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Foldable MacBooks: Six Things to Know About Apple's Future Plans
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The 18.8" screen size is a rather small footprint once folded. It's about the size of a 13" MacBook Air. It seems more probable for an iPad than a MacBook, but who knows maybe iPad OS and MacBook merges in that future utopia. Vision Pro has me more open-minded about the future of products.
Most people on here said no way on the M4 on the iPad rumored when it first hit. Change is slow for Apple, but lately that's starting to shift.
Stop calling it a &%€£ing foldable MacBook. All MacBooks are foldable. This is the stupedest name imaginable. Are you doing it deliberately to troll people like me for the advertising money?
True, but you’ll be sacrificing a physical keyboard for the privileges. And if you invoke the keyboard, how much screen real estate is left?
Besides, video timelines and photoshop palettes can be placed in a secondary display, anyways.
So, too little benefit in exchange for a horrible typing experience, in my opinion.
To me, if Apple goes down this path, the Mac is not the appropriate first product.
I'd start with the iPad Mini and/or an iPad Pro Fold.
Two versions of something people want to be both small and large. Mini will be current mini size (or maybe shrunk slightly) but with twice the screen Area. Pro Fold will have iPad Pro level features+performance, but folds out to give something more like a 15" screen.
In both cases you don't have to worry about the keyboard not being good enough. And, uh, people on Macs CARE about the keyboard -- remember the butterfly debacle. In the iPad space people can get used to the tradeoffs, how the device ages, what it feels like to have a thicker device, etc etc. Based on reactions we can start to see whether there's a real market for this tradeoff (lousy lousy keyboard, but bigger screen) for Mac.
Crazy theory - this is why the iPad Pro M4 is so thin, even though no-one was exactly asking for that...
You need a much thinner base if you're going to fold it double...
And how much would people want an iPad Pro Fold+? Open it to get dual screen, but of the two outer sides, one is a screen, one is a normal iPad back. So you could use this folded or unfolded. You could even flip it over and have use that screen simultaneously, where the smaller reverse-side screen could hold things like texting or 1Password, stuff that today you might use SlideOver for.
Too geeky? Personally I THINK this is what I would like - the quick convenience of the iPad for some use cases, the extra screen space when I bother to unfold it. But I'm not sure.
We're all different, but for me personally, I have tried cases with a flap for protection and even they did not last a day before I threw them away in frustration. Opening and closing flaps sounds like torture to me. I use my phone like a notepad that I can quickly slide in and out of my pocket. I cannot see myself flapping and unflapping all day. I require as frictionless an experience as possible. And I know I will break anything with moving parts in my pocket. Someone at work has one and likes to show off that he mirrors his Windows desktop on it which is pretty cool, but I can never see myself doing that either. And a screen foldable laptop sounds like a monstrosity to me. That's a tacky Windows and Android thing. They LOVE gimmicks.
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I just checked my iPad with a physical keyboard connected... no screen space has been sacrificed. Apple loves selling accessories so there is no way this thing would launch without a keyboard accessory.
They can't be placed on a Sidecar connected iPad, which is what you suggested as a viable alternative, because you cant have the same app on both screens like you can with two MacOS screens.
So connect a physical keyboard, just like you would with an iPad.
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I'll trade all of that for 16GB base RAM in all Macs and an additional 8GB of RAM in all models above the base.
I think this has protential if its fitted with the Apple wheel for input and the hummingbird battery for lighter weight.
I simply can’t see any benefit with this. It appears to be just a gimmick. I doubt it will happen.
This would be super hard to use as MacBook because typing would be really bad
It would make more sense as an iPad because it’s normal to use an on-screen keyboard or attach one
It would make more sense as an iPad because it’s normal to use an on-screen keyboard or attach one
They learned their lesson from the butterfly keyboards. No more keyboards at all!
It’s a laptop that suits the needs of very many pros. In the spirit of making up % figures, I believe it suits the needs of probably at least 94% of all professionals.
Why would you need that lower folding monitor part? To type on? Then I'd prefer a physical keyboard instead, in order to feel it and make typing comfortable. This used to be a special Apple strength. (excluding that butterfly generation)
If you don't need to type anymore you could move everything to voice or gesture commands and such and make the device smaller and more lightweight.
For pure drawing or pen based software it might be okay but then one screen without the fold would do it best.
If you don't need to type anymore you could move everything to voice or gesture commands and such and make the device smaller and more lightweight.
For pure drawing or pen based software it might be okay but then one screen without the fold would do it best.
So for the product to actually be useful you have to buy an external keyboard.
For the sidecar thing, I haven’t bothered much tampering with it because my setup is dual monitor. I just tried it once out of curiosity. Are you sure the restriction is app based, rather than window based?
All in all if this thing ever gets released I doubt it will have much of a market, but if it fits your use case, I’ll be glad for you.