Apple will finally show its first foldable iPhone at a September 9 event, with multiple reports saying it’s called iPhone Ultra and arrives alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. The company is also splitting its usual iPhone cadence in two, pushing standard models into what are now 2027 rumors.
Early testers at Futura-Sciences call the Ultra’s hinge sturdy and its folded body genuinely pocketable. Unfolded, it exposes a ~7.8-inch inner display that feels like a mini iPad, while the outside sports a 5.5-inch touchscreen. Then again, there’s no telephoto camera—just a 48MP main and ultra-wide—and Face ID is swapped for a side-button Touch ID to keep the chassis at 4.5mm thick.
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The Ultra isn’t cheap: dissipate anywhere from $2,000 to $2,500 according to the chatter. IDC, quoted by CNBC, thinks Apple could still move over 17 million of them by 2027. That would grab 40% of the foldable market and rack up $45.7 billion in sales, more than half the segment’s expected total.
The 18 Pro and Pro Max keep their old screen sizes, 6.27 inches and 6.9 inches respectively, as per Diamond Glass data in Android Headlines. Flat panels and the Dynamic Island remain, and 9to5Mac’s Ryan Christoffel says the Pro Max might nab a periscope lens with variable aperture. Inside sits the new A20 Pro— apparently a close cousin of the just-announced M6—and a C2 modem plus a bigger battery for stamina.
iOS 27 will roll out with a reworked Siri and wider Apple Intelligence features throughout the ecosystem. The catch, if you can call it that: Apple still leans on third-party AI models like Alphabet’s Gemini, which MarketBeat points out could limit its long-term leverage.
So the event isn’t just new phones. It’s a test of whether Apple can bend the phone market like it once bent the music and PC markets. If enough people pay foldable prices, the Ultra could draft a fresh growth curve. If not, Samsung’s head start stays a head start.
That timeline’s already revved up—IDC’s 2027 shipments forecast hangs on it.
