Kuo: iPad Air to Adopt OLED in 2022, Mini-LED to Remain Exclusive to iPad Pro Models

[mkoesel]

MicroLED (not miniLED) is the ultimate in image quality that has the best of both worlds without any of the negatives. Manufacturing technology isn't sufficient yet to make the a reality. However, that's still an LCD screen.

The bolded sentence isn't clear. What's still an LCD screen? Did you mean to claim that micro-LED is an LCD variant? If so, you may wish to do a bit more reading. Like OLED displays, micro-LED (which could have been called ILED and saved the world from a lot of confusion) displays are emissive. In other words they don't need a backlight - the pixels themselves are the lights.

Incidentally, for folks who are wondering why OLED fabricators haven't simply tweaked or reformulated their manufacturing facilities and processes to produce micro-LED displays, it turns out that while they are similar in principle, they require very different fabrication methods. The latter are still being developed and refined for mass production viability.

 

[TechLord]

Seems weird as hell if true. OLED is the more superior and premium display tech in my mind. I’ll wait for the iPad Air if this is true.

 

[CWallace]

OLED being on the iPad Air does make a kind of sense if it is being positioned as a single-user video-consumption device where the benefits of OLED are the most apparent. I fully expect it will be a 60Hz panel without ProMotion if they are claiming panel pricing similar to the current LCD unit.

As others have noted, the iPad Pro needs to offer maximum flexibility so MiniLED likely works better here with ProMotion, higher peak brightness, better off-axis viewing and such.

 

[ksec]

I don't know.. miniLED is basically an LCD with controlled backlit. It still has some sort of backlight bleeding, or halo effect in the edges between dark and light images? TCL uses miniLED for their latest TVs, because it's cheap for its ability to mimicking OLED contrast (to some degree).

OLED however is pixel perfect. If anything OLED is still the king of high-end display both for TV and mobile market. I mean why Pro model iPhones (before 12 Series) go with OLED if it's not a premium offering? It's been years since iPhone uses OLED and I don't see any meaningful burn-in problems.

1. OLED is not pixel perfect, not in its current implementation, whether that is AMOLED or WOLED. Search Diamond, Pentile Pattern. It is one of the reason why you have much higher Pixel Density on OLED screen to migrate that effect.

2. MiniLED is not cheap. Well depends on type of MiniLED. Having a 500 zones on a 80" TV is going to be cheap, having 500 zones on a Laptop or Tablet is going to be expensive. Much more so than OLED. ( OLED is getting cheaper at a much faster rate )

And to other replies

Who ever said "Apple's OLED" ( What does that even mean ) doesn't have burn-in, have no idea how OLED works. And how burn in works. The issue may be migrated somewhat on a phone ( when was the last time you have the same screen on a phone for more than a minute ), or on a tablet? It doesn't mean there is no Burn-In.

iPad Air with OLED provides benefits that Apple could test other OLED panel quality without them reaching iPhone in the first place. ( LG and BOE has been pushing for those orders ). It will also be thinner, are we going to see a iPad Air that is thinner than current iPad Pro? Sub 5mm thickness? And it also has a roadmap these OLED will someday be cheaper than LCD. Although I have no idea how they will play with Pixel Density given you need higher PPI for OLED, where iPad Air would have more pixels than iPad Pro?

 

[iSayuSay]

....

2. MiniLED is not cheap. Well depends on type of MiniLED. Having a 500 zones on a 80" TV is going to be cheap, having 500 zones on a Laptop or Tablet is going to be expensive. Much more so than OLED. ( OLED is getting cheaper at a much faster rate )

...

It is cheap compared to OLED with the same size. Today you can buy 75” miniLED TV for the price of a 55” LG CX OLED. It’s bang for your buck really IF (that’s a big if) you haven’t been spoiled by OLED TVs.

Yep it will be delicate, expensive to cram in 500 FALD zones into a 13” iPad display. It will also be a battery-drainer to implement such thing into an iPad. By that point, why bother then? Just go OLED like current iPhones. Awesome contrast, thin and of course low power.

