A Folding iPhone by 2023? Take my money!

Fold iPhone concept
Fold iPhone concept (Image credit: Rene Ritchie / iMore)

Apple is said to be working on a foldable iPhone that will launch as soon as 2023. This time it's respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that's making all the right kinds of noise and it's enough to get a geek excited.

The idea of a foldable iPhone is something that I've been pondering ever since Samsung got its act together with the Galaxy Fold and I've come to the conclusion that I'm absolutely here for it. The reason? I've always been a fan of the iPad mini and I'd love to have one readily accessible when I need it. A foldable iPhone Pro Max that expands to become an iPad mini sounds like the kind of thing I want in my pocket. And I'm hoping Apple will sell it to me one day.

Maybe, just maybe, in 2023?

Kuo says the foldable Apple has planned site around the 8-inch mark, making it slightly smaller than an iPad mini in terms of screen size. But it's still larger than an iPhone 12 Pro Max, making it worthwhile in my book. Depending on how much Apple sells it for, that is!

There's no such thing as a cheap foldable right now with the ones you're likely to want to buy costing at least $1,500. I can't imagine Apple wanting to come in too much higher than that, at least at the starting point. But this is Apple, and it has a lawsuit to pay for.

Heck, who am I kidding? I'll probably sell another kidney to buy a foldable iPhone if and when it comes – and I doubt I'd be alone in that.

So long as Apple gives us some sort of multitasking from the iPad world, of course. If we're having an 8-inch screen we need to be able to run multiple apps at once. Here's hoping that this year's WWDC and iOS 15 gives us something to tide us over while we wait for the 2023 fun to begin!

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.