An iPad With An OLED Screen Might Arrive As Soon As Next Year
A new report claims that Apple's first iPad flaunting an OLED screen will debut next year, and will be followed by wider adoption in 2023.
Apple is on track to arm its iPad portfolio with an OLED panel, and its first tablet rocking that display upgrade is rumored to arrive as early as next year. The company first employed OLED panels on the iPhone X back in 2017, but the adoption has been a tad slow. It wasn't until the release of the iPhone 12 series last year that the entire core iPhone lineup embraced an OLED panel. The iPad line-up, on the other hand, is still predominantly an all-LCD affair.
Things finally changed with the introduction of the 2021 iPad Pro in its 12.9-inch avatar, which came equipped with a mini-LED display. An LCD display at heart, a mini-LED panel offers some of the key OLED characteristics, such as deeper blacks, better contrast, higher brightness output, and more power efficiency. The tech is rumored to appear on Mac hardware as well, but it appears that the eventual OLED upgrade for Apple hardware is closer than previously thought.
As per a report from South Korea-based The Elec, Apple will launch at least one iPad packing an OLED display next year. This particular model is said to arrive with a 10.86-inch display, which suggests that it might be an iPad Air-series device, and not a member of the iPad Pro lineup. The current-generation iPad Air rocks a screen with roughly the same diagonal at 10.9-inch, while the iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch flavors.
The first iPad with an OLED screen is touted to arrive next year, and will be followed by 11-inch and 12.9-inch models set to hit the shelves in 2023. Going by the screen size, these two are iPad Pro variants. Until then, Apple will continue with the mini-LED screen on the iPad Pro family. Interestingly, it appears that iPads with OLED and mini-LED screens will co-exist in 2022. However, it is unclear whether the iPad Mini refresh rumored to arrive later this year will stick with an LCD panel, or if it will get a mini-LED upgrade alongside a design overhaul. Interestingly, the Mac lineup is also said to adopt the mini-LED tech soon, and will eventually transition to OLED screens in the years to come.
For the 2022 OLED iPad, Apple is said to be sourcing the panel from Samsung. The Tim Cook-led company is reportedly going to employ the thin-film encapsulation (TFE) method on the OLED panel, ensuring that the screen is shielded from damage caused by water and oxygen permeation, while also keeping it thin and flexible. The process involves laminating thin inorganic and organic material layers, and it reduces the production costs by a significant margin as well. Unfortunately, it appears that the upgrade to OLED panels for the upcoming iPad won’t be accompanied by any high screen refresh rate wizardry. Apple is reportedly going with the same LTPS Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon (LTPS) tech that is also used for the iPhone 12’s screen, instead of the Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) rumored for the iPhone 13 Pro duo.
Source: The Elec