Can Apple’s Foldable iPhone Learn From Samsung’s Z Fold 8?

What does Apple’s first foldable iPhone actually need to do to convince people who’ve never considered one to take the leap? It’s a question that matters more than you’d think. By the time Apple takes the stage on September 9 — reportedly under the leadership of new CEO John Ternus for the first time — Samsung will have shipped seven generations of foldables. Google has three Pixel Folds under its belt. Motorola keeps perfecting the Razr. Apple, in other words, isn’t just late to the party. It’s arriving after the buffet’s been picked clean and the music’s changed twice.

That doesn’t mean the foldable iPhone is doomed before it launches. Apple has a track record of entering established categories and, while not always being first, often being the one that makes the category feel inevitable (see: tablets, smartwatches, wireless earbuds). But foldables are different. They’re expensive, they’re fragile in ways regular phones aren’t, and they require software to adapt to screens that bend. If Apple wants its first crack at this to land, it should pay close attention to what Samsung got right with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — and where it stumbled.

The Foldable Market Apple Is Stepping Into

Some context. Foldable phones are no longer a science experiment. Samsung alone shipped over 10 million foldables globally in 2025, and the category has grown nearly 40% year over year, according to Counterpoint Research. That’s still a sliver of the overall smartphone market, but it’s a profitable sliver — and one where Apple currently has zero presence. What’s more, the buyers who gravitate toward foldables tend to be early adopters with disposable income. Those are exactly the customers Apple has historically won over with premium design and ecosystem lock-in.

Here’s the thing, though. The customers Apple will be chasing have already seen what Samsung, Google, and Motorola can do. They’ve experienced Flex Mode on older Z Fold and Z Flip models (Samsung actually removed it from the Z Fold 8 due to the redesigned hinge, and that decision still stings for longtime fans). They’ve grown accustomed to app layouts that shift depending on whether the phone is folded, half-open, or fully extended. The bar isn’t just high. It’s been set by companies that have had years to iterate, fail, and fix.

Flex Mode Deserves a Resurrection, Not a Quiet Eulogy

Let’s talk about Flex Mode for a second, because it’s one of those features that sounds gimmicky until you use it. The idea is simple: prop your foldable up in an L-shape, and the software splits into two zones. Top half for content, bottom half for controls. On previous Samsung foldables, this meant watching YouTube on the top screen while scrolling through comments below. In the camera app, the top showed your shot while the bottom became a dedicated control surface. It turned a folded phone into its own tripod — no case, no kickstand, no awkward propping against a coffee mug.

Then Samsung dropped it in the Z Fold 8. The new hinge design, which many reviewers praised for feeling sturdier and less creaky, came at the cost of the exact feature that made foldables feel distinct from regular phones. It’s a strange trade-off, and the kind of unforced error Apple should study carefully. A foldable iPhone that can’t hold itself open in more than two positions is just an expensive phone with a crease. If Apple brings back something like Flex Mode — even under a different name — it would immediately give the product a reason to exist beyond “bigger screen when you want it.”

Software Compatibility Is Where Foldables Sink or Float

No foldable survives on hardware alone. The phone’s software has to work across three distinct orientations: folded (a normal-ish phone), unfolded (a small tablet), and everything in between. That’s harder than it sounds. Apps built for a single screen size don’t automatically know what to do when the display doubles in size or splits into two panes. Samsung has spent years working with Android developers to optimize apps for its foldables, and the results are mixed. Instagram, for instance, was notorious for looking broken on early Fold models. Some apps still letterbox awkwardly on the Z Fold 8’s unfolded display.

Apple controls its own App Store, just as Samsung controls the Galaxy ecosystem. But Apple’s tight grip on iOS gives it one advantage Samsung never had: it can mandate, cajole, and pressure developers into updating their apps. The question is whether Apple will actually do that at launch or whether it’ll let the early adopters suffer through months of incompatible apps while developers catch up. History suggests Apple tends to move faster on this front — when the first iPad launched, many iPhone apps were simply stretched to fit, which looked terrible. Apple learned from that. The foldable iPhone needs its native apps to work flawlessly from day one, not six months later.

Build Quality Is the Quiet Benchmark Everyone Checks

Apple has a reputation for hardware that feels solid. The hinge on a foldable is where that reputation gets tested hardest. A flimsy, wobbly hinge makes the entire device feel like a tech demo. A hinge that’s too stiff makes the act of unfolding the phone feel like a chore. Samsung’s Z Fold 8, seven generations in, has finally gotten this balance right. The hinge snaps open with the effort of flipping a well-made notebook and holds its position at almost any angle. The display crease, once a dealbreaker for skeptics, is now nearly invisible under normal use.

Can Apple match that on its first attempt? It’s possible. Apple has been patenting foldable display technology for years, and reports suggest the company spent an unusual amount of time stress-testing its hinge design before committing to production. But first-generation devices always have surprises. The original iPhone had a recessed headphone jack that worked only with Apple’s own earbuds (oops). The first Apple Watch required an iPhone to set up, which annoyed plenty of early buyers. A foldable iPhone will have its own quirks. The question isn’t whether Apple can make a foldable that looks good in press photos — it’s whether that foldable survives six months in a real pocket.

The Feature Nobody Puts on a Spec Sheet: Fun

Here’s the observation most analysts miss when they compare foldables on paper. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 isn’t just technically impressive; it’s actually enjoyable to use. There’s a tactile satisfaction in snapping it open and closed, a bit of childhood toy energy that’s been scrubbed out of most modern tech. That sense of play matters more than any benchmark score. It’s why people who buy foldables tend to keep buying foldables, even when the trade-offs (price, weight, battery life) nag at them daily.

Apple’s foldable iPhone has to offer its own version of that feeling. Not a knockoff of Samsung’s approach, but something that feels native to Apple’s design language. If the phone simply unfolds into a bigger rectangle with no friction or delight, why would anyone pay a premium for it? The early-days wonder of the original iPhone — the pinch-to-zoom, the cover-flow album art, the flick scrolling — wasn’t just functionality. It was joy. That’s the bar. And honestly, it’s the one Apple should be most worried about missing. After all, what’s the point of a foldable if it doesn’t make you want to unfold it?

For Apple, the September 9 event isn’t just a product launch. It’s a referendum on whether the company can still surprise people in a category where everyone else has already had a head start. Samsung, Google, and Motorola have laid the groundwork, made the mistakes, and taught the market what to expect. The foldable iPhone won’t simply be judged against those competitors. It’ll be judged against the version of Apple people remember — the one that didn’t always invent the thing, but made you wonder why you ever lived without it.