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The wait for a MacBook Air with an OLED display might take longer than initially expected.

MacBook-Air-15-Inch-Feature-Purple.jpg

Korean website The Elec yesterday cited an industry source who said the first MacBook Air with an OLED display will likely be released around 2029, instead of by 2027 as originally planned. The report said Apple made this decision as a result of lower-than-expected sales of the first iPad Pro models with OLED displays, which launched last year.

Essentially, the report claims that since OLED displays did not help to boost iPad Pro sales as much as Apple anticipated, the company has decided to delay bringing the expensive technology to the MacBook Air. However, it is unclear if there are any other reasons for the apparent delay that are not mentioned in the report.

While the MacBook Air will apparently stick with LCD technology for the next four years, the report claims that Apple plans to use "oxide TFT" technology for 2027 models. This upgrade would allow for improved color accuracy, higher contrast ratio, more uniform display brightness, and lower power consumption for longer battery life. So, while no OLED, the MacBook Air should still receive meaningful display improvements in two years from now.

MacBook Pro models with OLED displays are still expected to launch next year.

In the meantime, Apple will likely announce updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models with the M4 chip within the next month or two.

Article Link: MacBook Air With OLED Display Reportedly Delayed
 
This sounds like conjecture. My own conjecture was that the MacBook Air wasn't planned to ship with OLED until around 2029 anyway.

Anyhow, I'm still annoyed Apple didn't ship the M4 iPad Pro with 12 GB or 16 GB base, given its price point. What makes it even worse is that Apple actually did ship some of them with 12 GB but chose instead to disable 4 GB of that.
 
Seriously though, I don't believe for a second MB Airs are getting OLED anytime soon, if ever. By 2029, mini LEDs will be better and cheaper than OLED anyway. If anything I'd expect Airs to get cheaper mini LED (ie. fewer dimming zones, which by 2029 standards will probably be what high-end expensive ones are today).
 
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Seriously though, I don't believe for a second MB Airs are getting OLED anytime soon, if ever. By 2029, mini LEDs will be better and cheaper than OLED anyway. If anything I'd expect Airs to get cheaper mini LED (ie. fewer dimming zones, which by 2029 standards will probably be what high-end expensive ones are today).
Nah. OLED will still be superior to mini-LED for some time to come in many ways,. And personally I'm not convinced mini-LED will ever come to the MacBook Air. I think it's more likely they will stay non-zoned LED LCD, even a couple of years from now, and then will jump directly to OLED.

Or maybe the iPad Pros with OLED are are not selling because they're too expensive
Yes, given that a base iPad does the same thing for the vast majority of the population, just with less fancy parts. And I say that as an owner of an M4 iPad Pro. If I couldn't have written off (part of) the iPad Pro purchase, I wouldn't have bought the iPad Pro.
 
After using my M4 iPad Pro almost exclusively as my daily laptop for the last few weeks, it's pretty hard going back to my MacBook Air with the less impressive screen. Just about all of the other screens in my house are OLED now, why is it so hard for Apple to get this on their MacBooks?
 
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This is not really likely in most cases. These things are usually planned years in advance, so it's a lot harder to move things up than it is to delay them.

Agreed. It's just frustrating to see constant "delays" for new tech.
 
Agreed. It's just frustrating to see constant "delays" for new tech.
It's not even really new tech, OLED tech has been around for over a decade and they're already using them in the phone, tablet, and watch. But I think Cook's penny-pinching will prevent OLED use in the Air, they can't raise the price of their low-end laptop much if at all and if it costs Apple $5 in profit, they'll just stick with the cheapest screen tech they can (ie. crappy backlit LED). I have a 77" LG G3 OLED for my tv and it's really hard to look at the MacBook Air. It's fine, it works, but yuck.
 
As someone who’s been an Apple user for 20 years, had quite the fair share of devices, and understands the tech space pretty well, I see headlines like this and I just wonder, there’s so many OLED displays already, how the heck does it take so long to put one in a MacBook Air?
 
It's not even really new tech, OLED tech has been around for over a decade and they're already using them in the phone, tablet, and watch. But I think Cook's penny-pinching will prevent OLED use in the Air, they can't raise the price of their low-end laptop much if at all and if it costs Apple $5 in profit, they'll just stick with the cheapest screen tech they can (ie. crappy backlit LED). I have a 77" LG G3 OLED for my tv and it's really hard to look at the MacBook Air. It's fine, it works, but yuck.
The OLEDs in the iPad Pro are very different from the OLED in your LG G3.
 
I guess this will be good timing for me since I’ll be buying my first MacBook Air in a few weeks. By 2030, I’ll probably upgrade again, or wait until my MacBook dies on me.
 
And it'll get even better once it gets the A17 Pro chip and 8GB RAM. The iPad Air / Pro will have to fight hard to earn their place in the lineup.
I'm waiting for this to replace my kid's iPad Air 2.

BTW, I don't know what I'll do with that iPad Air 2 once I get that new iPad. I just replaced the battery in another iPad Air 2 and now use it as a music repository for my kitchen. Maybe use it as a photo frame? What's the best inexpensive software for this?
 
After using my M4 iPad Pro almost exclusively as my daily laptop for the last few weeks, it's pretty hard going back to my MacBook Air with the less impressive screen. Just about all of the other screens in my house are OLED now, why is it so hard for Apple to get this on their MacBooks?
Opposite for me, I’m using my iPad a lot less just because iPadOS is still limiting, even with OLED screen it’s not enough
 
Seriously though, I don't believe for a second MB Airs are getting OLED anytime soon, if ever. By 2029, mini LEDs will be better and cheaper than OLED anyway. If anything I'd expect Airs to get cheaper mini LED (ie. fewer dimming zones, which by 2029 standards will probably be what high-end expensive ones are today).
Mini-LED is useless for text (over plain LCD), which is an important use case for MacBooks. Mini-LED is really only an advantage for HDR photo and video (hence why the technology advances on TVs).
 
Essentially, the report claims that since OLED displays did not help to boost iPad Pro sales as much as Apple anticipated, the company has decided to delay bringing the expensive technology to the MacBook Air.
The real reason iPad Pro sales were not what Apple had anticipated is because they're still running a gimped OS, thus limiting the full potential the hardware is capable of. Why spend $1,000 on an iPad Pro ($1,298 with keyboard) when you can buy a 13-inch MacBook Air 16/256 for less.
 
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