Apple leaks and rumors are some of the best, and the latest one is pretty juicy. If true, the company will introduce three new iPhone designs in three straight years starting in 2026 — a foldable iPhone, a bezel-free iPhone, and a clamshell-style flip phone. This isn’t the first report of a foldable iPhone, but little is known about the reported flip and bezel-free designs. Yeux1122 posted the leak on the Korean blogging platform Naver and it supposedly is based on an industry report by a parts-research company.
A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
Foldable phone
These are still unconfirmed rumors, but as with anything involving the popular iPhone, they stir interest. If they’re correct, the first foldable iPhone will arrive in 2026 and will fold side to side like a book. It will have a 7.8-inch creaseless display, two rear cameras and Touch ID. One rumor said Apple may embed Face ID in the phone’s screen. The rumor also says the phone will sell for nearly $2,000.
Apple is still the only major phone-maker that doesn’t yet have a foldable phone.
Tech writer and investor M.G. Siegler of Spyglass, a tech-analysis website, says that Apple believes «they can swoop in with a perfected version» of other foldable and flip phones already on the market.
«The ‘iPhone Fold’ is probably the most interesting, because Samsung has been making them for years and even Google is a couple iterations in at this point,» Siegler told CNET. «They’ve gotten pretty good, but Apple must be looking at the crease problem and the lack of specifically tailored software for the device as an opportunity — especially because it’s pretty easy to see a world in which the iPhone Fold, unfolded, is pretty similar to an iPad mini.»
Bezel-free phone
Leaker Yeux1122 also said Apple will release an iPhone without a bezel in 2027, which marks the 20th anniversary of the first iPhone. A bezel is the frame that surrounds the iPhone screen and provides structural support so that the display won’t break when you drop the phone. Shaped like a «flat candy bar,» the bezel-free iPhone will have an OLED display that will «bend» around all four phone edges. It will also have Face ID, according to the leak.
Going bezel-free has been a notion for over a decade. Apple reportedly explored the design for the iPhone 6 in 2014. Samsung Display, which makes most iPhone screens, reportedly started working on it in 2023.
«This is a no-brainer as it’s clearly what Apple has always envisioned as the ideal version of the iPhone product,» Siegler said. «Just holding a slab of glass, as it were. They’ll clearly tout it as the biggest flagship upgrade since the iPhone X, 10 years prior, and it will probably work from a marketing perspective.»
Flip phone
According to Yeux1122, Apple might cap off the flurry of new designs with a flip model in 2028. In contrast to the folding model, the flip iPhone would fold vertically like a clamshell. One of the two screens would be more utilitarian, with AI shortcuts and a notification window.
The flip will reportedly be a more stylish model, targeted at the «women’s» and «fashion» markets.
Siegler said he «can see the appeal» of an iPhone flip phone after owning a Motorola Razr back in the day.
«I imagine people who don’t like carrying around increasingly bigger slabs in their pockets might be intrigued by such a form factor,» he said.
iPhone Air sales slump
Apple hasn’t shied away from other new phone styles. The iPhone Air, which is the slimmest iPhone ever, launched in September, but rumors are that demand has been weak for the slender phone. Apple reportedly cut production levels drastically to nearly «end of production levels» because of sluggish sales.
«This sudden interest in new form factors is just as much about Apple trying to ‘get back to its roots,’ as it were,» Siegler said. «After all the egg on the face with AI, my read is that Apple may have taken a step back and realized that amidst all the AI hype, everyone still needs to run all of this newfangled technology somewhere — a ‘flight to safety,’ as I’ve written about.»