iPhone Ultra Price: What The Leaks Are Saying Right Now
The folding iPhone — reportedly called iPhone Ultra — is now tipped to cost $2,300 to $2,500. Here’s what the storage leak puts prices at, and what that means for almost everyone.
The folding iPhone, reportedly named iPhone Ultra, is now tipped to start somewhere between $2,300 and $2,500 — making it significantly more expensive than any iPhone Apple has sold before.
A direct conversion puts $2,500 at roughly £1,900. Apple’s actual UK price could be higher once VAT and regional pricing are factored in.
The phone is expected to open into a display of around 7.7 to 7.8 inches — closer to an iPad mini than a standard iPhone when unfolded.
The iPhone Ultra name, specification, price and launch date all remain reported information. Everything here is based on leaks and could change before Apple makes any announcement.
At this price, the sensible move for almost everyone will be to buy an iPhone 18 Pro, keep their current phone, or buy a much cheaper refurbished iPhone instead.
Apple’s first folding iPhone was never going to be cheap. But $2,500? For a phone?
That is where the latest reporting now puts us.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons the rumoured iPhone Ultra could cost roughly $2,300 to $2,500 when it arrives. That is up from earlier reports pointing to a price just over $2,000, and it would make the Ultra the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever sold by a fairly ridiculous margin.
And $2,500 may only get you through the door.
Separate leaked storage estimates have placed the 1TB version at close to $2,900. Add sales tax, AppleCare+ and a case, and the final bill could very easily sail past $3,000.
That isn’t iPhone money. That’s used-car money.
How Much Will The iPhone Ultra Cost?
The newest figure comes from supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who says demand could remain strong even at $2,300 to $2,500. Kuo has a long record of reporting on Apple’s manufacturing plans, but this still isn’t an official price.
Here is how the main estimates have moved:
| Report | Suggested iPhone Ultra price |
|---|---|
| Ming-Chi Kuo’s earlier forecast | $2,000 to $2,500 |
| Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman | Above $2,000 |
| Barclays analyst estimate | Around $2,300 |
| IDC forecast | Around $2,400 |
| Ming-Chi Kuo’s newer estimate | $2,300 to $2,500 |
Kuo’s newer range was reported alongside his production forecast. He expects only 500,000 to one million units to be ready during the third quarter of 2026, with seven to eight million assembled across the second half of the year. That limited opening supply could allow Apple to charge an absurd price and still sell every unit it can make.
It may also create a scalper’s dream. Kuo warned that delivery estimates could stretch to four to six weeks, or longer, and that early resale prices could run 50% to 100% above retail. A $2,500 iPhone being flipped for $4,000 sounds unhinged, but launch-week Apple buyers have done stranger things.
Could The 1TB iPhone Ultra Cost Nearly $3,000?
Possibly.
A separate leak from Weibo tipster Instant Digital proposed the following prices:
| Storage | Reported US price |
|---|---|
| 256GB | $2,320 |
| 512GB | $2,610 |
| 1TB | $2,900 |
Treat those exact numbers with more caution than Kuo’s wider price range. Apple normally uses cleaner US price points, so figures such as $2,320 and $2,610 look more like currency conversions than a final Apple Store price list.
Still, the overall direction makes sense. If the base model starts at $2,299 or $2,499, a 1TB version approaching $3,000 is entirely believable.
For context, the 2TB iPhone 17 Pro Max already reaches $1,999 in the US. The Ultra could therefore start above Apple’s current most expensive iPhone, before you have added a single storage upgrade.
That is quite a leap.
What Might The iPhone Ultra Cost In The UK?
The rough currency conversion is about £1,900 for a $2,500 phone, but that probably won’t be the number shown on Apple’s UK store.
US prices are normally quoted before local sales tax. UK prices include 20% VAT, and Apple does not simply convert its American price using the live exchange rate. If the US starting price lands between $2,300 and $2,500, I would expect the UK model to sit somewhere around £2,199 to £2,499.
That is an estimate, not a leak.
At £2,499, the iPhone Ultra would cost more than a MacBook Pro and several times the price of a perfectly good refurbished iPhone. It would also be roughly the price of buying an iPhone 18 Pro and an iPad mini separately, depending on Apple’s final pricing.
Which raises the obvious question: what exactly are you getting for all that money?
Why Is Apple’s Folding iPhone So Expensive?
