A MacBook with a 20.3-inch folding screen will hit the market earlier than expected, according to an analyst. The folding Mac supposedly will go into production in late 2025.
And a folding iPhone allegedly will follow the next year.
Apple accelerating release of MacBook with 20.3-inch folding display
Computers like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold show how laptops with large, foldable screens instead of a keyboard can work. However, these experiments haven’t gone mainstream. Most laptops still use the design laid down by Apple’s PowerBook line in the early 1990s. But Apple is reportedly going to try to shake up the status quo.
A 20.3-inch foldable MacBook will go into production near the end of 2025, according to Jeff Pu from Haitong International Securities.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of this device. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo talked about it in March, and analyst Ross Young said in early 2022 that a 20-inch MacBook is in the first stages of development. The Elec weighed in at the end of that year to say the same.
But Pu is the first to say the notebook/tablet will come out in 2025, as reported by 9to5Mac. Previously, the launch was expected in 2027.
Pu’s sources for the information are in Apple’s component supply chain, where he claims there’s increasing talk of the device.
The MacBook with a folding screen supposedly won’t supplant the current macOS models with traditional clamshell designs in Apple’s product lineup. The foldable will be for the “ultra-high-end market” willing to pay even higher prices for a cutting-edge computer.
A radical redesign
If these unconfirmed reports prove true, the result will be a dream come true for many people: a touchscreen Mac. That will require significant changes to macOS, as it’s currently designed to be controlled with a cursor and keyboard.
The 20.3-inch folding MacBook almost certainly will not include a physical keyboard or trackpad. It’ll be all screen, so will use a virtual keyboard instead, as iPads do. That means it will be about the same size as a current MacBook Pro.
Unfolded, it could be held in the lap while the user writes or draws with a stylus. Or it could be set up on a table with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse as though it were a portable iMac.
Alternatively, the computer could be folded into a MacBook’s clamshell shape for the user to type onto the virtual keyboard. Or the keyboard could be replaced with other controls, perhaps for video editing.