 

[x-evil-x]

I bet you, that if you colour measure the TV some of the channels will be almost done. Your plasma from 2011 will have completely different colours than when you bought it new and now I think you might not even be able to calibrate it to the same standard.

Mini LED is much better than OLED overall. Sure, OLED has advantages but it also have disadvantages that outweight it so I'll take Mini LED anyday over OLED.

Soon you will all find out why Mini LED was the better choice.

And please others - stop comparing it to TVs. Its totally different implementation.

Sure they might be different but I still compare every 4k tv to that plasma daily. The picture is just way better. The only thing that is on its level and better is my oled.
no other lcd tv ive had had been able to compare picture wise to the plasma.
my friend didn’t believe me either. He kept nagging at me to upgrade my plasma for 4K and I told him the same thing.
I tried middle to higher end 65” full array 4K tv’s from Sony to Samsung and he finally took time to watch the plasma and was in shock how amazing it still is. Its not as bright as my 2020 oled but still not bad. Having the sony oled I finally feel like it’s better than the plasma in most ways. LCD’s can’t compare. I’m waiting to get a 77” oled when prices are a little bit less. I still preferred my plasma to my main living room full array Sony 4ktv I have now. The oled is in my bedroom.

i don’t understand how you think mini led is better than oled. Does miniled have millions of zones? No. It’s not micro led. It still has a number of zones like a full array lcd tv. Just a bit better than a full array.
same reason I loved plasma is the pixels are self emissive No backlight needed. No light bleed. No spots. Contrast pops on infinite blacks. I have a full array lcd and hdr compared to my oled is no contest better. I wont watch anything hdr on the lcd anymore after seeing it on the oled.
only thing mini led can do is get brighter. But it won’t be “better” until it’s micro led. i still just see them as glorified full array lcd tv’s.
mini led’s have what? Up to 3000 zones? But a 4K tv has 8 millions pixel.
how can that even compare to what you get from an oled with each of those pixels its own light source. It just can’t compare. Oleds and plasma before brought depth to the screen you don’t get from an normal
lcd or full array lcd.

 

[lilkwarrior]

This is baffling to me; this *downgrades* the iPad Pro since OLED is far more desirable & offers far better picture quality at lower prices at that.

The iPad Pro is struggling to differentiate itself from the regular iPad line-up as is besides screen real estate. Having OLED be available to the iPad but not iPad Pro is moronic.

It seems that they just can't get a supplier of 12"+ panels for the iPad Pro for such an arrangement to be happening supposedly. Otherwise you go OLED or they exercise their supplier advantage to get *MicroLED*.

How much zones they can have in a MiniLED version that doesn't hike prices significantly anyway?

 

[lilkwarrior]

OLED at this point doesn’t interest me, mini LED does. Followed by hopefully the transition of micro-LED to the iPhone and Apple Watch.

How? MiniLED has worser picture quality, not even in the ballpark similar contrast, & more expensive to get enough zones to begin looking close to an OLED. Only thing Mini-LED has going for it is higher nits, & every pro knows there's more to HDR that nits.

If you've seen the prices of MicroLED products, currently 4x+ more expensive than OLED, you won't see a MicroLEDf Apple Device anytime soon without immaculate supply chain work.

 

[lilkwarrior]

OLED being on the iPad Air does make a kind of sense if it is being positioned as a single-user video-consumption device where the benefits of OLED are the most apparent. I fully expect it will be a 60Hz panel without ProMotion if they are claiming panel pricing similar to the current LCD unit.

As others have noted, the iPad Pro needs to offer maximum flexibility so MiniLED likely works better here with ProMotion, higher peak brightness, better off-axis viewing and such.

OLED would be FAAAAAR better for pro motion with far better response times possible. Same thing with off-axis viewing. The only thing you listed Mini-LED has an advantage over OLED on is higher peak brightness.

 

[Solomani]

Next year, I want my iPad with mini-OLED screen

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I really couldn’t care less whether my iPad screen is LCD, OLED, MicroLED or whatever in all honesty. I’ve never felt the screen quality is poor anyway .

