Apple’s first foldable iPhone, known as the “iPhone Ultra,” will feature impressive vapor chamber cooling and launch in September despite production difficulties, a known leaker reported today.
In a new Weibo post today, the leaker known as “Fixed Focus Digital” said the foldable iPhone’s pre-assembly manufacturing processes were facing pressure and the initial production ramp-up was proving difficult. The leaker added that prevailing speculation indicates that the original September launch schedule was being maintained, and indicated that more positive news was expected tomorrow.
The leaker added that the device will feature vapor chamber (VC) cooling and that its thermal performance is “pretty impressive,” with Apple “really pulling out all the stops” with its thermal engineering. This is the first time a source has attributed vapor chamber cooling to the ‌iPhone Ultra‌, and the detail is notable given the scale of the design compromises the device would have to make.
Rumors suggest that the ‌iPhone Ultra‌ may lack at least five features found on the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌, including Face ID, a telephoto lens, MagSafe, the Action Button, and a physical SIM card slot, largely due to its 4.5mm folded thickness. The iPhone Air, which shares a similar ultra-thin philosophy, lacks vapor chamber cooling, making its presence on the iPhone Ultra‌ far from a given ahead of today’s report.
Apple overhauled the thermal design of the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ last year, adopting a vapor chamber cooling system on an iPhone for the first time. The system circulates a small amount of deionized water to draw heat away from the A19 Pro chip and distribute it throughout the device’s aluminum unibody frame, with Apple claiming the design delivers 40% better sustained performance for demanding tasks compared to the graphite thermal systems used in previous Pro models.
The message comes amid a series of reports about production difficulties surrounding the foldable iPhone. Earlier this month, Fixed Focus Digital highlighted problems at the pre-assembly stage related to surface mount technology (SMT), separate from a separate report from the leaker known as “Instant Digital” that attributed production difficulties to failure to meet Apple’s quality control standards under prolonged, high-frequency opening and closing conditions.
Fixed Focus Digital’s narrative pushed back against this framing, suggesting that the hinge was not the primary source of difficulty. DigiTimes reported in April that production was already about one to two months behind schedule, while maintaining that a fall 2026 launch remained on track, with mass production expected to begin in July. Fixed Focus Digital also reported in April that pricing negotiations with Apple’s assembly partner were a potentially disruptive factor.
Despite the difficulties, the launch schedule does not appear to be in jeopardy. BloombergMark Gurman of Mark Gurman reported in April that the ‌iPhone Ultra‌ was on track to debut in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, although he noted that the timing was not final and that production had not yet ramped up. The device is expected to feature a 7.8-inch inner display, a 5.5-inch cover display, the A20 chip, the C2 modem, Touch ID in place of ‌Face ID‌, and dual rear cameras, with pricing expected to start at around $2,000.
