Apple’s rumored foldable iPad could cost $3,900 if component prices hold steady, and that is before we even get into the fact that current prototypes weigh 3.5 pounds. For context, that is heavier than a MacBook Air.
What makes that weight figure genuinely strange is what this device actually is. Fold it shut, and it looks like a metal laptop with no screen on the outside.
Flip it open, and you have an 18-inch OLED display with no physical keyboard anywhere in sight. Apple’s longest-running product philosophy, keeping the Mac and the iPad in completely separate lanes, quietly disappears the moment this thing ships.
The Hinge Is the Whole Story
The foldable iPad and the foldable iPhone that Apple is expected to release later this year are reportedly sharing the same hinge technology. That matters because getting a crease-free fold at phone size is hard enough.
Pulling it off at 18 inches is a genuinely different engineering problem, and Apple apparently thinks one solution covers both.
The phone version, which is floating around under the name iPhone Ultra, is much further along. It is expected to arrive alongside the iPhone 18 Pro this fall, folding from a 5.5-inch screen to a 7.8-inch one with a minimal visible crease.
The tablet version, by contrast, is probably still years out, with tracking suggesting a likely slip to 2029 due to ongoing development issues around weight and display technology.
Who Actually Buys This?
Current speculation frames the foldable iPad as something that would create an entirely new product category for giant folding tablets.
That is a bold claim for a device with a Samsung-made display, a typing experience that currently has no good answer, and a price tag that clears the threshold of a used car.
Apple already charges $1,299 for the 13-inch iPad Pro. Scaling that math up to an 18-inch OLED panel that folds in half gets you somewhere near that $3,900 estimate, and that assumes prices actually improve between now and 2029.
Development was reportedly paused entirely in mid-2025 before news surfaced in early 2026 that work had resumed. Apple is clearly committed, even if the finish line keeps moving.
