Super-size folding iPad won’t have visible screen crease

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One of Apple’s design goals for a much-rumored iPad with a 20-inch folding display is that the screen won’t develop a visible crease, according to a reliable source of insider information.

Whether it’ll be a Mac or an iPad isn’t clear yet, but it’s possible the computer will be both.

20-inch folding iPad won’t have a flaw in foldable Androids

Apple has held the maximum iPad size at 13 inches for years, but multiple reports from a variety of sources over years indicate that it’s developing one with a screen about 20 inches. To make such a large tablet portable, the screen needs to be foldable.

All that room to work could make users very productive on the go, while also being well suited for watching video or gaming.

One of the major issues preventing foldable phones from going mainstream is the unsightly crease in the center of the flexible screen. That won’t appear in the foldable iPad.

“Apple’s goal for a foldable device is to avoid the crease that current products have when they’re in the open position,” said Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on Sunday. He’s known for having sources inside Apple willing to leak him information.

It won’t be easy, though. Still, the sources inside Apple claim that current prototypes have almost eliminated the crease.

A MacPad?

iPad has plenty of fans — Apple sells more than twice as many tablets as it does laptops and desktops — but there are nevertheless calls for iPadOS to get upgraded so it can run macOS applications.

Gurman predicts that will happen in the coming years, and says Apple’s folding iPad will be one of the beneficiaries.

“By the time 2028 rolls around, iPadOS should be advanced enough to run macOS apps, but it also makes sense to support iPad accessories like the Apple Pencil,” Gurman wrote on Sunday.

That date is important — a recent report mentioned that Apple has an 18.8-inch computer with a folding display on its product roadmap for 2028. While that means the wait could stretch out three years, at least the computer that will eventually arrive will be a hybrid iPad/MacBook.