Apple’s foldable iPhone will miss the mark because it’s too little too late

The long-awaited foldable iPhone isn’t hyping me up as I had thought it would. From what I can tell, it looks like Apple is about to miss the mark when it launches its foldable later this year alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max.

I’m not saying it’ll be a bad phone — far from it, in fact — but it really won’t be all it’s cracked up to be. By the time the foldable iPhone hits shelves, other companies like Samsung will likely have already beaten it in every aspect that matters.

Apple missed its most important goal

By now most of you know that the main reason Apple delayed making a foldable phone for so long is because it wanted to do things its own way. In short, Apple didn’t want to enter the foldable smartphone market until it was confident that it could completely eliminate the crease. The foldable iPhone was meant to deliver the most perfect folding experience that the world has ever seen.

That’s not happening. Leaked foldable iPhone display crease details reveal that production for the display and its accompanying hinge mechanism has started. The display that Apple has settled on does have a crease, albeit a very shallow one. So Apple missed the mark on what mattered most to it, and that’s just half of the story.

Samsung has solved the crease problem

Yes, you read that right. Samsung has already developed a foldable display with no crease. Furthermore, there is a very good chance that the company will use this display for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8, which will be better than the excellent Galaxy Z Fold 7 in other aspects as well.

There is also the possibility of Samsung using this display technology for its new Galaxy Z Wide Fold too, the new foldable model that it is working on to take on the foldable iPhone. The Galaxy Z Wide Fold has proportions similar to Apple’s foldable, just so customers have a choice between the iPhone and the Huawei Pura X2.

So not only did Apple miss the mark when it comes to eliminating the crease, it also lost to Samsung before it could even get its phone out the door. And, unfortunately, we’re still not done.

The foldable iPhone has shortcomings

To Apple’s credit, it is reportedly pricing the foldable iPhone modestly. According to reports, the company’s foldable will be a lot more affordable than anyone might have initially expected. This means that it could even be priced below the initial reports of $2,400, which was already close to Samsung’s $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7, especially considering that it’s an Apple product.

However, even though Apple’s marketing strategy for the foldable iPhone seems to be to sell it as the next step up from the Pro Max models, it’s not doing enough in my opinion. For example, the foldable iPhone will not feature Face ID, replacing it instead with Touch ID mounted on the side of the frame. To some people, this might actually be a plus, but many of Apple’s customers are too used to Face ID.

The foldable iPhone will also apparently only ship in black and white, while the iPhone 18 Pro gets new fun color options. There is also the matter of how the phone looks as well. Some of you might love Apple’s unorthodox take on the foldable smartphone segment, but I don’t. Who knows, it might grow on me after release like the iPhone 17 Pro redesign did for some people, but for now the foldable iPhone has lost me.