Apple is adopting an atypical, two-pronged display strategy for its upcoming foldable, tentatively dubbed either the iPhone Ultra or the iPhone Fold, achieving an optimal balance between performance and cost.
Apple will furnish the iPhone Ultra/iPhone Fold with Samsung's M16 and M14 OLED panels
According to the tipster Schrödinger, Apple is now all set to equip the cover screen of its upcoming iPhone Ultra with Samsung's bleeding edge, natively 10-bit M16 OLED screen, while the inner screen will be made up of the older M14 OLED panels. This comes after Samsung's yields for the M16 panels have reportedly stabilized at the 80 percent level, substantially higher than Apple's 70 percent yield cutoff requirement.
Critically, it is this cover screen that will be integrated with the Color Filter on Encapsulation (COE) technology, where the traditional circular polarizer is removed, and a color filter is printed directly onto the thin-film encapsulation layer, lowering panel thickness while yielding massive power-efficiency gains.
Do note that Samsung's M16 OLED panel can produce native 10-bit color depth. It also swaps out blue fluorescent OLED material for blue phosphorescent material, entailing a meaningful jump in efficiency.
According to Schrödinger, Apple has signed a multi-year exclusive supply contract with Samsung for its cutting-edge M16 E7 OLED panels, which will be featured on the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Meanwhile, the iPhone Air 2 will sport an M14 OLED panel, while the base iPhone 18 will go with an even older M12+ panel, which is a fine-tuned version of the M12 panels that debuted with the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S23 series.
Coming back, we already know that the iPhone Ultra will sport a dedicated vapor chamber and a crease-less design - achieved via the copious use of UTG/UFG (Ultra-Thin Glass/Ultra-Thin Flexible Glass), replete with reduced thickness around the hinge area to cut down structural stress, and the employment of a flexible adhesive between various display layers. The foldable's intricate, 3D-printed Liquidmetal hinge, which doubles as a heat sink, will also aid in reducing the display's crease to a miniscule 0.15mm.
Other details include:
- A dedicated vapor chamber.
- A 2,713 x 1,920 resolution, with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
- Side-mounted Touch ID instead of Face ID.
- A20 Pro SoC, 12GB RAM, in-house C2 5G modem.
- A 48MP resolution for the rear dual-camera setup.
- A selfie camera with a resolution of up to 24MP.
- A battery with a capacity of 5,400-5,800mAh.
- To launch as an eSIM-only variant.
- Fall 2026 launch.
- Base price of around $2,000.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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