Well I was basing my comment on this being a real product. I agree that this is more likely not a real product.
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MacBook With Foldable Display Will Actually Have 18.8-Inch Screen, Analyst Says
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virtual keyboard sounds like a disaster, unless it has some kind of next-generation haptic feedback.
hopefully the pencil works with it too
hopefully the pencil works with it too
Who says it runs macOS? That seems incredibly unlikely. No entirely new class of product from Apple is going to run macOS. It will run iPadOS, or some new OS.
The more I think about this, a foldable iPad makes way more sense than a MacBook with a foldable screen…
This rumors makes less and less sense
This rumors makes less and less sense
This is a foldable iPad abomination, not a MacBook.
#1 - I don't want to touch my laptop screen. Extending your arms generates fatigue over time and there will be smudges everywhere. I've used touch screen Windows laptops and they're pointless.
#2 - I need an actual keyboard with tactile feedback. This is why playing games meant for a keyboard/mouse on an iPhone/iPad with emulated controls sucks, and also the same reason I make typos all the time on my iPhone. I have no idea where I'm typing because I cannot feel where I am on the screen. I can do 100+ words a minute on a normal keyboard though and I never look at it. Ever try to play a virtual piano vs a real one? It sucks. Same problem.
#3 - This is a solution looking for a problem. Why do we need dual screen foldable MacBooks with no keyboard and trackpad? What needs is that addressing? This just seems like a tech demo that looks cool with no practical application.
If this is the direction MacBooks are going, I'll have to begrudgingly switch to a PC for my laptop so I can actually use it. Steve Jobs described MacBooks to be akin to trucks. Some people need trucks to do a job. The majority of other people are fine with a car, or iPad. I need a truck and I think most people using a MacBook do also, or they'd just buy an iPad.
#1 - I don't want to touch my laptop screen. Extending your arms generates fatigue over time and there will be smudges everywhere. I've used touch screen Windows laptops and they're pointless.
#2 - I need an actual keyboard with tactile feedback. This is why playing games meant for a keyboard/mouse on an iPhone/iPad with emulated controls sucks, and also the same reason I make typos all the time on my iPhone. I have no idea where I'm typing because I cannot feel where I am on the screen. I can do 100+ words a minute on a normal keyboard though and I never look at it. Ever try to play a virtual piano vs a real one? It sucks. Same problem.
#3 - This is a solution looking for a problem. Why do we need dual screen foldable MacBooks with no keyboard and trackpad? What needs is that addressing? This just seems like a tech demo that looks cool with no practical application.
If this is the direction MacBooks are going, I'll have to begrudgingly switch to a PC for my laptop so I can actually use it. Steve Jobs described MacBooks to be akin to trucks. Some people need trucks to do a job. The majority of other people are fine with a car, or iPad. I need a truck and I think most people using a MacBook do also, or they'd just buy an iPad.
With 8gb RAm and 256 gb SSD 😂
Well, Intel's Lunar Lake is supposed to have 100 TOPS and it is coming in the 3rd quarter. NPU will be 45 TOPS. The Snapdragon Elite X Total TOPS are going to be 75.
It will be an external accessory. Similar to this
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold (16" Intel) | Seamless, folding 16.3" OLED display
Powered by Intel, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold boasts a seamless 16.3" OLED screen that works in landscape, portrait, book, & laptop modes.
www.lenovo.com
I'm guessing this will be the spiritual successor to the Surface Neo that Microsoft never released.
- Single-screen foldable display
- Apple Pencil support
- Keyboard accessory to cover one display and provide a laptop-typing experience
- Support for multiple "postures" so the device can be used in landscape or portrait
- New OS/features specific to this hardware
Looks like an Apple Surface rumor of sorts.Less than two hours after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said a MacBook with either an 18.8-inch or 20.2-inch foldable screen would launch in 2026, display industry expert Ross Young has said the device will indeed feature around an 18.8-inch screen.
In a post on social media platform X, limited to his paying subscribers, Young said he expects the device to be equipped with an 18.76-inch display instead of a 20.25-inch display for "cost reasons." In a folded position, Kuo said an 18.8-inch MacBook would be similar in size to a traditional 13-inch or 14-inch MacBook.
