Apple Is Apparently Testing Folding iPhones

A Chinese news report suggests a fall 2022 launch is possible

folding phones
Folding tech, as seen on this Samsung Galaxy Z, may be coming to Apple
Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images

“Has anyone actually bought a folding screen phone?” as one editor here asked.

If Apple’s doing it, they just might.

While we’re just starting to see smartphones with folding screens that might actually be worth owning (given the nascent technology and high costs), MacRumors is reporting Apple has started sending their own versions of the folding tech to their assembly partner Foxconn for a projected release in 2022 (they already have some patents on the new tech).

That news arrives via the Chinese site Economic Daily News, which claims the tech giant and Foxconn are currently evaluating the use of OLED or Micro-LED display technology and testing the “bearings” (the folding component) of the phone; the report also suggests Samsung will be providing the screens.

One possible concept of the phone is below:

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple wasn’t the first to the game, but their entry in the category may actually bring folding screens into the mainstream. Of course, by 2022, we may have moved on to rollable displays.

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