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2026 iPad Air OLED Panels to Be Supplied By Samsung

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Apple will choose Samsung Display as the main supplier of OLED panels for a new iPad Air, primarily due to its large production capacity compared to rival LG Display, reports The Elec.

OLED-iPad-Air.jpg

Samsung already supplies Apple with OLED panels for the new M4 iPad Pro, which features a tandem design for improved brightness and power efficiency. Today's report adds that Apple will bring an OLED panel to the iPad Air alongside the ‌iPad mini‌ in 2026.

Samsung Display's A3 line, which mass-produces OLED panels for the iPhone and iPad Pro, has a production capacity of 135,000 units per month. In comparison, LG Display's E6-1~3 lines, which produce OLED for the iPhone, have a capacity of only 45,000 units per month, and the E6-4 line, which produces OLED for the iPad, has a capacity of just 15,000 units per month.

Apple's plans to transition the ‌iPad mini‌ and ‌iPad Air‌ to OLED displays are now widely rumored. According to research firm Omdia, the ‌iPad Air‌ is expected to adopt an OLED display in 2026, with the ‌iPad mini‌ following in 2027. However, Korea's ET News and ZDNET Korea both suggest that the two models will be updated with OLED displays simultaneously in 2026, though there's a possibility that Apple might delay the 13-inch ‌iPad Air‌'s OLED upgrade until 2027. While the OLED ‌‌iPad Air‌‌ is expected to retain its 11-inch display, the ‌‌iPad mini‌‌'s screen could increase in size from 8.3 inches to 8.7 inches.

Unlike the latest ‌iPad Pro‌ models, which use two-stack LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) OLED panels, the ‌iPad mini‌ and ‌iPad Air‌ are expected to feature single-stack LTPS (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) panels. As a result, these displays may be dimmer and continue to lack ProMotion technology, but the lower specifications reduce manufacturing costs.

LG Display has an edge in the mass production of tandem OLED, but this advantage is unlikely to carry over to the iPad Air. Today's Korean report cited an industry source speculating that since Apple needs to increase sales of the OLED iPad Air, it will likely prefer Samsung Display, which can reliably produce large quantities of single-stack OLED panels.

Article Link: 2026 iPad Air OLED Panels to Be Supplied By Samsung
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/08/2026-ipad-air-oled-panels-supplied-samsung/
I guess this trend will carry over to MacBooks: the air gets a single stack, lower brightness OLED and the Pro gets the tandem stack 1000 nit full screen brightness OLED.
 
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Some Pro users have reported dissatisfaction with the two-stack panels, saying that the displays are "grainy".

Perhaps a normal single stack panel would eliminate this problem at the cost of a slight loss of brightness? Or is there another reason for grainy images on the Pro display such as the supplier Samsung or power management or simply being an artifact of OLED panels?

New M4 iPad Pro owners complain of grainy displays and there probably isn't anything Apple can do about it -- Is this an OLED thing?
 
And the base 11 inch 128GB model will only cost $1200 in Australia, and we think you’re gonna love it🙄.
 
Jetson said:
Some Pro users have reported dissatisfaction with the two-stack panels, saying that the displays are "grainy".

Perhaps a normal single stack panel would eliminate this problem at the cost of a slight loss of brightness? Or is there another reason for grainy images on the Pro display such as the supplier Samsung or power management or simply being an artifact of OLED panels?

New M4 iPad Pro owners complain of grainy displays and there probably isn't anything Apple can do about it -- Is this an OLED thing?
Click to expand...
I have one, and they’re not.
 
Everything I’ve read about the tandem displays in the iPad Pro says that Samsung stated to Apple that they couldn’t produce them. LG is the leader in tandem displays and they are the one everyone says is building them for Apple. I’d like to see a source that says Samsung is supplying them.
 
Jetson said:
Some Pro users have reported dissatisfaction with the two-stack panels, saying that the displays are "grainy".

Perhaps a normal single stack panel would eliminate this problem at the cost of a slight loss of brightness? Or is there another reason for grainy images on the Pro display such as the supplier Samsung or power management or simply being an artifact of OLED panels?

New M4 iPad Pro owners complain of grainy displays and there probably isn't anything Apple can do about it -- Is this an OLED thing?
Click to expand...

This is an OLED thing, not an Apple thing. Take a look at a Switch OLED, a Samsung tablet with OLED, or sit close enough to an OLED TV and you will see some faint grain in grays.

Typically, it's not noticeable.
 
Good to know. Both Samsung and LG make good quality displays/panels.
 
MacRumors said:
Samsung Display's A3 line, which mass-produces OLED panels for the iPhone and iPad Pro, has a production capacity of 135,000 units per month. In comparison, LG Display's E6-1~3 lines, which produce OLED for the iPhone, have a capacity of only 45,000 units per month, and the E6-4 line, which produces OLED for the iPad, has a capacity of just 15,000 units per month.
Click to expand...
This has to be a mistake right?

iPads sell in the tens of millions. iPhones sell in the hundreds of millions.
 
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