The iPhone Ultra is expected to be Apple’s first book-style folding phone. Closed, it should work like a compact iPhone. Open it, and the inner display reportedly expands to around 7.7 or 7.8 inches, close to small-tablet territory.
The reported hardware includes:
- A 5.3 to 5.5-inch outer OLED display
- A 7.7 to 7.8-inch folding inner OLED display
- A titanium body
- A high-cost folding hinge made with titanium, stainless steel or Liquidmetal parts
- Apple’s new A20-generation chip
- 12GB of RAM
- Two rear cameras
- Touch ID in the side button instead of Face ID
- A very thin body of roughly 4.5 to 4.8mm when open
The screen and hinge are likely to be the expensive bits. Apple has reportedly spent years trying to reduce the visible crease, keep the two halves aligned and make the device thin without turning it into a fragile £2,000 sandwich.
Low first-year production also matters. Apple can spread development and tooling costs across tens of millions of normal iPhones. It cannot do that as easily with a new model expected to ship in much smaller numbers.
There is also a less technical explanation: Apple thinks enough people will pay it.
The Price Only Works If The Ultra Replaces Two Devices
The only convincing defence of a $2,500 iPhone is that it may replace both your phone and a small tablet.
Open it on a train and you have a larger display for reading, films, games and work. Close it and it goes back in your pocket. For people who already carry an iPhone and iPad mini, there is a real appeal to combining the two.
But the software has to earn the price.
A bigger screen isn’t automatically useful. Apple needs proper split-screen apps, drag and drop, floating video, better document handling and layouts that genuinely change when the phone opens. A stretched version of iOS with larger icons will not cut it at $2,500.
The camera setup could be another sticking point. Reports currently point to two rear cameras rather than the full three-camera Pro system. Face ID may also be dropped in favour of a Touch ID power button because of the thin design.
Paying more than an iPhone Pro Max while accepting fewer cameras and no Face ID is a very Apple sort of proposition. The fold is the feature. Everything else may have to work around it.
It Could Make The iPhone 18 Pro Look Almost Reasonable
This may be part of the plan.
Put a $2,499 iPhone Ultra at the top of the range and a $1,199 or $1,299 iPhone 18 Pro suddenly looks like the restrained choice.
It isn’t cheap, of course. It just looks cheap next to the small folding mortgage sitting beside it in the Apple Store.
That price anchoring could matter in 2026 because Apple is reportedly changing its normal launch schedule. The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and folding Ultra are expected first, while the standard iPhone 18 may not arrive until 2027.
If that happens, the cheapest new flagship presented at Apple’s autumn event could be a Pro model. The Ultra then gives Apple an even higher ceiling and makes the rest of the expensive range feel less alarming.
Very clever. Slightly evil. Completely on brand.
Would I Pay $2,500 For It?
No. Not for the first version.
First-generation folding phones come with too many unanswered questions.
- How well does the hinge survive after two years?
- Does the display protector lift?
- How expensive is an out-of-warranty repair?
- Will third-party apps use the inner screen properly?
- And what happens to its resale value if Apple releases a thinner, lighter second model 12 months later?
At $1,500, early adopters might tolerate those risks. At $2,500, Apple needs to get almost everything right on day one.
The smarter options are fairly obvious:
- Buy the iPhone 18 Pro if you want Apple’s newest chip and cameras.
- Wait for the second-generation Ultra, when the hinge, software and price should make more sense.
- Keep your existing phone and buy an iPad mini for the times you need a larger screen.
- Use our phone finder or browse current refurbished iPhone deals and save yourself well over $1,000.
You can also visit our Apple hub for the latest models, comparisons and buying advice.
The Bottom Line
The reported $2,300 to $2,500 iPhone Ultra price is believable. The phone uses new display and hinge hardware, production is expected to be tight, and Apple has never been shy about charging early adopters for being early.
It could still be a brilliant device. A pocketable iPhone that opens into a small iPad is the sort of product people have wanted Apple to make for years.
But $2,500 changes the standard. It cannot merely be a good first attempt or an interesting folding iPhone. It has to replace two devices, survive for years and make normal iOS feel genuinely better on the larger screen.
Otherwise it is just a very expensive folding phone with an Apple logo on it.
And at nearly $3,000 for the top storage version, that’s a massive ask even by Apple’s usual standards.
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