The iPhone Ultra follows suit with a single punch-hole display: looking towards Android.

According to Fast Technology on June 9, since the iPhone X ushered in the era of full-screen displays in 2017, Apple has taken a product path that is completely different from that of the Android camp.

From the original iPhone X to the iPhone 13 series, the entire high-end iPhone lineup used the highly recognizable notch screen design. It wasn’t until the iPhone 14 Pro series that Apple evolved the notch screen into the pill-shaped “Island” design.

The core reason why Apple has insisted on leaving a large irregular area on the front of the screen for many years is to provide enough space for the components of its exclusive Face ID 3D facial recognition module, while most Android models at the same time adopted a single punch-hole design with in-screen fingerprint recognition.

Entering 2026, the upcoming foldable flagship iPhone Ultra will completely abandon Apple’s Face ID facial recognition system, which it has used for nearly ten years. 
Newly leaked information about related mockups confirms that the iPhone Ultra will ultimately adopt a single punch-hole front camera design similar to Android phones, making it the first iPhone in Apple’s history to use a single punch-hole screen design.

According to the publicly available design details, the front camera punch-hole on the outer screen of the iPhone Ultra is placed in the center, while the front camera punch-hole on the inner screen is located in the upper left corner of the screen when unfolded. The unlocking logic has also been changed to a side fingerprint recognition solution.

Positioned as a horizontally foldable flagship, this device features a 5.3-inch external screen and a 7.8-inch internal screen. It will be the first to be equipped with Apple’s latest A20 Pro flagship chip, a 48-megapixel dual rear camera, and a built-in battery capacity exceeding 5000mAh, offering significantly improved battery life compared to previous iPhones.

In order to balance the slim and lightweight feel of the foldable screen with the near-full-screen visual experience, Apple deliberately abandoned the Face ID interaction route that it had adhered to for nearly ten years. This iPhone Ultra also became the iPhone with the most significant change in appearance in the past decade.