Apple’s swanky mini-LED display apparently won’t be limited to the larger iPad Pro next year.
According to a Friday research note from TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, seen by Cult of Mac, both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch 2022 iPad Pro models likely will come equipped with mini-LED screens.
For branding purposes, Apple refers to mini-LED as a “Liquid Retina XDR” display. It’s currently available only for the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, making it the company’s only tablet not to ship with an LCD screen.
“This is the display you have to see to believe,” said iPad marketing manager Raja Bose during Apple’s mind-blowing “Spring Loaded” event earlier this year.
And next year, you’ll be able to see and believe it on multiple iPad screen sizes.
Trickle-down screen tech
Apple debuting new technology in its most premium product, and later making it available on other devices, doesn’t come as much of a surprise. In 2017, Apple used its first OLED screens in the iPhone X. Jump forward to 2020 and, for the first time, every new iPhone launched in September boasted OLED. For that reason, in a deep dive post I wrote about mini-LED earlier this year, I noted that:
“Will mini-LED be staying exclusive to the [most expensive] iPad Pro? History would suggest not. Like OLED … mini-LED probably will filter down to other iPad models in the future.”
Kuo’s latest note suggests this year’s larger iPad Pro suffered from a bottleneck due to the “mini LED SMT production process.” Apple is supposedly taking on a new supplier, Luxshare ICT. This will “significantly reduce the cost of mini LED, improve the supply of mini LED displays, and help Apple promote mini-LED” devices, Kuo wrote. In other words, expect the trickle-down effect with mini-LED to continue.
Mini-LED making its way to the 11-inch iPad Pro isn’t the only change being made to Apple’s display technology offerings, either. According to a previous Kuo report, Apple plans to bring OLED displays to iPad Air next year. The iPad Pro will supposedly get the same treatment in 2023, he has said.
Have you checked out Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR displays? What do you think of them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
