Apple's pursuit of the perfect iPhone Fold screen has led to changes in the display technology it wants to use, but it still wants to incorporate its own modem design. The flexible nature of the iPhone Fold makes its design inherently complex. While it had some plans for the hardware, it also had to make some adjustments.
The iPhone Fold’s inner screen is designed to be curved in the middle and may wrinkle over time. There are ways to reduce the appearance of these wrinkles, and one of them, Bloomberg reported in Sunday's "Power On" newsletter, is to make significant improvements to the technology used.
One recent change in screen technology is said to be the move from On-Cell sensors to In-Cell screens. This refers to placing an array of touch sensors within a display "sandwich" structure.
In On-Cell displays, the sensor is located just below the front glass, above the color filter substrate and polarizer. The In-Cell design embeds the sensor layer deeper into the screen sandwich structure, below the color filter substrate and above the polarizer. On-cell offers many advantages, including better touch sensitivity and a simpler manufacturing process.
However, Apple apparently found that this design created air gaps that made the crease more noticeable. To minimize creases, Apple switched to an In-Cell design.
Switching to an in-cell design would bring the display in line with Apple's other iPhones that already use the technology.
Apple's other big technology decision was the modem, used to communicate with mobile phone networks. After the initial success of its first attempt at a C1 modem, Apple plans to use a next-generation modem as well.
For the iPhone Fold, this will consist of a C2 modem. The upgraded version will apparently be closer to the performance of Qualcomm cellular chips.
This C2 modem will apparently also be used in the iPhone 18 Pro series. In February of this year, Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technology, said that C1 is the first step towards a "cross-generation platform." Srouji promised to improve the technology with each generation and said the modem would help Apple "really differentiate" the connectivity of its products.
Mark Gurman writes in the newsletter that the iPhone Fold will be available in 2026, is currently testing black and white color options, has no SIM card slot, and will use Touch ID instead of Face ID.
Gurman is considered a leaker because of the accuracy of his reporting. While his reporting occasionally made mistakes, it was correct most of the time.