I’ve seen plenty of people say something to the effect of, “once Apple makes a foldable, they’ll go mainstream” – and I’ve got to say, I massively disagree.
While Apple might’ve had some success had it released its foldable iPhone in the past couple of years, now – or in 2026, when it’s rumoured for release – it’ll be much harder for Apple to stand out in what’s now a mature foldable smartphone market. Let me explain.
Foldables in 2025 aren’t like they were a few years ago
Let’s be honest; foldables weren’t that great when they first hit the scene in 2019.
Samsung’s original Fold – it didn’t even have the ‘Z’ at that point – had an almost comically long and thin cover screen, it was a whopping 17.1mm thick when in its folded position, and it offered no kind of dust or water resistance. It wouldn’t even close completely flat, with a noticeable triangular gap by the hinge that’d let dust and other detritus into the delicate inner display.
And don’t even get me started on the whole fragile screen saga… it wasn’t a good time for Samsung.
But, as with most first-gen products, Samsung stuck at it, and along with players like Honor, Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and Motorola over the past few years, thoroughly upgraded just about every aspect of the foldable experience – arguably to the point where, in 2025, there’s not that much difference between foldables and candybar phones.
Take Samsung’s recent release, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, as a prime example. After seven iterations of the device, Samsung’s book-style foldable is impressively thin, measuring in at 4.2mm unfolded and 8.9mm folded. That’s thinner than the 9.5mm-thick Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and at 215g, it’s lighter than the company’s top-end Galaxy S25 Ultra. That’s not just near bar phone territory, it’s right there in the thick of them.
But despite the thin dimensions, the Fold 7 is the company’s most durable phone to date with improved circuitry-level water resistance, a titanium hinge mechanism, drop-resistant aluminium frame and more. It even closes the gap between foldables and bar phones in the camera department, sporting the same 200MP sensor as the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
It’s not just the expensive book-style foldables either; flip-style foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Motorola Razr 60 Ultra offer the compact foldable experience with very little compromise.
Just like Samsung’s big-screen foldable, both clamshell foldables offer enhanced durability, improved, more usable screens, and solid all-day battery life – a far more compelling experience compared to that of the original Galaxy Z Flip and Motorola Razr (2019).
Yes, there are still compromises to buying a foldable phone, but these are shrinking at such a rate that they’re much easier for consumers to overlook in 2025.
Apple might’ve waited too long for its moment
It’s because the foldable market is so strong in 2025 that I have doubts about the iPhone Fold and just how much more it can do to stand out from the frankly impressive Android foldable competition.
Yes, Apple does – or at least did – have a reputation for introducing features to its phones later than anyone else, but doing so in a more effective way. However, with recent releases like the underwhelming Apple Intelligence, which pales in comparison to many of the AI features offered by flagship Android phones, I’m not so sure Apple has that magic anymore.
If anything, I think Apple has waited a little too long for the foldable tech to mature.
Suppose Apple had released its foldable iPhone a few years ago, when foldables from Samsung and others were comparatively thick and heavy, with poorly optimised software. In that case, it’d have a solid win on its hands with something slightly thinner and better optimised.
However, with Samsung now onto its seventh generation of foldables, having learnt a lot of lessons about what does – and more importantly, doesn’t – work, both in terms of foldable hardware and software, it’s hard to see how Apple could hit the ground running with its first-gen alternative.
Think back to how badly the original Pixel Fold compared to the likes of the Honor Magic V2, and you’ll get what I mean.
Of course, there will be plenty of Apple fans patiently waiting for the iPhone Fold because they simply don’t want to use an Android device, and that’s fine. But can Apple truly stand out when compared to the wider competition?
How could Apple meaningfully improve the foldable experience?
Apple needs not just to launch its own foldable, but to justify its absence in the sector, it needs to launch a better foldable than those that are already available. The question is, what’s really left to improve meaningfully?
When it comes to the design and dimensions of book-style foldables, it seems there’s very little innovation left to give. Foldables like the Z Fold 7, Oppo Find N5 and the upcoming Honor Magic V5 all measure in at around 4.1-4.2mm when unfolded and 8.8-8.9mm folded, and as already mentioned, the Fold 7 is already squarely in bar phone territory when it comes to weight.
As someone who has used most of the big foldables since they began appearing back in 2019, I don’t think we need to go any thinner. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 experience is so similar to that of a bar phone that I often forget I have a foldable in my pocket. It’s much of a muchness now we’ve reached this point.
Of course, Apple could go thinner to stand out – but I’d be worried about the knock-on effect on elements like battery life. Rumours have already hinted that it’s willing to forego function for form, as the rumoured iPhone 17 Air is said to have a depressingly small battery, and I’d hate for the company to go down the same route for its long-awaited foldable.
It could’ve had an easy win a few years ago if it had produced a foldable without a noticeable crease, but again, this is something that Apple has since missed out on. 2025 foldables have much less noticeable creases than early foldables, and while they’re still there if you’re really looking for them, they don’t detract from the screen experience in any way.
Apple does have a reputation for great photography, so it could well try and offer the best camera tech on a foldable – but, you guessed it, Android foldables are already making huge strides in that department.
The Z Fold 7 has the same 200MP camera as the top-end S25 Ultra, while the Oppo Find N5 features Hasselblad tuning, and the Honor Magic V5 sports a high-res periscope zoom. Even the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold takes a great photo for a foldable, thanks to Google’s image processing smarts, and that’s yet to get its 2025 update.
Again, all boxes are now feeling like they’re ticked – or getting close to – for most people’s needs, anyway.
Instead, the only way Apple could stand out with the iPhone Fold is in the software department.
Apple’s iOS is the core reason why people upgrade to a new iPhone year after year, and having that familiar experience on a foldable could mean quick mass adoption – especially if Apple does a better job at optimising apps for that bigger internal screen than Android manufacturers.
Imagine, for a moment, a foldable iPhone that, when unfolded, would switch to a layout similar to iPadOS rather than iOS? It’d immediately make it more appealing with a UI that’s already tailored to bigger screens, certainly moreso than Android – that’s a foldable I’d invest in.
The iPhone Fold probably won’t be Apple’s defining moment
Rumours continue to swirl about the iPhone Fold, with rumours now pointing towards a release sometime in 2026, so we’ve still got some time before Apple’s foldable makes its debut – and crucially, even more time for Android foldables to get even better and, as such, harder to compete against.
It’ll be nice to finally reach a point where you can get your hands on foldable hardware, whether you’re an iOS or Android fan, but I don’t think it’ll be a defining moment like the first iPhone or iPad was. Instead, it feels more like the growing trend of Apple playing catch-up to the Android competition that it once had a head-and-shoulders lead over.
