Apple Could Build a MacBook with Second OLED Display Doubling as Keyboard

Apple has already stated that it’s not interesting in building laptops with touchscreens, a form factor that Microsoft is aggressively investing in, but it looks like Cupertino is developing a much more complex approach for its future MacBook generations.

A recent patent shows that Apple is exploring ways to build a dual-display device that would technically replace the keyboard of a MacBook with a full OLED screen. This means that instead of typing on a keyboard, you’d type on a display, and with technology like haptic feedback, Apple could simulate the feedback of a traditional keyboard.

Without physical keys, the screen could play multiple roles, and in addition to keyboard, it could also allow the main display to detach and double as an iPad.

The patent describes two different ideas, one of which includes a removable hinge that basically allows for a form factor that would essentially allow the MacBook to convert to an iPad.

MacBook becoming an iPad

The patent also details technology that Apple would use to avoid reflections from one display to another, and describes how the two screens would work when connected:

“A first display may be mounted in a first housing and a second display may be mounted in a second housing that is adjacent to the first housing. The first housing may rotate relative to the second housing about a hinge axis.

The first housing may be a lid and the second housing may be a base housing that is coupled to the lid by a hinge. A first display may be mounted in the first housing and a second display may be mounted in the second housing. Polarizer layers and other optical layers in the displays may be configured to provide a viewer with the ability to view images on the displays while wearing vertically polarized sunglasses and to suppress reflections of light emitted by the first display off of the second display.”

As usual, a patent is not living proof that a certain product enters production, but it does provide us with an early look at possible projects that a company might be interested in.