 

[ksec]

It is cheap compared to OLED with the same size. Today you can buy 75” miniLED TV for the price of a 55” LG CX OLED. It’s bang for your buck really IF (that’s a big if) you haven’t been spoiled by OLED TVs.

Yep it will be delicate, expensive to cram in 500 FALD zones into a 13” iPad display. It will also be a battery-drainer to implement such thing into an iPad. By that point, why bother then? Just go OLED like current iPhones. Awesome contrast, thin and of course low power.

Because the iPad Pro is expected to be a content creation devices which means static image with much higher possibility of burn in issues.

 

[Freida]

What model is this magical plasma tv, please? And what Sony 65" did you try so I know where you are coming from, please.
Also, did you get all your TVs professionally calibrated?

OLED is worse than Mini LED. Some see it, some don't and some think otherwise. I don't want OLED in my house if I can prevent it. The only OLED I had was Apple Watch but I've recently gave it to my sister so now I'm OLED free.
In the past I've had OLED iPhone which I have returned as the "sparkle" effect plus the PMW was driving me crazy.
Mini LED and in few years time Micro LED - that is my upgrade path if I can control it

Sure they might be different but I still compare every 4k tv to that plasma daily. The picture is just way better. The only thing that is on its level and better is my oled.
no other lcd tv ive had had been able to compare picture wise to the plasma.
my friend didn’t believe me either. He kept nagging at me to upgrade my plasma for 4K and I told him the same thing.
I tried middle to higher end 65” full array 4K tv’s from Sony to Samsung and he finally took time to watch the plasma and was in shock how amazing it still is. Its not as bright as my 2020 oled but still not bad. Having the sony oled I finally feel like it’s better than the plasma in most ways. LCD’s can’t compare. I’m waiting to get a 77” oled when prices are a little bit less. I still preferred my plasma to my main living room full array Sony 4ktv I have now. The oled is in my bedroom.

i don’t understand how you think mini led is better than oled. Does miniled have millions of zones? No. It’s not micro led. It still has a number of zones like a full array lcd tv. Just a bit better than a full array.
same reason I loved plasma is the pixels are self emissive No backlight needed. No blood. No spots. Contrast pops on infinite blacks. I have a full array lcd and hdr compared to my oled is no contest better. I wont watch anything hdr on the lcd anymore after seeing it on the oled.
only thing mini led can do is get brighter. But it won’t be “better” until it’s micro led. i still just see them as glorified full array lcd tv’s.
mini led’s have what? Up to 3000 zones? But a 4K tv has 8 millions pixel.
how can that even compare to what you get from an oled with each of those pixels its own light source. It just can’t compare. Oleds and plasma before brought depth to the screen you don’t get from an normal
lcd or full array lcd.

 

[techconc]

The bolded sentence isn't clear. What's still an LCD screen? Did you mean to claim that micro-LED is an LCD variant? If so, you may wish to do a bit more reading. Like OLED displays, micro-LED (which could have been called ILED and saved the world from a lot of confusion) displays are emissive. In other words they don't need a backlight - the pixels themselves are the lights.

Incidentally, for folks who are wondering why OLED fabricators haven't simply tweaked or reformulated their manufacturing facilities and processes to produce micro-LED displays, it turns out that while they are similar in principle, they require very different fabrication methods. The latter are still being developed and refined for mass production viability.

Yes, you are correct. It is mini-LED that still requires an LCD panel, not micro-LED. My mistake.

 

[x-evil-x]

What model is this magical plasma tv, please? And what Sony 65" did you try so I know where you are coming from, please.
Also, did you get all your TVs professionally calibrated?

