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MacBook With Foldable Display Will Actually Have 18.8-Inch Screen, Analyst Says

turbineseaplane said:
The problem is that they don't seem worried about making the best products for customers anymore
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what, exactly, do you mean by that? The current Macbooks are way better than most of the latter half of the intel era, especially the 2016-2019 machines, the mini is actually getting substantial updates, the introduction of the studio (and the M*pro mini) gave us back a prosumer desktop, there's still a mac pro for folks who actually need it, the ipads are solid (and yes, they arent running macos, but most users dont actually care about that), and as much as I'm grumpy about them not having a small phone the fact is that's an industry trend because people want big phones. The AVP is a new project, currently mostly aimed at devs so it really doesnt fall into this. The displays could use some updates but Apple's displays have always been kinda hurry up and then sit for a while. The one major hole is a large screen iMac.
 
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Colour me fascinated.
I think this could be really cool!

I don’t think this would be intended to replace a laptop. This would be a separate kind of think for separate use-cases.

And I could absolutely get behind this as a dual-screen content consumption device by night and a portable productivity machine by day - when propped up on a stand with a keyboard and mouse connected.

Or on a desk with the controls on the bottom part and main display on the top - with dictation being the primary text input method.

Or a dedicated gaming machine ala Nintendo DS on steroids!

There are lots of possibilities with this form-factor…

Be tech enthusiasts, not unimaginative critics! It’s more fun to imagine the possibilities than it is to poke holes in a concept…
 
CalMin said:
Interesting...

I trust that Apple can find a way. Much in the same way that we all laughed when iPhone first came out with virtual keyboard. All the Blackberry owners said it would never work, and yet here we are in a world where almost no phones have a physical keyboard.

And... of course it will be expensive!
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I think the virtual keyboard works well on a phone, I never use it on my iPad.
 
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MacRumors said:


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.


Foldable-Screen-MacBook-Concept-Astropad.jpg


A foldable-screen MacBook concept by Astropad​

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
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It sounds horrible. I hope it’s a fake out. Foldable iPad mini, please
 
DavidSchaub said:
And Apple has showed how the iPad's OS and "professional" apps just language due to that choice.

You're right that Apple has made those choices. Apple could change its mind and make different choices at any time.

Infinite Time Scale, either:

1) macOS gets touch

2) macOS gets replaced with a new OS that has touch

... one/both will happen, it is just a matter of when.
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Neither of those ever has to happen. This isn't some inevitability like some people on the internet pretend it is.
 
I’m trying to legitimately think what a device like this could offer in the future over an iPad & MacBook combo, and literally the only thing I can think of is being able to watch videos or play games on a big portable 18” display, but that’s it, that’s the only hardware “advantage” I could see with such a device, unless there’s something else I’m missing?
 
Gimmicky af and would be functionally useless, unless you like to draw.


There’s a good reason the Touch Bar was rejected, people vastly prefer physical, tactile input methods over needing to look down at a screen.
 
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Hmmm. It has to be something so different from just a foldable all-screen laptop with a virtual keyboard (yuck) for this to be an Apple product. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it if this is indeed in the works.
 
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MacMikePro said:
I know you’re just joking around but “iName” ended with Steve Jobs, Tim Cook has never introduced anything starting with the letter i and in fact has removed it from several things
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I cant think of anything physical "i" related removed under Cook unless iPods count, and that was a long time coming...

iBooks vanished with the switch to intel under Jobs

iPods led to and were basically replaced by iPhones, and while iPods no longer exist the iPhone does, continuing the lineage.

iMacs still exist.

iSight as a standalone product ended in '08 under jobs and the term's usage petered out over time, and also under Jobs. I think technically the name for iPhone's rear cameras is still referred to as iSight though FWIW, not that it changes anything to this point either way

As for software:
iOS is still called iOS.

iCloud still exists

iMessage still exists

iMovie still exists

Technically iTunes still exists (on windows).

iWork still exists

I guess if someone wants to winge about iTunes becoming Music and co and iPhoto --> Photos etc in MacOS, sure, they could go for it, it's not really a big deal though
 
I can’t imagine typing full time on a full-sized on-screen keyboard. Even if it has haptic feedback, it just isn’t the same thing as typing with physical keys. Maybe people will get used to it, in the same way that we who lived through blackberry phones and early smart phones that all included physical keyboards. I’d more likely carry a portable keyboard, and use a large foldable as a wide screen monitor.
 
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seek3r said:
sitting at a bigger screen as opposed to a handheld mobile device is a different UX problem, there's a reason they sell the magic keyboard for ipads. For one thing when heavily typing and looking at a bigger screen most of us dont look at our hands, it's harder to do that on a touchscreen without the haptics of actually having physical keys (Apple does have patents on generating that kind of haptics on a touchscreen, so maybe they'll make that work though)
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I love the haptic clicks on iPhone and it's always bugged me that iPads don't do that.
 
CalMin said:
Interesting...

I trust that Apple can find a way. Much in the same way that we all laughed when iPhone first came out with virtual keyboard. All the Blackberry owners said it would never work, and yet here we are in a world where almost no phones have a physical keyboard.

And... of course it will be expensive!
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Can't beat physics. Apple Younglings will buy, pay and cry...
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I'm sure a touchscreen keyboard could be made to work just as well as the current physical ones (if not better)
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A featureless glass surface can never work just as well as a physical keyboard. The primary ergonomic quality of a physical keyboard is the keys. Physical switches that you can feel under your fingers and that travel when you press them.
 
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