Apple’s first folding iPhone is priced at $1,999 and drops Face ID, according to the product report saved with this article’s research package. The reported design choice puts a familiar Apple feature on the cutting-room floor just as the company moves into a phone category built around a mechanically more complicated screen.
A folding iPhone is easy to describe as a larger phone that bends in half. The decision is more consequential than that. It asks buyers to weigh a new kind of display and form factor against a $1,999 price, while accepting a change to the way the device recognizes its owner.
A $1,999 starting point places the device in a narrow market
The $1,999 figure is not a small premium over an ordinary handset. It makes the folding iPhone a product for people who want the compactness of a phone and the expanded workspace of a larger screen in one device. At that price, a buyer is not merely paying for a screen that opens; the buyer is also paying for the engineering needed to make the hinge, display, body and software operate as a single product.
The important comparison is therefore not only with another iPhone. A folding device changes the bargain by making size variable. Closed, it has to function as a phone that can be carried and used quickly. Open, it has to provide enough room for reading, messaging, photos, maps and work to justify the added complexity. A design that does one of those jobs poorly will feel expensive even if the other is impressive.
Dropping Face ID is a conspicuous tradeoff
Face ID has been one of Apple’s most recognizable iPhone features because it combines device unlocking with a habitual gesture: look at the screen and proceed. Losing Face ID changes that familiar routine. Whatever replacement Apple uses, the change will be judged less by a specifications list than by whether it feels natural in the moments when a folded device is opened, closed, picked up from a table or used one-handed.
The missing feature also makes the launch a useful reminder that a first-generation product is often a set of compromises, not a catalogue of every existing feature plus one dramatic new one. The engineering demands of a folding display can force choices about thickness, internal layout, sensors and durability. Apple’s decision to omit Face ID makes that tradeoff unusually visible because many customers already know exactly what the feature does in daily use.
A folding screen needs to earn its practical advantage
Large screens are valuable when they make an everyday task easier, not simply when they make an image larger. A reader may want more text on a page without constant scrolling. A traveler may benefit from a roomier map. A person writing or comparing documents may find extra space helpful. Those are the practical cases a folding phone must serve repeatedly if it is to be more than a very expensive novelty.
Software matters as much as hardware in that calculation. Applications need to behave sensibly as the display changes shape, and the device needs to make switching between a narrow and wide screen feel continuous. A phone can have a convincing hinge and an excellent panel, yet still leave owners wondering why they did not simply buy a conventional handset and a separate tablet if the applications do not take advantage of the new canvas.
The first model will be judged on confidence as well as novelty
Foldable phones have a special durability burden because their central moving part is also connected to their most visible surface. Buyers will watch how the hinge feels over time, whether the screen remains easy to use, and how confidently Apple handles repairs and support. The price raises the stakes: a $1,999 device is likely to be kept longer and scrutinized more closely than an impulse upgrade.
Apple’s first folding iPhone therefore arrives with a clear proposition and a clear question. The proposition is an Apple-designed phone that unfolds into something larger. The question is whether the larger screen delivers enough everyday value to offset $1,999 and the loss of Face ID. Those are not abstract concerns. They are the details that will determine whether the design becomes a durable part of the iPhone line or remains a specialized experiment for early adopters.
The launch also sets a useful standard for the next revision. A first model has to establish that the basic physical idea is trustworthy; later models can improve weight, price, features or software once that foundation is accepted. For now, Apple has placed the decision in unusually plain terms: a $1,999 folding iPhone, a new way to carry a larger display, and a familiar biometric system that is no longer part of the package.
Apple’s product announcement states the product’s exact claims: the first foldable iPhone starts at $1,999 and uses Touch ID in the side button. Apple’s Face ID guide says the omitted system normally unlocks iPhone, authenticates purchases and signs users into apps, while its Face ID privacy page explains that biometric data is encrypted and retained on the device. Those are useful comparisons when judging the replacement interaction, not evidence that Touch ID is inherently less secure.
Apple’s supported-model list shows that Face ID remains standard across its recent conventional iPhones. Its platform-security guide describes biometric matching through the Secure Enclave. A folding iPhone must therefore make the practical value of its flexible display clear enough to justify both the price and the deliberate feature tradeoff.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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