OLED is worse than Mini LED. Some see it, some don't and some think otherwise. I don't want OLED in my house if I can prevent it. The only OLED I had was Apple Watch but I've recently gave it to my sister so now I'm OLED free.
In the past I've had OLED iPhone which I have returned as the "sparkle" effect plus the PMW was driving me crazy.
Mini LED and in few years time Micro LED - that is my upgrade path if I can control it

Panasonic zt series. I also had a gt series 50inch that was about as good as the zt.
Its okay if you don't like oled and it gives your issues. You don't have to say its bad because your brain cant handle it. Im Just stating the fact that a 3000 zone led tv cant compete with a million+ zone tv. Once micro led comes around ill probably change my mind.
Mini led isn't even in the same ballpark as oled. Its closer than typical full array backlit tv's but they all have a limitation that they cant individual turn off a pixel.
Yes I still think my plasma looks better than my Sony 900f. Things just look different on self emissive displays that an lcd cant do.
I have a Sony a8h from last year and its the only tv ive had ive been blown away with since my plasma days. I tried led 4k tv's for 3 years from 2015 up and kept returning them because they didn't do it for me. The 900f barely Made It. I decided it was good enough for now. Im not too worried with burn in as I didn't get any on my plasmas and oled is far less finicky than plasmas where with that sort of thing.

 

[techconc]

... Im Just stating the fact that a 3000 zone led tv cant compete with a million+ zone tv. Once micro led comes around ill probably change my mind.

That sounds more like spec counting than an actual comparison. I've only seen 1 mini-LED screen so far and I tried to the the white text scrolling on black background, etc. No blooming to see, etc. It's not like early dimming solutions.

Yes I still think my plasma looks better than my Sony 900f. Things just look different on self emissive displays that an lcd cant do.

Plasma screens end up looking very muddy. It's fine if you're in a basement with no other sources of lighting. Otherwise, most LCDs end up looking better in more normal lighting conditions. OLED is better than plasma, but it has its own issues. I'd take mini-LED over OLED and would consider that to be the superior technology at this point. It's not micro-LED, but form my limited exposure, it seems better than OLED... at least to me.

 

[pdoherty]

Why are they putting the superior panel tech on the lower end Air?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer that, but I would assume the OLED would be on the Pro’s and the Mini-LED stop-gap to be on the Air’s.

All this talk about burn-in. As an anecdote: I’ve been using my LG C8 55 OLED as an extended desktop for ~2 years now, with lots of static visual elements and it’s been fine.

It is my understanding that Mini-LED panels are physically thicker and limited to infinite contract per zone (not per pixel) in comparison.

Mini and micro LED have no burn in issues at all and can get far brighter than OLED ever could. They’re also more durable and their image quality will not alter/suffer as time passes.

 

[pdoherty]

It’s good to see many educated people here with regards to screen technology. Like them I’m wondering how OLED is the low tier. If it’s true, its backwards. MiniLED does not offer the same performance. Go look at the recent TVs with the tech. Blacks and blooming are terrible compared to OLED. I predict Apple will artificially limit the brightness of the OLED and call it inferior. As if brightness is the only important factor in a screen. This is troubling if true.

The extra minor contrast benefit from OLED doesn’t make up for the lower lifespan and burn in, plus lower brightness. nobody is doing dark room viewing on iPads and laptops. Far better for these Pro portable devices to have the greater brightness and longer life, IMO. Also likely a lot more durable as OLED screens are pretty easy to physically damage.

 

[pdoherty]

Obligatory reminder that the "organic" in OLED has nothing to do with "organic" in the sense of "from organisms" or "biological". The LEDs are organic in the sense as they are made with organic chemistry.

Organic chemicals don't automatically have a "predetermined life cycle" or decay. If they would, we wouldn't have problems with non-decaying plastics.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379677915301193

Sounds like not coming from biological sources isn’t helping.

“OLED degrades due to various internal and external mechanisms. External degradation is mainly caused due to the instability of low work function cathode, pin-hole formation during fabrication which provides a path for oxygen and moisture infiltration. Operation of OLED also leads to degradation with major causes being morphological instability of organic layers, trap formation, indium or oxygen diffusion from anode, interface deterioration etc.”

