.
Analysts Back Foldable iPhone Demand
Research firms sound considerably less cautious than shoppers might. IDC expects Apple to ship more than 10 million foldables in its first year, while Counterpoint Research puts the company at a quarter of the category in 2026, with Samsung sliding to 32% from 40%.
Gurman has followed this project since its earliest days.
He began reporting on Apple's foldable work more than five years ago, and he wrote in March that iOS 27 would add iPad-style side-by-side apps with drag and drop between them.
Apple has confirmed none of the hardware, and the keynote starts at 10 a.m. Pacific on Sept. 9, the first launch under chief executive John Ternus.
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