Apple iPad Fold will not be released until 2026 at the earliest
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman is back with another report on Apple’s long-rumored first foldable smartphone – the iPhone Fold. Or maybe not – according to Gurman, Apple is not preparing an iPhone but “a giant iPad that folds out to the size of two iPad Pros side by side.” The Apple iPad Fold is in development and is expected to launch around 2028.
Early prototypes of the Apple iPad Fold are said to be well advanced in terms of hardware and feature a barely noticeable screen crease. According to Gurman’s sources, Apple is aiming for a display size of nearly 20 inches when the tablet is fully unfolded. The actual size of the display could be 18.8 inches, according to a leaked Apple display roadmap from earlier this month.
The Apple iPad Fold is said to be similar to the Microsoft Surface Neo and Lenovo Yoga Book 9i. The main difference in hardware is that Apple wants a single, uninterrupted screen with no visible hinges on the front for a more seamless experience. That sounds a lot like the ThinkPad X1 Fold from 2022.
Apple’s first foldable device will most likely come to market with iPadOS or a slightly modified version of this operating system. Currently, all foldable resources seem to be on the Apple iPad Fold. But Gurman also outlined plans for a foldable Apple iPhone Fold.
The Apple iPhone Fold is not expected to come to market before 2026. There have already been some reports pointing to an iPhone Flip, similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series. For some users, that apparently took too long – resourceful YouTubers simply built their own foldable iPhone based on an iPhone X in a DIY project from over two years ago.
