An analyst has estimated the price of the upcoming foldable Apple phone, and it’s expected to be Apple’s most expensive iPhone to date.
Barclays analyst Tim Long has predicted the foldable iPhone will cost upwards of $2,300 in the US, as reported by Macrumors, suggesting a starting cost of £2,299 in the UK based on the pricing of other current Apple products.
Apple’s most expensive current phone is the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which starts at £1,199. The upcoming foldable is not a phone you need to save up for any time soon, though.
The foldable iPhone is only expected to enter mass production in 2026, with a prototyping stage set to begin next month, April 2025.
Rumours of the foldable iPhone have bubbled up for years. One recent report from Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station (via Weibo) suggests the phone will have an outer 5.49-inch screen and a 7.74-inch inner one.
One of the key claims is these displays will have an “unprecedented aspect ratio”. Foldables typically have narrower outer screens than the smartphone norm, and more tablet-like inner ones.
For example, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a 6.3-inch outer display and a 1856 x 2150 pixel, 7.6-inch inner screen.
Samsung has produced foldable phones since 2019’s Galaxy Fold 5G. It launched at £1,800, making it one of the most expensive non-jewel-encrusted phones to date at that time. This is equivalent to £2,260 in 2025 according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator.
According to ETNews, one of Apple’s key goals for the phone is to get rid of the display crease that has plagued foldable phones since they emerged.
“In order to differentiate itself from the existing foldable phone, Apple decided to eliminate wrinkles regardless of price,” an industry insider quoted by ETNews says.
Foldable phone screens’ outer layers are constructed of ultra-thin glass and plastic layers, and a visible crease tends to deepen over weeks at months of use at the fold point.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously said the foldable iPhone will not have Face ID tech and will instead use a fingerprint scanner on the side. He predicts the foldable iPhone will be up to 9.5mm thick when closed up, which is significantly thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, although similar to the 9.3mm-thick Honor Magic V3 from 2024.
