Apple’s iPhone Fold is expected to launch in September at around $2,000 or more. But according to a repair expert, that’s not the full cost of owning one. There’s likely a high repair bill that most buyers won’t think about as they queue outside an Apple store to pick up their new foldable phone.
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The iPhone Fold’s $1155 Repair Bill
Ricky Panesar, founder of repair specialists iCorrect.co.uk, predicts that replacing the iPhone Fold’s inner foldable screen will cost somewhere in the region of £850 ($1155) or more.
For context, the same repair on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, costs £594, which includes Samsung’s new Flex Titanium technology that reduces the screen’s crease. The Z Fold 7 before it was £569. But Panesar predicts the iPhone Fold’s screen repair price will go much further.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has high repair costs like the iPhone Fold. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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“I think we’re going to see the most expensive repair prices from Apple of any handheld device we’ve seen in the past,” he told me. “Because they’re borrowing this technology from Samsung Display, we’re going to see higher prices than Samsung. I think we’re going to be at the £850 level.”
The reasoning is straightforward. Samsung uses its own display modules from Samsung Display, which makes replacement parts more accessible and cheaper to source. Apple is using Samsung Display panels and a proprietary 3D-printed hinge that has never been repaired, or tested, by thousands of repairers or millions of users respectively.
This is technology that, if we go by current foldables, is expensive to fix for the manufacturer because of the folding glass and fiddly hinge. Independent repairers also have no experience of Apple’s hinge, so that learning curve will only add further expense.
AppleCare+ Will Be A Must For The iPhone Fold, But It Won’t Be Cheap
Panesar also warns against assuming AppleCare+ will offer the same value it has on previous iPhones. Historically, Apple has offered cheap per-incident repairs on AppleCare+ devices, with prices sometimes as low as £29 ($29 in the U.S.) per break. He doesn’t expect that on the iPhone Fold.
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“I don’t see this being a cheap Apple Care. I think we’re going to be up at the £100 mark [per repair incident]”, he said. Apple may also reconsider the unlimited repairs offer it introduced in recent years, given the higher cost of foldable display replacements. Despite that, Panesar says AppleCare+ will be essential to avoid the highest repair costs.
Also, Apple’s new iPhone leasing program, which starts at $17.99 a month, makes a lot more sense now considering the rumoured prices of the iPhone 18 and these potential repair costs of the iPhone Fold.
It’s Not Just About Price, The iPhone Fold Could Have Other First-Generation Struggles
The iPhone Fold is, ultimately, a first-generation product from Apple. Regardless of how meticulously the company crafts its products before releasing them, there will be bumps in the road.
The iPhone Fold will launch with iOS 27 running on a foldable for the first time. There’s a meaningful difference between software designed for foldables and software refined for foldables.
Samsung has been tinkering with its foldable UI since 2019 and some of those first iterations were very janky. Apple is starting from zero and there will almost certainly be room for improvement in these first months and years.
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The iPhone Fold’s hinge, too, is untested in millions of hands, and the Touch ID power button could yet add more cost if it needs to be fixed. A side-mounted Touch ID module, Panesar explained, is “not an easy swap” if it needs to be repaired. A cracked Touch ID sensor on an iPhone Fold is a more complex repair than Face ID on a flat iPhone, with fewer independent repairers skilled enough to handle it in the first year.