Oliver Haslam on March 1, 2022, 12:38 am

Gurman: Apple’s 20-Inch Foldable Mac Could Include A Touch Screen Keyboard

Talk of some sort of foldable Mac notebook with a display of around 20 inches has been circulating since last week. Display analyst Ross Young said that the device was being worked on, although details are scarce.

Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has chimed in to say that the device might offer a touch-based keyboard via part of that foldable display.

Here’s a reminder of what Young said last week and why it’s so exciting:

On the other hand, we are now showing Apple in our roadmap for foldable notebooks. We hear there is interest at the largest size yet, around 20.x”. This size could create a new category for Apple and would result in a true dual use product, a notebook with a full-size keyboard when folded and for use as a monitor when not folded and used with an external keyboard. It may also allow for UHD/4K resolution or even higher at that size. The time frame is likely later than 2025 though, it could be 2026 or 2027.

According to Bloomberg, such a device would offer a 20-inch screen when connected to a physical keyboard. However, when folded the second half of the display could turn into a touch-based keyboard like the one found on an iPad.

The company could go with a foldable 20-inch screen attached to a physical keyboard or just have one side of the display serving as a virtual keyboard. I’m told Apple has indeed been exploring a dual-screen, foldable MacBook/iPad hybrid that would take the second approach. It would trade in the physical keyboard and trackpad for a fully touch-screen base.

It’s thought that the device could be ready around 2026 or 2027 and while we’ aren’t quite sure about typing on a touch-based keyboard, the possibilities are still intriguing. It’s still a long way away, if it launches at all, so don’t start crossing those fingers just yet.