What will Apple call its foldable iPhone?

Nobody knows what Apple will call its first foldable iPhone. We will find out the official name tomorrow at the company’s “Surprise and Shine” event. But since I’m in an anxious mood, let’s discuss this.

The only name topping the list is the iPhone Ultra. “Internally, everyone calls it Ultra,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported. Of course, an internal name doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the final name that will be printed on the iPhone’s foldable box. As Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach noted last month, the iPhone Ultra appears to be broken. What about a foldable one, other than the screen, would it be ultra? It’s not expected to have a telephoto lens, so it won’t even meet the “Pro” definition compared to the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. It won’t have the longest-lasting battery of any iPhone. There will also be no Face ID or Action button. It probably won’t even have the same vapor cooling chamber as the iPhone Pro to ensure performance doesn’t suffer under high loads.

Everyone inside calls it Ultra. Let’s see what happens.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) August 11, 2026

iPhone Duo and iPhone Folio are also names that are being talked about a lot. Until today, I felt that the iPhone Duo could be quite promising, even if Microsoft had already used it for its failed dual-screen foldable phone and unsuccessful sequel. The iPhone Folio or iBook never passed the sniff test for me. This means that the device’s primary use is reading, but I don’t think Apple will market it that way. Apple will likely tout the benefits of an internal widescreen mode for watching videos, playing games, and running multiple apps at once. Additionally, Apple had already used the iBook for a previous line of laptops and then reused it for its digital books app before renaming it Apple Books.

iFold, iPhold, iPhone Fold. This is not a chance. I don’t see Apple using a name that is synonymous with foldable Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold series.

So what will Apple call the foldable iPhone then? I’m going to just throw it out there. I see two paths Apple can take. The first is to simply call it iPhone Plus or iPhone Max. Apple used to assign both descriptors to the iPhone to emphasize its larger screen size. Apple first used Plus with the iPhone 6 Plus and all the way up to the iPhone 8 Plus. Then switched to the iPhone Max to describe the larger iPhone XS Max model. When Apple introduced the first iPhone “Pro,” the iPhone 11 Pro, the larger-screen model was called the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Since then, the larger iPhone Pro has always been called “Pro Max.” Apple has also brought back “Plus” for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 16 series. Last year, the iPhone 16 Plus was replaced by the iPhone Air.

What if the foldable iPhone was called the iPhone Max?

It’s not a “Pro” because it doesn’t have a telephoto lens, the longest battery, Face ID, or an action button.

Simply the largest iPhone screen ever

Just iPhone max

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 8, 2026

This brings me to the next possibility: what if the foldable iPhone is actually being considered as part of the iPhone Air family? It’s supposed to be around 4mm thick when open, making it thinner than the 5.6mm thick iPhone Air. This could definitely be called an “Air” device. If that’s how Apple sees it – as an iPhone Air with a huge screen – then I think it could be called the iPhone Air Max, iPhone Air Pro or iPhone Air Plus. Nike probably wouldn’t approve if Apple used the “Air Max” branding. As some of my followers have astutely pointed out, Tim Cook may be on the Nike board of directors and takes every opportunity to wear Nike sneakers in public, but that might be too much. That leaves iPhone Air Pro or iPhone Air Plus. Or even the iPhone Air Duo.

So here are my final bets on the name:

• iPhone max
• iPhone Plus
• iPhone Air Pro
• iPhone Air Duo

Who wants to take bets? Fight me in the comments 😛