{"id":370813,"date":"2026-01-15T06:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370813\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:17:10","slug":"apples-foldable-iphone-rumored-to-be-built-with-liquid-metal-and-improved-titanium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/370813\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple&#8217;s Foldable iPhone Rumored to Be Built With Liquid Metal and Improved Titanium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Apple is planning to use advanced liquid metal and improved titanium alloys for its first foldable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/guide\/iphone\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPhone<\/a>, according to new supply-chain information.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Foldable-iPhone-2023-Feature-1.jpg\"   alt=\"Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1\" width=\"2250\" height=\"1266\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-995556\"\/><br \/>According to the Korean Naver user known as &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/m.blog.naver.com\/PostView.naver?blogId=yeux1122&amp;logNo=224145844495&amp;navType=by\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">yeux1122<\/a>,&#8221; citing a material company source, the hinge used in Apple&#8217;s first foldable \u200ciPhone\u200c will be made from liquid metal, an &#8220;amorphous&#8221; material Apple has been exploring for over 15 years. The main body of the device will apparently use a revised titanium material that improves strength while reducing overall weight when compared with existing titanium \u200ciPhone\u200c frames, despite having virtually the same surface area.<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s relationship with liquid metal goes back years, tracing back to a 2010 deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/guide\/liquidmetal-technologies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liquidmetal Technologies<\/a>. Apple received a &#8220;perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license&#8221; to commercialize Liquidmetal-related intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products.<\/p>\n<p>Around the same time, Apple started using the material in small \u200ciPhone\u200c and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/roundup\/ipad\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPad<\/a> parts such as the SIM ejector tool. In subsequent years, Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2015\/06\/23\/apple-renews-liquidmetal-rights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">repeatedly renewed<\/a> or extended aspects of its arrangement with Liquidmetal Technologies, but the material remained difficult to scale for high-volume structural components and it has never seen significant use. Liquid metal has continued to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2016\/03\/08\/apple-patent-liquidmetal-home-button-ios-devices\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surface in Apple patent filings<\/a> and rumors over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Liquid metal lacks a crystalline structure, meaning that it offers high strength, resists permanent bending, and holds up well under repeated mechanical stress. Those characteristics have led Apple to repeatedly explore liquid metal in patents covering hinges and other moving parts, especially for foldable devices where the material&#8217;s fatigue resistance and spring-like behavior are essential to hinge durability.<\/p>\n<p>For the body of the device, titanium provides a stronger strength-to-weight ratio than aluminum or stainless steel, but foldable designs add further constraints because of their larger size and the need to manage weight around the hinge. Changes to both the titanium alloy itself and the manufacturing process to increase strength while reducing weight for a given surface area could help remedy this. The foldable \u200ciPhone\u200c is likely to be Apple&#8217;s fourth attempt at a titanium \u200ciPhone\u200c, so it has had several generations to iterate on the alloy&#8217;s composition to optimize particular properties.<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s first foldable \u200ciPhone\u200c is expected to debut in the fall of this year alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/roundup\/iphone-18\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPhone 18<\/a> Pro and \u200ciPhone 18\u200c Pro Max. It is rumored to feature a wide, book-style folding design with a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch outer display, a crease-free display, the A20 chip and Apple&#8217;s C2 modem, two rear cameras, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/guide\/touch-id\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Touch ID<\/a>, and more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple is planning to use advanced liquid metal and improved titanium alloys for its first foldable iPhone, according&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[45126,141493,2306,36125,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-370813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-foldable-iphone","tag-liquidmetal-technologies","tag-mobile","tag-naver","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}