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MacBook Air With OLED Display Reportedly Delayed

sw1tcher said:
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 when you can buy a MacBook Air for around the same price (or $100 less when the M3 13-inch MBA 16/256 goes on sale every other week)?
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That argument is orthogonal to whether OLED panels boost sales. If OLED doesn’t boost existing sales for the iPad Pro, then it’s unclear why it should boost existing sales for the MacBook Air. It’s not like an “ungimped” OS somehow profits more from OLED.

Of course, Apple could be wrong and OLED actually did boost sales for the iPad Pro, but other factors reduced sales. But then you have to explain why those factors didn’t already apply on the previous iPad Pros.
 
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Apple wants you to buy the MacBook Pro’s with OLED instead. OLED is too expensive the bigger the size.
 
sw1tcher said:
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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Well, for one, the MacBook Air doesn’t even have a touchscreen option. In 2025. That’s kind of insane. And embarrassing.
 
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EugW said:
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.


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.
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The Tandem OLED on iPad Pro M4 is not just a fancy thing lol it’s a real deal it’s night and day that display is absolutely insane
 
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sw1tcher said:
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.
Click to expand...

Because a MacBook Air has a 60hz LCD that you can’t detach and use a tablet.
 
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Jashar7 said:
The Tandem OLED on iPad Pro M4 is not just a fancy thing lol it’s a real deal it’s night and day that display is absolutely insane
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Yes, in fact it's just a fancy screen. It looks better than the previous LCD screen and it's the reason I bought it, but as so many in this thread have already stated, in the end users are still limited by iPadOS.
 
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xxFoxtail said:
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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cost probably.

and for 99% of buyers, the current screen tech is good enough (and lets face it, compared to screens we've had over decades, the current regular screens are fantastic.)

look at the blurry, low-res, washed out, limited viewing angle wide border Macbook Air screens of a decade ago.
we forget too easily how far we've come in expectations.

A $100 Android tablet screen in 2025 if so much better than a $100 tablet from 2015.
Keeping old tech and pulling them out occasionally is a great reminder of how things used to be.

pushing the boundaries on what is possible is great.
but as always, it comes at a price.
a price few can afford or justify during Cost of Living crisis worldwide when base products are good enough already.
 
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Joshuaorange said:
I couldn’t get my work done on an iPad. It’s unfortunate they hamstring it.
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but what work are you trying to do on one?

Yes iPadOS is limited. Always was.
Apple choose not to enable more functions and keep it a finger-first interface.

But if they did enable full fat OS and you got 2 hours from a recharge you wouldnt be happy either.

Pick the right device for the task.
And carrying around a Macbook Air is not that much harder really when you need to run something requiring grunt.
 
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rappr said:
Well, for one, the MacBook Air doesn’t even have a touchscreen option. In 2025. That’s kind of insane. And embarrassing.
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Not really, Ive had a few touchscreen Windows devices.
It's clunky and of limited use.

It also failed on the lower part of a Surface screen I had so thankfully the mouse input still works on that part.

Touch is fine for large buttons.
But little else.

And finger prints on laptop screens is awful.
 
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wbeasley said:
look at the blurry, low-res, washed out, limited viewing angle wide border Macbook Air screens of a decade ago.
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Heh. That's what my wife is still using, a 2017 MacBook Air. I'm waiting for the M4 release to get a new one for her.

wbeasley said:
Yes iPadOS is limited. Always was.
Apple choose not to enable more functions and keep it a finger-first interface.

But if they did enable full fat OS and you got 2 hours from a recharge you wouldnt be happy either.
Click to expand...
Uh, wut? The battery life of the M4 MacBook Pro is 24 hours, literally an entire day and night.

Pick the right device for the task.
And carrying around a Macbook Air is not that much harder really when you need to run something requiring grunt.
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Until I got my M4 Mac mini, the M4 iPad Pro was the fastest computer I had in my entire house, and by a large margin, but the OS is quite limiting. It was weird having to pull out my Core m3 12-inch MacBook to do stuff my M4 iPad Pro couldn't do well.

Geekbench 6:
m3 MacBook - single-core 832, multi-core 1639
M4 iPad Pro - single-core 3662, multi-core 13151
 
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Man 2029 to get OLED is so 2000 and late. A lot of the issues Apple was waiting out seem to seriously be getting solved this year with low power OLEDS, some shipping laptop models with tandem for brightness and durability etc
 
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tipoo said:
Man 2029 to get OLED is so 2000 and late. A lot of the issues Apple was waiting out seem to seriously be getting solved this year with low power OLEDS, some shipping laptop models with tandem for brightness and durability etc
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OLED will likely come to the Mac a lot sooner than 2029, maybe as early as 2026... in the MacBook Pro.
 
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wbeasley said:
but what work are you trying to do on one?

Yes iPadOS is limited. Always was.
Apple choose not to enable more functions and keep it a finger-first interface.

But if they did enable full fat OS and you got 2 hours from a recharge you wouldnt be happy either.

Pick the right device for the task.
And carrying around a Macbook Air is not that much harder really when you need to run something requiring grunt.
Click to expand...
Most people don't want the full bloat of MacOS. Just some specific apps, better file system and more control over the settings.
 
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xxFoxtail said:
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?
Click to expand...
You'll get it, in Macbook Pros. The Air only gets upgrades when it's absolutely necessary to protect the market share against windows laptops, or supply chain efficiency justifies it. For most people buying the Air, either the display is good enough, can't afford the higher price, or use it mostly in clamshell mode anyway. My MacBook is essentially a Mac Mini with a battery. My futile hope is getting a MacBook Pro with an option for worse (and hence cheaper) display.
 
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Cervisia said:
You'll get it, in Macbook Pros. The Air only gets upgrades when it's absolutely necessary to protect the market share against windows laptops, or supply chain efficiency justifies it. For most people buying the Air, either the display is good enough
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Yeah, the thing is, MacBook Air screens are not just good enough, they are better than 90% of the non-Mac screens out there.
 
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Yet other manufacturers have managed to ship laptops with quality OLED displays for years now and at lower price points. Should have been on MacBooks like 5 years ago.
 
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