It is expected that a MacBook with a foldable screen would feature an all-screen design with a virtual keyboard, but exact design details have yet to be rumored.
Kuo said Apple is aiming to make the foldable screen "as crease-free as possible," and he said this could result in the device being nearly as expensive as Apple's Vision Pro headset, which starts at $3,499. He also said the foldable-screen MacBook will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M5 chip, which has yet to be announced.
It seems like a foldable-screen MacBook is still a few years away, and Apple will firm up its plans for the device as its launch gets closer.
Article Link: MacBook With Foldable Display Will Actually Have 18.8-Inch Screen, Analyst Says
I agree with everything you said, but this is not the direction "MacBooks" are going. This is a different product unto itself that is closer to iPad than anything else.
You said it yourself here:
This just seems like a tech demo that looks cool with no practical application.
Sounds an awful lot like Vision Pro.
Apple sold laptops w/ faulty butterfly keyboards for over 5 years ... this solution is long overdue. (FYI-A dual display laptop was introduced from DELL way back in 2020.)
This would kill the iPad, and in this case, the death of the iPad is completely justifiable. I always believed the iPad was nothing more than an oversized iPhone and that the APPLE pencils should be able to work with all products, including iPhones.
The latest iPad has more powerful silicon (M4) than current laptop offerings. Am I the only person who sees APPLE's new iPad offering as a nothing more than a corporate money grab?
This would kill the iPad, and in this case, the death of the iPad is completely justifiable. I always believed the iPad was nothing more than an oversized iPhone and that the APPLE pencils should be able to work with all products, including iPhones.
The latest iPad has more powerful silicon (M4) than current laptop offerings. Am I the only person who sees APPLE's new iPad offering as a nothing more than a corporate money grab?
Interesting thoughts on how to use haptic feedback to guide the typist on where their fingers are relative to the virtual keys.
Now kind of curious how practical Apple could make something like this work for a laptop/keyboard alternative. I've been reading Asahi Linux's reverse engineering of Macs and it’s kind of amazing how much engineering/software has gone into making "compromised" hardware (e.g. to fit in a laptop) appear uncompromised.
However, I think its more than just finger placement and the feeling of key travel (though important). I believe glass is 3-10x harder than plastic and that would be noticeable during 8-12 hours sessions. I suspect my fingertips will get sore/hardened in a way touchtyping on hardened glass compared to the plastics used in most keyboards. All the other issues aside I didn't enjoy typing on my iPad Pro and quickly got the external keyboard. Typing on glass is fine for web addresses or filling out web forms, but I can't imagine serious composition that way.
Granted perhaps Apple knows that Gen Z and beyond have already numbed their fingers and realizes AI will take over all serious composition anyway...
In the meantime, my old-fashioned self would rather see foldable screen deployed on laptops as wings that let me carry and use a Mac with portrait dimensions and then unfold into a two screens configuration (e.g. something I could carry and use in 8.5x11 mode but unfolds to 17x11 when I need extra screen real estate) while preserving something like a keyboard/trackpad/etc. Adjust for A3/A4 or A4/A5 as you prefer…
Not that I think a keyboard/trackpad is the pinnacle of UX/HID. I just haven't seen anything better overall for knowledge work.
Intrigued.
But like Vision Pro, it seems like a solution looking for a problem.
But like Vision Pro, it seems like a solution looking for a problem.
A touchscreen foldable petite MacBook running MacOS would kind of replace that thought of a iPad with MacOS that some iPad Pro users want? Likely to be M5 based. 
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Recently, Mark Gurman mentioned in one of his Power-On newsletters, that Macbooks will be getting touch screens some time in 2026. This foldable product lines up with Mark's prediction. Definitely plausible that this foldable "laptop" runs a touch-based version of macOS.
They alredy have. This has been discussed before as has a foldable iPhone and there were PLENTY of naysayers. Wouldn't mind betting you that half of those people end up with one.
Equally plausible that Gurman doesn't know what he's talking about.