Oliver Haslam on February 27, 2023, 6:22 pm

Future iPad Pro Price Increase Expected Due To Costlier OLED Panels

Apple’s future iPad Pro tablets could be more expensive because the company has to spend more to get the OLED panels it wants to use, according to a new report.

Apple is expected to move at least one of its iPad Pro models to OLED away from LCD as soon as 2024, but a new report by The Elec notes that the company can expect to pay more for those displays than any other.

The Elec, via machine translation:

It is expected that the price of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for iPads supplied by domestic panel companies to Apple will be 2 to 3 times that of OLED of the same size as before. There is an analysis that the price will inevitably be expensive because the two-tandem method with two OLED emission layers and high-level technologies such as LTPO TFT are applied.

However, the extra expense could be explained by the upgraded panels that Apple needs. It’s reported that the company wants to use a special kind to ensure that they don’t flex when used at larger display sizes. That would likely apply to larger iPads as well as MacBooks in the future.

Scaling up flexible polyamide film used in iPhones to larger iPad and MacBook displays is tricky, as that flexibility can create warping, which might be visible in larger displays. For that reason, Apple is expected to instead use a hybrid glass-polyamide film display – which combines the flexibility needed for slim bezels with the rigidity required to avoid warping.

The use of OLED displays would allow for improved colors, brightness, and contrast while also possibly making it easier for devices to be made thinner overall.

Apple already uses OLED panels on its smaller devices — the Apple Watch and modern iPhones specifically.