 

[Freida]

I don't think you are being objective here. First, you compare it to your aging plasma tv which by now has to have awful colour shifts etc. let alone other issues. And then you bring up 900F which is a mid range tv from 2018. I know it because I have the same one.
900F doesn't have that many dimming zones so yeah its not as awesome as the OLED you comparing it to.
Btw, what are the criteria here? It seems to me that you might be only focused on deep blacks and not the overall tech. OLED is crappy in global hence why tech is trying to get MicroLED to the market. MiniLED is the bridge.
You really can't have OLED in computers or devices that use static images for long period of time as no amount of pixel shifting etc. will fix the burn in. TVs are different as they are not on (usually) for 12hours or more a day at home.

So, its nothing to do with my brain. Its when you compared all the specs and features and pros vs cons the MiniLED wins over OLED in almost everything. Sure, OLED gets better blacks but MiniLED can get super super close.

On top of it, TV tech and iPad or computers is different.

And lastly, why are you talking about 4K constantly? That is just resolution so how does that play in here?

Panasonic zt series. I also had a gt series 50inch that was about as good as the zt.
Its okay if you don't like oled and it gives your issues. You don't have to say its bad because your brain cant handle it. Im Just stating the fact that a 3000 zone led tv cant compete with a million+ zone tv. Once micro led comes around ill probably change my mind.
Mini led isn't even in the same ballpark as oled. Its closer than typical full array backlit tv's but they all have a limitation that they cant individual turn off a pixel.
Yes I still think my plasma looks better than my Sony 900f. Things just look different on self emissive displays that an lcd cant do.
I have a Sony a8h from last year and its the only tv ive had ive been blown away with since my plasma days. I tried led 4k tv's for 3 years from 2015 up and kept returning them because they didn't do it for me. The 900f barely Made It. I decided it was good enough for now. Im not too worried with burn in as I didn't get any on my plasmas and oled is far less finicky than plasmas where with that sort of thing.

 

[mclld]

If I could dock one of these big ipads and use with a monitor and be reasonably capable as an M1 Mac at basic 4k editing I would probably use that as my main computer, something needs to happen with file browsing and access though

 

[cardfan]

Mini and micro LED have no burn in issues at all and can get far brighter than OLED ever could. They’re also more durable and their image quality will not alter/suffer as time passes.

I’m with you on this. No more oled TVs for me. Burn me once... But an iPad is an easy exchange and doesn’t concern me as much. Honestly I’m good with either oled or mini led as either is an improvement.

I’d probably wait for 11” air with oled. Can’t see buying another 12.9. The 11” pro with no screen improvements? Forget that.

 

[upandown]

The extra minor contrast benefit from OLED doesn’t make up for the lower lifespan and burn in, plus lower brightness. nobody is doing dark room viewing on iPads and laptops. Far better for these Pro portable devices to have the greater brightness and longer life, IMO. Also likely a lot more durable as OLED screens are pretty easy to physically damage.

I disagree on all counts.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

I’d rather have OLED than mini-LED though. You get true infinite contrast, and burn in has never been a thing with Apple’s OLED.

Mini-LED is just a glorified LCD panel with slightly better contrast. It still doesn’t compare to OLED pure blacks. It makes no sense that mini-LED would be the premium product while OLED is the mid- to low-tier product.

Yes, the only reason to be excited about Mini-LED is that is is progress toward Micro-LED. That is the technology that will rival OLED in terms of true blacks & vibrant colors. But I think we're years away from affordable mass-production of Micro-LEDs for iPads or TVs.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

All I’ll say is oled is outstanding on wife’s 15” laptop. Not so much on 55” lg tv bought in 2017. It’s ready to be tossed out the screen is so bad now.

For an iPad I don’t keep that long and there’s ease of swapping with AppleCare. Bring on oled. For a giant tv I’ll stick with led. Don’t think I’m interested in anymore 12” iPads though.

Really, the OLED TV has only lasted around 3-1/2 years...and it's burned in? That sucks. I'm planning to upgrade my 7+ year old LCD/LED TV this year...and OLED looks so very beautiful. But I can't get past the burn-in issues for a TV. An OLED-screen phone is fine, because I don't keep them longer than 2-3 years at most. Phone screens are also 'off' much of the time, unlike a TV, when watching, will be active for hours.

Do you watch a lot of programming with stationary logos (news or sports), or are the screen issues just from general use (ie, movies and tv series)?