Massive 20.5-inch foldable MacBook again rumored for 2025

(Image credit: Antonio De Rosa)

Rumors of a 20-inch foldable MacBook are again circulating following reports of a foldable iPad arriving as soon as 2024.

While that 2024 foldable iPad isn't something that DSCC analyst Ross Young has heard anything about, he believes that a 20.5-inch foldable MacBook is still in the works.

What's more, Young says that he expects Apple to announce that new MacBook in 2025 — a full year after we'd been told a bendy iPad would arrive.

BendyBook

While analyst Ming-Chi Kuo already believes that a foldable tablet will debut in 2024, Young weighed in via Twitter to say that he had not heard anything about such a product. Instead, Young reiterated a previous report that a foldable laptop is working through Apple's development process. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also cast doubt on the prospect of a folding iPad arriving in 2024.

Have heard about a 20.5” foldable notebook for 2025, but nothing about a foldable iPad for 2024. Maybe this is just good PR for the hinge company…January 31, 2023

This isn't the first time that we've heard of such a thing, of course. Young was pointing towards a foldable MacBook coming in 2025 back in February 2022 — a full year ago.

There are still plenty of questions about what a foldable MacBook would look like, not to mention how it would work. Although we can't imagine it being cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

As for the foldable tablet report from Kuo, young perhaps mischievously suggested that the rumor might be good public relations for the company said to be tasked with working on its hinge.

All of this comes hot on the heels of the release of Apple's updated 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro products, which is definitely the best MacBook Apple has ever made. Both now offer the upgraded M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, although there are no external changes to speak of.

If Apple really is going to launch a foldable notebook, that 16-inch MacBook Pro looks like a good bet to us.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.