Here are the 6 most important things we know about Apple's rumored foldable iPhone

For years, smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Lenovo have been promising phones with flexible displays screens — something tech enthusiasts speculate will provide more screen real estate and multi-tasking capabilities. 

Patents released by Apple in the last couple of years show that it might be joining the race. 

We don't know a lot about these foldable smartphones, as it's still very early on and Apple is a famously secretive company when it comes to upcoming products. That said, rumors, patents, and the current available technologies might provide a broad idea of what Apple might release in the not-too-distant future.

Here's what we've heard about Apple's foldable iPhone concept:

SEE ALSO: Samsung's long-awaited foldable phone might release in 2018 — here are 7 things to expect from the Galaxy X

1. Patents show a foldable iPhone concept with single bendable screen, rather than two different screens attached by a hinge.

An Apple patent from 2016 shows a foldable iPhone with a single screen that could bend, similar to the way Samsung's Galaxy X is rumored to. 

ZTE's Axon M, marketed as the first foldable smartphone, has two different screens that come together to make a unified display.

2. A foldable iPhone could have two different bend “modes.”

One mode would let the user to open and close the phone like a book, and a second mode, for stationary use, would open the way a notepad does. In the latter scenario, one half of the phone could be used to prop up the other half of the phone, so you could view its display on a flat table.

3. It could have an OLED screen, similar to the one found on the iPhone X.

All of Apple's phones before the iPhone X series had LCD screens, which rely on a backlight and have minimal flexibility. OLED screens, on the other hand, have some bend to them since the pixels work independently and don't rely on a light source (giving it that thinner look).

The iPhone X's screen is technically flexible — it curves at the edges to create a slimmer bezel. AMOLED, a type of OLED screen with a faster refresh, is what Samsung is reportedly working with, so that could be the direction Apple goes as well.