Apple abandons Face ID for the first time in a decade
After years of watching rivals bend the smartphone into new shapes, Apple is preparing to enter the foldable era with the iPhone Fold — a device expected in September 2026 that carries the weight of the company's 50th anniversary, a new CEO, and a $2,400 wager on its own vision of what folding should mean. Under incoming chief executive John Ternus, Apple is not merely releasing a product but staking a claim about the future of personal hardware. The question the industry is quietly asking is not whether Apple can build a foldable, but whether it can make the world believe it invented the idea.
- Apple's long silence on foldables is ending with a device priced at $2,400 — a bold bet that its brand and ecosystem can command a premium no competitor has dared to ask.
- The iPhone Fold abandons Face ID and the Dynamic Island entirely, replacing them with a side-mounted Touch ID — a rare moment of Apple surrendering a signature feature to the demands of a new form factor.
- A passport-shaped design, liquidmetal hinge, and 7.8-inch inner display signal that Apple is not mimicking Samsung but deliberately proposing a different geometry for what a foldable phone should be.
- The launch lands weeks after John Ternus assumes the CEO role from Tim Cook, turning a product release into a symbolic coronation — Apple's 50th year framed as the opening of a new hardware era.
- With a 5,400–5,800mAh battery, A20 Pro chip, and eSIM-only support, the device is engineered for the multitasking promise foldables have long made but rarely kept.
Apple has spent years watching Samsung and others reshape the smartphone while staying silent on its own plans. That silence ends in September 2026, when the company is expected to release the iPhone Fold — a device arriving at a moment loaded with symbolic weight. Apple turns 50 this year, and John Ternus steps into the CEO role on September 1st, with the Fold launching just weeks later as the centerpiece of his first major product event.
What sets the device apart from existing foldables is its geometry. Rather than Samsung's tall, narrow form, Apple's design adopts a book-style aspect ratio — wider and shorter, closer in proportion to a passport. Folded, it measures roughly 9.23 millimeters thick. The hinge is reportedly made from liquidmetal, engineered to survive thousands of bends. Inside, a 7.8-inch OLED display approaches iPad Mini territory, while the outer screen measures 5.5 inches. Both use Samsung's M16 OLED panels.
Apple makes a notable concession to the form factor: Face ID and the Dynamic Island are gone, replaced by punch-hole cameras and a side-mounted Touch ID sensor. Internally, the phone is built for serious multitasking — an A20 Pro chip on a 2-nanometer process, 12GB of RAM, storage up to 1TB, and the largest battery ever placed in an iPhone at 5,400–5,800mAh. Physical SIM support is dropped entirely in favor of eSIM, and the device will run iOS 27 with expanded AI capabilities.
The camera system takes a minimalist approach — a 48-megapixel main sensor paired with a 48-megapixel ultrawide, with no telephoto — suggesting Apple is trading zoom range for thinness and durability. At approximately $2,400 in the United States, the iPhone Fold will cost meaningfully more than Samsung's comparable offering. Whether customers will pay Apple's premium for its first foldable is the question the entire industry is waiting to see answered.
Apple has spent years watching Samsung and other manufacturers fold smartphones into new shapes while staying silent on its own plans. That silence is about to break. By September 2026, the company is expected to finally release its foldable iPhone—a device that could reshape how the company thinks about hardware for the next decade.
The timing feels deliberate. Apple turns 50 this year, and John Ternus, the company's hardware chief, takes over as CEO from Tim Cook on September 1st. The iPhone Fold launch would arrive just weeks later, potentially marking the beginning of a new chapter under his leadership. It's the kind of symbolic moment Apple has always understood how to orchestrate.
What emerges from months of leaked dummy units and CAD renders is a device that looks different from the foldables already on the market. Rather than copying Samsung's tall, narrow design, Apple's foldable will adopt what's being called a book-style aspect ratio—wider than competitors like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but shorter, giving it proportions closer to a passport. When folded, it measures roughly 9.23 millimeters thick, making it one of the slimmest foldables in development. The hinge, reportedly made from liquidmetal, is engineered for durability, a critical consideration for any device that bends thousands of times. The back houses a camera module similar to last year's iPhone Air, but with two lenses instead of one. It will come in black and silver.
The screens tell an interesting story about Apple's priorities. The inner display stretches to 7.8 inches—nearly iPad Mini territory—while the outer screen measures 5.5 inches. Both will use Samsung's M16 OLED technology. But here's where Apple breaks from its own playbook: there's no Face ID, no Dynamic Island. Instead, the device relies on punch-hole cameras and a side-mounted Touch ID sensor. It's a practical concession to the foldable form factor, but it represents Apple abandoning one of its signature technologies.
Internally, the device is built for the kind of multitasking that foldables promise but rarely deliver. An A20 Pro chip built on a 2-nanometer process will handle the heavy lifting, paired with 12 gigabytes of RAM and storage options up to one terabyte. The battery—somewhere between 5,400 and 5,800 milliamp-hours—will be the largest ever in an iPhone. To make room for it, Apple is ditching the physical SIM tray entirely, moving to eSIM only, just as it did with the iPhone Air. Charging speeds remain unclear from the leaks, but the device is expected to run iOS 27 with a revamped Siri that brings more AI capabilities to the fold.
On cameras, Apple is taking a minimalist approach. The rear setup pairs a 48-megapixel main sensor with a 48-megapixel ultrawide—no telephoto lens. The front-facing cameras are either 24-megapixel under-display sensors or 18-megapixel punch-hole shooters on both screens, depending on which rumor proves accurate. It's a departure from the triple-camera setups Apple has favored, suggesting the company is prioritizing thinness and durability over zoom range.
The price is where Apple's ambition becomes unmistakable. At roughly $2,400 in the United States—approximately 225,000 rupees—the iPhone Fold will cost significantly more than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7, which starts at 174,999 rupees in India. It's a premium that Apple is betting customers will pay for the company's take on the foldable form factor, backed by its ecosystem and design philosophy. The device is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September, making it the centerpiece of Apple's fall event under Ternus's leadership. Whether the market is ready to pay that much for Apple's first foldable remains the open question.
Notable Quotes
The iPhone Fold will likely be the biggest change since the original iPhone launched in 2007— Industry analysis based on leaked specifications
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Apple wait so long to enter a market Samsung has already proven works?
Because Apple doesn't move until it believes it can do something meaningfully different. A foldable that's just a foldable isn't enough. It needs to fit into the ecosystem, feel like an iPhone, solve real problems.
But they're removing Face ID. That's a core Apple feature. Doesn't that feel like a compromise?
It is a compromise, but a smart one. Face ID doesn't work well when a screen folds. Touch ID on the side is faster anyway, and it's what people actually want on a device they'll use in split-screen mode constantly.
The price is stunning—$2,400. Who buys that?
The same people who bought the first iPhone, the first iPad. Early adopters with money. But more importantly, it signals that Apple sees this as the future of premium phones, not a niche experiment.
John Ternus becomes CEO right before this launches. Is that coincidence?
No. Apple doesn't do coincidence at that level. This is his statement: I'm taking over, and here's what the next era looks like. It's hardware ambition.
What's the real test here—the technology or the market?
The market. The technology will work. The question is whether people will fold their phones when they've gotten used to flat screens for fifteen years.