Apple’s new hinge design patent is published! Folding screen iPhone will be released as early as 2026

 although the foldable iPhone has not yet been released, Apple has actually been developing related technologies. This is already an open secret in the industry.

Recently, Apple obtained a patent for a folding screen hinge design, which cleverly uses finger-shaped and crescent-shaped designs to bring a more flexible folding effect and improve durability.

The patent describes a hinge structure consisting of interconnected fingers and a friction clutch, forming a crescent-shaped groove, allowing each link to rotate relative to each other, and moving the rotation axis to the outside of the link to achieve more flexible folding.

This design not only improves the durability of the foldable device, but also enhances its flexibility.

The links are provided with crescent-shaped grooves for accommodating pins, and when the device is folded, the pins slide along the crescent-shaped grooves, ensuring that adjacent links rotate relative to each other around a rotation axis located outside the hinge and within the flexible display panel.

In addition, the patent also describes a shell rotation synchronization mechanism that uses a set of gears to connect the two shell parts of the device, ensuring a smooth and stable folding process.

It is reported that this patent can be used not only on iPhones, but also on devices such as iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.

According to authoritative whistleblowers such as Gurman, Apple will launch a foldable iPhone as early as 2026, and is expected to use some of the technologies in the patent by then.