Oliver Haslam on November 24, 2020, 1:02 am

Apple Reportedly Bringing OLED, mini-LED To iPad Pro Next Year

Apple will reportedly launch new iPad Pro models next year that take advantage of OLED and mini-LED technology.

While the former will not be ready until the second half of 2021, the report says that Apple will launch a mini-LED device as soon as the first half of next year.

The report, courtesy of The Elec, says that LG Display and Samsung Display will be providers for the new OLED iPad Pro next year, but before that we will see mini-LED options. Those might be thicker parts than OLED, but they do have many of the benefits without the drawbacks of LCD screens that are currently used.

Apple is expected to use direct backlight LCD panels for the iPad Pro launching in the first half of 2021. This will make the panels thicker compared to the currently used edge method __ where backlight is attached at the sides of the LCD panels and a light guide plate is used to spread the light to the whole screen.

However, using direct backlight will allow selective turning on and off of LED __ this allows for local dimming that increases contrast ratio. The edge method had required all the lights to be turned on and off at once.

Apple hasn’t refreshed the iPad Pro since March 2020, and even then it was a mild spec bump. The device did see the arrival of the LiDAR Scanner that is now available on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, however.