Apple’s first foldable iPhone, known as the “iPhone Ultra,” will feature impressive vapor chamber cooling and launch in September despite production difficulties, a leaked report said today.
In a new post today on Weibo, the inventor known as “Fixed Focus Digital” said that the pre-assembly production processes of the foldable iPhone are under pressure and that the decline of the first production seems to be difficult. The analyst added that current speculation points to an early September launch, and teased that more good news is expected tomorrow.
The founder added that the device will feature vapor chamber (VC) cooling and that its thermal performance is “absolutely amazing,” as Apple “goes all out” with its thermal engineering. The claim marks the first time a source has claimed vapor chamber cooling for the iPhone Ultra, and the details are notable given the amount of design downsizing the device is expected to make.
Rumors suggest that the iPhone Ultra may lack at least five features present in the iPhone 17 Pro, including Face ID, phone camera, MagSafe, Action Button, and a visible SIM card slot, mainly due to its folded thickness of 4.5mm. The iPhone Air, which shares the same ultra-thin philosophy, does not include vapor chamber cooling, making its presence in the iPhone Ultra far from what was given before today’s report.
Apple changed the thermal design of the iPhone 17 Pro last year, adopting a vapor chamber cooling system for the first time on an iPhone. The system circulates a small amount of deionized water to remove heat away from the A19 Pro chip and distribute it throughout the aluminum unibody frame of the device, Apple claims that the design delivers 40% more stable performance for heavy tasks compared to the graphite thermal systems used in previous Pro models.
The post comes amid a series of reports of manufacturing difficulties surrounding the foldable iPhone. Earlier this month, Fixed Focus Digital showed problems in the pre-assembly stage related to surface-mount technology (SMT), which is different from a separate report of a leaked device known as “Instant Digital” that revealed production difficulties due to the failure of Apple’s quality control standards under the conditions of opening and closing the frequency for a long time, and closing the frequency.
Fixed Focus Digital’s account backfired on that frame, suggesting the hinge wasn’t the main source of difficulty. DigiTimes it was reported in April that production was already running about one to two months behind schedule while maintaining that a fall 2026 launch is still on track, with mass production scheduled to begin in July. Fixed Focus Digital also reported in April that price negotiations with conference partner Apple were a potential distraction.
Despite the difficulties, the launch timeline does not appear to be in jeopardy. BloombergMark Gurman reported in April that the iPhone Ultra would be released in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, although he noted that the timing was not definitive and production had yet to ramp up. The device is expected to have a 7.8-inch internal display, a 5.5-inch cover display, an A20 chip, a C2 modem, Touch ID instead of Face ID, and two rear cameras, with prices rumored to start around $2,000.