We covered the rumored Apple iPhone Ultra, AKA the iPhone Fold, back in early July. Since then a lot has happened in the world of folding smartphones. Samsung and Google have both released new versions of their folding phones, the annual refreshes we’ve come to expect from smartphone manufacturers. And Apple, not yet in the folding phone game yet, has (unofficial) news, too: early hands-on testers are rumored to be pretty pleased with the folding iPhone.

testers are reportedly digging it

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a journalist well known for breaking Apple stories and reporting on leaks and well sourced rumors, wrote that he’d spoken with several people who’ve used the iPhone Ultra (we’re just going with the rumored name here) and gleaned a few details from them about the phone.

It has a display that measures about 7.8″ and comes with an iPad-style app layout, which testers praised as slipping easily into a pocket when folded. They also say the durability and feel of the iPhone Ultra’s hinge is a strong point. That’s big in folding smartphones, because the screen itself needs to fold many thousands of times over its lifetime. Early folding smartphones had screens that broke, at worst, and felt clunky and stiff, often at best.

Not without its Compromises

One hiccup worth worrying about, though, is that testers reportedly weren’t happy with the iPhone Ultra’s camera. As a dual-lens setup, with a 48-megapixel image sensor and an ultra-wide lens, it lacked a telephoto lens. That makes its camera setup worse than the regular, non-folding iPhone Pro lineup that includes a three-lens setup with a telephoto zoom lens.

They also blast the lack of Face ID. Those of you who missed Touch ID may have found your match. Those of us who preferred Face ID, however, won’t be pleased to see its absence on a phone likely to cost around $2,000 for the base model.

You can’t buy it yet because, well, Apple’s being a cagey diva, as it often is. But there are other top-notch smartphones out there, several released just in the past month, that you can get your hands on right now, as long as you’re ready to get down with an Android.

folding smartphones you can buy right now

Released just a month ago—OK, slightly more, as it came out on July 22—the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 supplants the Galaxy Z Fold7 as Samsung’s top-dog folding smartphone. It gains drastically faster charging, upgraded from 25W to 45W, which is about as fast as smartphones get. The cover screen is wider than the Galaxy Z Fold7’s 6.5-inch, 21:9 outer display, replacing it with a more horizontal-screen-friendly 5.5-inch, 10:16 display.

The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold only just released on August 20, 2026, so you’re getting the very latest version of the purest expression of Android on the market. Google is the caretaker of the Android operating system, and so you get a sleeker, lightweight version of Android than on other Android smartphones and less junk bundled into it by the phone’s manufacturer. That, in turn, means you don’t have as much of your storage space taken up by apps you don’t want.

The Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 has stolen more and more of Samsung’s thunder when it comes to folding smartphones. The last time I handled one was last night, actually. Even though this unit wasn’t a new one, it still folded and unfolded smoothly. The latest Razr Ultra, which folds in half along its shortest axis, is updated for 2026 over last year’s model with a brighter screen, larger battery, and upgraded camera sensor.