Apple’s first foldable could be an iPad or even a MacBook

Foldable iPhone concept image — (Image credit: ConceptsiPhone / YouTube)

Apple has been working on its first foldable device for at least five years, according to DigiTimes. But what will this device be? Surely, it’s got to be an iPhone Fold, right? Well, the Cupertino crew has other plans that may surprise you.

You see, Apple has its eye on a bigger price, as the report claims this first foldable is planned to be a “larger device.” That's right — we’re talking about a potential foldable iPad or even a MacBook.

Folding its way into my heart

So what has the hold up been? We’re already talking about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, and Apple hasn’t even launched one. Put simply, it comes down to quality control.

No foldable panel has met the company’s lofty standards. This has forced Apple to suspend the display development Samsung was doing for the team — instead taking engineers from the Vision Pro and putting them on the foldable project, to internalize this process and keep a tighter grip on quality.

And when will it launch? There isn’t anything specifically stated in the report, except to say you can expect a 2025 drop at the absolute earliest. That means if Apple is going big for its first foldable, users dreaming of a flip iPhone may be waiting a whole lot longer.

A Foldable iPad? Yes please!

The rumor mill of a foldable iPad has been quietly churning away in the background, and the more I think about it, the more this would be the dream first device to debut a folding screen in Apple’s lineage.

According to reports, this could be a new generation iPad Mini — bringing a dramatic redesign that makes the 7- or 8-inch display pocketable with a simple fold. Knowing how much I love the Mini in its current form, making it so much more portable would be a huge move that consumers would snap up in an instant.

And then there’s the massive foldable MacBook, which has been rumored over the past two years. Personally, after trying the likes of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and the new Asus Zenbook Duo, I can see the attraction. But Apple’s got a good thing going on with its laptops, and in my opinion, this should be the last device that gets a folding screen put in it (behind the iPhone).

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.