Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone at its September 9 event. The rumored price has hovered around $2,200, though the latest Bloomberg report puts it nearer $2,000. Either figure puts the device on the upper end of premium, even against Apple’s own. Apple’s own iPhone Air and iPad mini, together, make an awkward comparison for its newest device.

I have made this argument before: a foldable competes with the option of buying a phone and a tablet. At Apple’s current prices, a 256GB iPhone Air costs $999 and a 128GB WiFi iPad mini costs $599. Together, that is $1,598 before tax, leaving roughly $400 to $600 against the two rumored foldable prices.

On the other side of the foldable aisle, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at $1,899.99 and Z Fold8 Ultra at $2,099.99. At $2,000, Apple’s foldable would sit between them; at $2,200, it would cost about $100 more than the Ultra. It may be within the categorical upper limit, but surely Apple is pushing some boundaries.

I had owned an iPad alongside a smaller, non-Max iPhone, and the combination worked. I sold the iPad because maintaining two devices became a hassle. A Pro Max seemed a reasonable compromise, despite having a smaller screen than an iPad mini, so I took it. It also offered MagSafe, which my iPad did not. I had already accepted less screen to have one device to maintain.

I would expect a foldable iPhone to put pressure on developers to support a bigger phone, and then bigger screens more generally. Once an app accommodates an unfolded iPhone, continuing to ignore iPad becomes harder to justify. Korean banking apps may never make that jump, particularly where one-device policies are involved. For streaming and ebooks, I see no reason to withhold tablet support.

For me, the use case was already there: the iPhone–iPad combination had worked. A foldable iPhone would be the one device I would use in place of that combination. With the rumors of camera compromises, I wonder if it’s going to be justifiable to spend an additional $300 to $500 over an iPhone Pro and a WiFi iPad mini together, or whether a good ol’ bigger phablet would do.