Before Apple officially made the switch to a mini-LED display in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, there was a bit of a back-and-forth going on in the rumors department. Some stories said Apple would make the leap to OLED. Others pointed to mini-LED.
And now we know that Apple chose the latter, going with that display technology for its largest and most powerful tablet this year. However, there is still an expectation that Apple’s simply biding its time, still planning to adopt an OLED display in at least one iPad model in the near future. Indeed, many believe that switch will happen in 2022.
And now a new report from ETNews is echoing that sentiment. According to a story from the publication posted recently, citing unnamed industry sources, Apple is going to adopt an OLED display in “some” iPad models beginning in 2022. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t get into many details beyond that.
Specifically, there’s no word on which iPad model will be adopting the new display technology next year. Right now Apple sells the iPad, the iPad Air, the iPad mini, and the iPad Pro. It’s possible that any one of these devices switch to OLED starting next year. It’s worth noting that analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said in the past that the mid-range iPad Air will be the first iPad to go that route, but others have speculated in the past that it will be the iPad Pro that gets first crack.
As it stands right now, Apple already uses OLED displays with the Apple Watch lineup, and with the high-end iPhone models as well.
ETNews says that Samsung and LG will be handling display manufacturing for those future iPad models with OLED displays. That certainly lines up with current manufacturing duties, with both companies shelling out OLED screens for Apple.
It will be interesting to see how Apple handles any transition to OLED after just adopting the mini-LED display in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR screen is brilliant, with powerful contrasts and colors. However, with its dimming zones and still relying on LEDs, rather than OLED display technology, the screen is capable of showing a rather severe “blooming” effect. The potential issue is especially apparent when watching content (especially HDR content) in a dark room.
OLED doesn’t have this problem. So if Apple is going to switch to OLED, it certainly makes sense for a variety of reasons.
But, what do you think? Should Apple make the switch to OLED in the iPad lineup?