Foldable phones have become boring — and that's great news for Apple

Foldable phones had a rough start. Royole, now bankrupt, made the first commercial model, the FlexPai, which was described as "charmingly awful." Samsung's Galaxy Fold arrived a year later, but review units broke within days. Huawei delayed its Mate X by five months, and its outward-folding screen never caught on. The Motorola Razr and Samsung Z Flip earned scores of 4/10 and 6/10, respectively.

Things improved. Later Samsung generations became far more durable, and the company learned that display components shouldn't be as easy to remove as a screen protector. Google, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor all joined the market. Prices gradually dropped: Motorola's entry-level Razr costs $799, and last year's Samsung Z Flip 7 FE launched at $899. Book-style flagships still hover around $2,000.

Modern foldables are thinner, lighter and more durable. The crease is less visible, and cameras are close to those in regular flagships. Honor's Magic V6 is the thinnest foldable with the largest battery and an IP69 rating; Oppo's Find N6 has an almost invisible crease. Still, Counterpoint says foldables were just 1.6% of the smartphone market in 2025.

Next month, Apple is expected to release its first foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo calls it "a turning point" and predicts Apple will take 34% of the foldable market by value in its first year. Huawei and Samsung have already moved to wider designs that match leaks about Apple's device. The next 12 months will show whether Apple pulls foldables into the mainstream or confirms that most buyers don't want them at current prices. Trifolds and rollables remain experimental.