Apple's first foldable iPhone may measure just 4.5mm when opened, a figure that would make it the thinnest device the company has ever built.
Key Points:
- Leaks place the foldable iPhone at about 4.5mm when open and 9mm to 9.5mm when closed.
- Apple is expected to introduce the device in early September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro line.
- The thin build forces cuts, including two rear lenses instead of three and Touch ID in place of Face ID.
iPhone Fold Thickness Leaks
Leaks and analyst notes have pegged the unfolded body at roughly 4.5mm, with the closed device landing somewhere between 9mm and 9.5mm. Apple's slimmest current product, the 13-inch iPad Pro, sits at 5.1mm. A foldable would undercut that while carrying a hinge, two display panels and the mechanism that holds them together.
The company is expected to show the phone in early September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, with a cover screen near 5.3 inches and a 7.8-inch panel inside. Early price estimates started around $2,000 and have since drifted toward $2,900 as memory and storage costs climb.
Space is the constraint that shapes everything else, and leakers say the device drops Face ID for a Touch ID power button while settling for two rear lenses instead of the three on Pro models.
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Ming-Chi Kuo On Hinge Materials
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has tied the design to a titanium frame and a hinge that mixes stainless steel with Liquidmetal, an amorphous alloy valued for its resistance to metal fatigue. Design summaries also point to 3D-printed titanium support plates and chemically treated ultra-thin glass behind the folding panel. Jeff Pu expects titanium on the stress-bearing sections and aluminum elsewhere, spreading heat and holding down weight.
Those parts have to survive years of daily folding without loosening. The pitch rests instead on the crease, a flaw the company has spent years trying to erase.
That is the tradeoff buyers will weigh against the headline number, because a thinner chassis leaves less material to absorb the stress of repeated opening and closing. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 already measures 4.2mm open and 8.9mm closed. On the raw specification, Apple would trail.
iPhone Air Set The Benchmark
Apple markets the iPhone Air at 5.6mm, the thinnest handset it has shipped, built around a Grade 5 titanium frame and a reworked internal layout.
That model displaced the iPhone 6, which stood at 6.9mm, held the title for more than a decade, and drew enough complaints about bending to make durability a permanent talking point.
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