iPhone Fold leak says first Apple foldable has ultra-level cooling tech, details here

iPhone Ultra is expected to be Apple's first foldable iPhone and is said to launch this September. A new leak claimed that the purported smartphone may carry a vapour chamber for cooling.

In Short

• iPhone Ultra may have a vapour chamber for cooling
• iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max were Apple’s first smartphones to carry a vapour chamber
• iPhone Ultra is expected to be a thin device with 4.7mm when unfolded

Call it iPhone Fold or Ultra, Apple’s first foldable smartphone is making waves across the internet. As the launch date gets closer, which is expected in September, new details about the smartphone are speculated about every now and then. A fresh leak suggests that the purported foldable may carry a vapour chamber for cooling. If the rumour turns out to be true, it would be impressive to see how Apple manages the engineering, especially since the iPhone Ultra is expected to feature a thin design.

Tipster Fixed Focus Digital took on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media site, and posted about what he called “impressive VC (vapour chamber) cooling performance.” This means Apple is apparently considering last year's iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s vapour chamber as a success. Which was, by the way, the tech giant’s first initiative to add a vapour chamber inside iPhones. Maybe because heating issues were earlier reported with the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro.

iPhone Fold design

A few days back, iPhone Ultra’s case leaked online. The image shows that the iPhone foldable could have volume buttons on the top edge of the device, while the power button could be on the right side. Just below the power button, the case features a small cutout that is believed to accommodate an antenna band. On the back, a dual-camera setup sits within a camera module that closely resembles the design seen on the iPhone Air.

According to earlier leaks, Apple's first foldable iPhone could measure just 4.7mm when unfolded. This makes it one of the thinnest foldable smartphones on the market. When folded shut, the device is said to be 9.23mm thick. It is reportedly equipped with a 5.5-inch cover display and a larger 7.8-inch inner screen with a wider aspect ratio. Both panels are expected to use Samsung's M16 OLED technology.

Perhaps the most surprising rumour is what the device may not include. Reports suggest that Apple could drop both Face ID and the Dynamic Island on its foldable iPhone. Instead, the company is tipped to use punch-hole cameras on the outer and inner displays, while biometric authentication could be handled through a side-mounted Touch ID sensor integrated into the power button.

iPhone Fold camera and battery

In terms of cameras, the iPhone Fold is rumoured to feature a dual rear camera setup comprising a 48MP primary sensor and a 48MP ultra-wide lens. Unlike Apple's Pro models, however, the foldable is not expected to include a dedicated telephoto camera. For selfies and video calls, the device could rely on 18MP punch-hole cameras on both the cover and inner displays, although some reports suggest Apple is also testing an under-display camera for the foldable screen.

To keep the lights on, the iPhone Fold may house the largest battery ever fitted inside an iPhone, with a capacity reportedly ranging between 5,400mAh and 5,800mAh. If accurate, it would comfortably surpass the battery sizes seen on current iPhone models.

iPhone Fold processor

The iPhone Fold is expected to be powered by Apple's next-generation A20 Pro chipset, which is rumoured to be based on an advanced 2nm manufacturing process. The new chip is expected to deliver notable gains in both performance and power efficiency compared to the A19 Pro. Leaks also suggest that the foldable could come with 12GB of RAM and offer storage configurations of up to 1TB, putting it in line with Apple's premium Pro-series devices.

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