Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Apple is going to produce a folding laptop, phone, or tablet…in about three or four years! If the rumor mill is to be believed, Apple has been “three years” away from a foldable whatever since 2018. We’ve written about this before.
The latest comes from Business Korea, which claims its sources say Apple is “in talks with display suppliers to launch a foldable MacBook model.” Yes, all MacBooks are foldable already, that’s sort of what a laptop is, but they mean one with a foldable display.
According to the report, Apple is aiming to take the wraps off the product in 2025 and ship it as soon as 2026. Take any report claiming to know what Apple will ship more than a year from now with a huge grain of salt.
The Zenbook Fold, pictured above, is one of a very small number of foldable laptops–Lenovo shipped an X1 Fold back in 2020 and an update in 2022 as well. Reviews for these laptops tend to laud the big unfolded display but decry all the compromises they come with: bulk, poor battery life, lackluster performance, and a typing experience that necessitates carrying around a separate physical keyboard, sort of defeating the purpose.
Apple may or may not have answers to those problems yet, and it seems quite likely that the company is experimenting internally with folding-display products of all sorts. But as the years-long folding iPhone rumors have shown us, product development doesn’t always end in a product launch.
We don’t suggest you wait for “the foldable MacBook” for your next upgrade. If you’re in the market for a Mac, we’ve got plenty of suggestions that don’t involve waiting around for another foldable Apple product that may never arrive.
Author: Jason Cross, Senior Editor
I have written about technology for my entire professional life - over 25 years. I enjoy learning about how complicated technology works and explaining it in a way anyone can understand.