In summary:
- Macworld reports that Apple’s rumored folding iPhone may be called “iPhone Ultra” and could start at $1,999 for 256GB storage.
- The device is expected to feature 12GB of RAM supplied by Samsung, with storage options up to 1TB priced at $2,399.
- Conflicting price predictions exist, with some leakers suggesting much lower pricing around $1,221, though September launch timing appears consistent across reports.
With the (somewhat) budget-focused iPhone 17e out of the way, leakers are free to focus on the more premium handsets which Apple will launch later in the year. And the most premium of these is the iPhone Fold, which has been the subject of several leaks this week.
The most useful of the new revelations, assuming the information is accurate this far from launch, comes from the prolific albeit somewhat unproven leaker Instant Digital. They claim to have details of the iPhone Fold’s storage tiers, plus Chinese pricing for each. According to a post on Weibo, the models will look like this:
- 256GB: RMB 15,999
- 512GB: RMB 17,999
- 1TB: RMB 19,999
Based on current conversion rates between the Chinese yuan and the U.S. dollar, that would equate to the following approximate price tags:
- 256GB: $2,330
- 512GB: $2,621
- 1TB: $2,913
But of course, Apple rarely uses strict currency conversion rates when selling products in overseas territories, as U.K. fans have discovered to their cost. A 256GB iPhone 17 Pro, for example, costs $1,099 in the U.S., which ought to translate to RMB 7,546; instead, that device currently costs RMB 8,999. And if we use that conversion rate (dividing the cost in yuan by 8.188 and adjusting for Apple’s usual pricing tiers), we’d end up with the following more palatable U.S. matrix:
- 256GB: $1,999
- 512GB: $2,199
- 1TB: $2,399
A starting price close to $2,000 might sound like a lot, but that’s actually a fair bit lower than we’ve been expecting. Sources had previously pointed to a whopping $2,399.
Elsewhere, the Korean-language site The Bell (via MacRumors) reports that the RAM in the iPhone Fold will be supplied by Samsung, and that there will be 12GB of it. That’s the same as the RAM allocation in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, but perhaps we should be grateful if it even stays the same, given how much the price of that commodity has risen.
Finally, a new leaker, so take this with a big pinch of salt, has claimed the name of Apple’s first foldable will not be the iPhone Fold at all. An individual going by the handle WayLabs has claimed on Weibo that it will instead be called the iPhone Ultra. That isn’t an entirely absurd idea, given that Apple already uses that suffix on top-end products such as the Apple Watch Ultra and the Ultra versions of its M-class chips, so it’s not unprecedented. And a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman earlier this week floated the idea of a line of “Ultra” devices.
Far less conventional is WayLabs’ prediction of the device’s starting price. Whereas Instant Digital predicted an entry point of RMB 15,999, WayLabs says only that it “may exceed 10,000,” a far lower threshold. For comparison, RMB 10,000 would translate to $1,456 using the current exchange rate, or just $1,221 using our more practical ratio. That’s barely any higher than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which starts at $1,199. A bargain!
The iPhone Fold… sorry, iPhone Ultra is expected to launch in September. For all the latest news and rumors as we head towards the announcement, bookmark our regularly updated iPhone Fold superguide. If you can’t wait that long, check out our roundup of the best iPhone deals to get the lowest possible prices on the current range.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.