- iPhone Fold renders may have leaked
- Someone turned them into 3D printing
- Questions remain about what Apple will offer and when
Apple is building a foldable iPhone. Even without confirmation from the Cupertino tech giant, we believe it, and all the rumors and leaks point to it, but hard evidence is hard to come by – until now. After apparent CAD designs for an iPhone Fold leaked last week, someone fed those designs into a 3D printer and created an incredible mockup that you can see, touch, and, yes, fold.
The story begins with the German site iPhone-ticker.de coming across CAD drawings and a virtual CAD rendering of the device. Less than a week later, a member of the 3D printing community site MakerWorld used CAD to design and print what looks like a near-perfect replica of what Apple’s first foldable iPhone might look like.
As the manufacturer Subsy admits, however, there are limits. This is just a rendering of the exterior of the supposed iPhone Fold. The hinge is basic and designed only to enable 3D printing folding, and is unrelated to any hinge mechanism Apple might build. More importantly, there’s no working phone inside, not even a flexible screen. And yet, we can’t stop looking at the “1:1 replica of iPhone Fold (with folding hinge)”.
Look on it
As the CAD design and this 3D print show, the iPhone Fold could be a much wider device – at least when folded – than we initially anticipated: 3.3 inches wide x 4.65 inches tall by 9.6 mm thick. In fact, the form factor reminds us a bit of Microsoft’s Surface Duo, although with that device, instead of a foldable screen, it unfolded to reveal two separate display panels.
The nearly full-width camera island looks about right, but definitely looks more like what you find on the ultra-thin iPhone Air than an iPhone 17 Pro Max. This makes sense, since both halves of the upcoming iPhone Fold should be at least as thin as the 5.6mm iPhone Air if Apple wants to maintain a relatively thin and lightweight folded profile.
Perhaps more exciting is the fact that if you own a 3D printer, you can download this model and print a fake iPhone Fold yourself. Why would you want a non-functional 3D printed iPhone Fold replica? Maybe because the real thing might take longer to arrive than expected.
Recent reports indicate that Apple is still struggling to produce a “wrinkle-free” iPhone Fold. Whatever foldable iPhone Apple ultimately comes up with, probably in 2026, it will follow in the footsteps of brilliant devices from Google, and especially Samsung, which came pretty close, although not achieved, to a crease-free design in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. And in our review of the Honor Magic V5, we said, “the crease on the interior screen is so minimal,” we had to remember to look for it when first setting up the phone.
In other words, Apple is raising the bar for flexible display quality. The truth is that 3D renderings of the body represent, aside from the hinge, the simplest part of the foldable equation. Everyone will focus on this screen and whether it meets or exceeds the current state of the art. God forbid Apple falls short.
In the meantime, join us in enjoying what could be a first look at the iPhone Fold’s design, because it could be a while before we have the real product.
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