Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Pro Said to Adopt OLED Displays in Late 2021 Following Mini-LED Model in Early 2021
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I like over summer when he says apple will release new iPhones in fall with faster processor and better cameras.
Agreed. MiniLED is in some ways worse than OLED (halos, etc), so any benefit would be small given the hassle of getting miniLED working in a mass market product. If they are willing to do OLED, just do OLED->microLED and skip miniLED.
More likely the plan is miniLED->microLED, which is fine, and is probably driven by supply problems they are having getting OLED panels, for some reason. But the one thing that makes no sense is miniLED->OLED.
Well I believe it. It'll be just like this year when we got one upgrade early in the year then the mini-LED model later in the year as predicted.
Oh wait...
Oh wait...
The left side of the LTE antenna band on my 10.5“ iPad snagged and broke off. 2nd time this has happened to same model.
so at this point ready for whatever display tech, 12.9”, A14X/M1 chips, and 5G enabled so it at least is future proof when network infrastructure sufficiently built out
props to Apple if it coincides around my birthday in early 2021 🤞
so at this point ready for whatever display tech, 12.9”, A14X/M1 chips, and 5G enabled so it at least is future proof when network infrastructure sufficiently built out
props to Apple if it coincides around my birthday in early 2021 🤞
The product might usually have an 18 month update, but that is with a newer chip. The 2020 update was the same chip, just another GPU core. I expect a new iPad Pro Q1.
Last edited:
Agreed, microLED is just "the best". But we're few years away from iPads rocking it.
My take on this:
Apple has tested both a miniLED and an OLED iPad Pro in the 12.9-inch form factor. Because Kuo gets his information from the supply chain, he is getting information about both designs and is hedging his bets by reporting both.
My opinion:
The next 12.9-inch iPad Pro will have a miniLED display and there will not be an OLED model. I believe it will ship in 1H 2021 (my guess is March at the Services Event).
Apple has tested both a miniLED and an OLED iPad Pro in the 12.9-inch form factor. Because Kuo gets his information from the supply chain, he is getting information about both designs and is hedging his bets by reporting both.
My opinion:
The next 12.9-inch iPad Pro will have a miniLED display and there will not be an OLED model. I believe it will ship in 1H 2021 (my guess is March at the Services Event).
Despite all the hype about OLED, I have been totally disappointed in the iPhone OLED screens I've seen so far. While OLED seems to offer a better contrast ratio (deeper blacks), and uses far less power, the colors on OLED strike me as less saturated, more muted. Reminds me of a VA panel. I'm much happier with LED or mini-LED than OLED. (And I know OLED panels get all these awards, but I still MUCH prefer my colors to look saturated and bright.)
I’m in the market for when 2021 pro is released, so invested in this personally and for work..
Apple will not want to wait just about a whole 365 days to get around to adding 5G and A14/M1 chip. Not sure if you read VP interviews, but tldr contortionist level stretch of truth that A12Z and A14 are meant for two distinct product visions I.e. A12Z was our workhorse that will be put to pasture once we redesign internals to accommodate new chip. A14 meant to better balance performance with battery and cost for lower tier products.
and lost count how many times they said “5G” during their press event. It’s a big deal. It is coming sooner than later. Yes 18 months up till 2020 waz timeframe, but the world has changed even since March
A12Z literally is one extra eighth GPU core that was previously disabled and binned as A12X till production could meet QA. Yes, non-LIDAR iPad Pro are rocking what Apple sought to have available in fall 2018.
OLED is an emissive technology (each pixel emits it's own light) so it has "perfect" black levels because there is no backlight (which is the case with traditional and MiniLED).
MiniLED has smaller backlights in an array so it has better black levels than full-backlit LEDs and it has higher peak and sustained brightness than OLED.
For me, OLED is for large televisions (I have a 55" LG OLED) and MiniLED is better for small consumer electronics devices (like smartphones, tablets and computer displays).
iirc, iPad Pros used to have OIS and then Apple purposely removed it starting with the 2018 Pro models. I don't think Apple will be bringing it back soon.
Mini-LED is a stop gap. We are all waiting for micro-LED, which is the inorganic version of OLED and superior in every way. But until we at least see micro-LED on an Apple Watch, it's gonna be a long wait...
That said, y'all need to get your priorities in order: Which matters more to you - how well the color black is drawn, or how well the other 16 million colors are drawn? I find black the least interesting of all the colors. And there's no controversy that IPS (LCD) displays offer the best colors.
If I had to guess, the driving reason to apply something like OLED is simply to save power.
That said, y'all need to get your priorities in order: Which matters more to you - how well the color black is drawn, or how well the other 16 million colors are drawn? I find black the least interesting of all the colors. And there's no controversy that IPS (LCD) displays offer the best colors.
If I had to guess, the driving reason to apply something like OLED is simply to save power.
I'm going to add my own input to this and argue that OLED is better. The iPhone 11 Pros and iPhone 12 Pros are OLED screens that go up to 800 nits of sustained brightness and something like 1200 nits of HDR brightness, which are both brighter than any current iPad screen (the current best iPad screens are around 625 nits of brightness iirc).
Mini LED has contrast zones, which allow for groups of pixels to turn on/off together, which does provide better contrast than current LCD screens. HOWEVER, it's still not as good as the pure black contrast of OLED, which can turn on/off every single individual pixel. Therefore, I think that OLED will get plenty bright enough while offering the best contrast possible.
The only advantage of Mini LED over OLED, to me, is the fact that you don't have to worry about burn-in with Mini LED like you do with OLED. However, Apple's OLED technology seems to prevent burn-in very well. I've seen very few reports of OLED burn-in on Apple devices, even with the iPhone X being 3 years old at this point.
Yes it did, its a binned Version of the same Chip with 1 more gpu core enabled due to better yields
I’m figuring that the A14 and more efficient mini LED will help with battery life.