Kuo: 12.9-Inch iPad Pro and 16-Inch MacBook Pro With Mini-LED Displays to Launch in Second Half of 2020

Monday December 2, 2019 8:03 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple is planning four to six products with mini-LED displays over the next two to three years, including a high-end 12.9-inch iPad Pro with an A14X chip in the third quarter of 2020 and a refreshed 16-inch MacBook Pro in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a research note with TF International Securities today, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo said the mini-LED displays will "significantly improve productivity and the entertainment experience" without elaborating.

LG Display and GIS will be the most significant benefactors of these mini-LED products starting next year, according to Kuo.

Kuo has previously said that Mini-LED displays will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays used on the latest iPhones, including good wide color gamut performance, high contrast and dynamic range, and local dimming for truer blacks.

Kuo has also previously said that future iPad and MacBook displays will each use approximately 10,000 LEDs, compared to 576 in Apple's upcoming Pro Display XDR. Each LED would be below 200 microns in size.

Apple is widely rumored to refresh the iPad Pro in spring 2020, and if so, a new 12.9-inch model in fall 2020 would certainly be soon after.

Update: DigiTimes reports similar: "For the new MacBook said to adopt mini LED backlighting and to be released in 2020, its backlighting module reportedly will be supplied by Taiwan-based Zhen Ding Tech, the sources noted."

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, iPad Pro

Tags: Ming-Chi Kuo, TF International Securities

Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now), 12.9" iPad Pro (Don't Buy)

Top Rated Comments

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Nacho98

8 weeks ago

Can't wait for all the posts about how mini LED is going to solve all the LCD and OLED problems only to find in a year that mini LED has a bunch of problems of its own

Rating: 22 Votes

ThisBougieLife

8 weeks ago

Ah crap now I regret getting the 2019 16”
:( Only partly kidding.

“Around the corner” syndrome is hard to
overcome.

Rating: 21 Votes

aevan

8 weeks ago

Can't wait for all the posts about how mini LED is going to solve all the LCD and OLED problems only to find in a year that mini LED has a bunch of problems of its own

That's MicroLED. MicroLED will solve some of the biggest issues of both technologies. It will be self-emissive like OLED which means insane contrasts and amazing viewing angles, but it will also have peak brightness of LCD and no burn-in issues. It will be a big step forward.

However, that is not coming soon. Mini-LED is something in between. It is, actually, close to standard LED LCD, it's just it has much smaller LED backlights that will allow better contrast than standard LED LCD screens. So, they are still backlight screens, unlike OLED/MicroLED screens.

They are very expensive to make, though, so I'm not sure if that is really coming so soon.

Rating: 15 Votes

BigBoy2018

8 weeks ago

But I just bought the new 16" MBP...!

Late 2020. Whatever made you think that after you bought your mbp that Apple would suddenly stop doing a yearly release?

Rating: 8 Votes

827538

8 weeks ago

Seems like 2020 will be when all the good stuff is coming.

Redesigned iPhone with X55 modem (and high refresh rate display?)
New Macbooks (802.11ax and high refresh rate display?)
New iPads
New iMac possibly?

I’m not a Beats user myself but my wife has been waiting what feels like forever for Beats Studio 4 headphones - another 2020 release?

Rating: 6 Votes

Freida

8 weeks ago

I was hoping for iPad Pro update to be within the first half of 2020. :(

Rating: 6 Votes

Hym tix

8 weeks ago

How many times has Kuo pushed back his iPad Pro date? I guess he’s bound to be right eventually...

Rating: 5 Votes

deconstruct60

8 weeks ago

Kuo is pretty reliable. I'm exciting to see how this turns out though I fear what lofty price the 12.9 LED model will be. I'll say $2200.

Probably not. There is a decent chance that the mini-LED will be needed to help rationalize the current price points zone that the iPad Pro 12.9 is in. Apple's inflated prices for SSD capacity should be wearing even thinner in the market by 3rd 2020.

I think the iPad Pro's are going to come back a bit in price and that the mini-LED is probably going to be something to keep the same top end price points they have now.

Two major factors. First, By 3Q 2020 there should be much more capable Windows tablet slabs with just as good battery life ( perhaps on 2nd gen Windows ARM SoC at the end of that Q3 and even more probably by Q4 2020. ). If Intel or AMD gets their stuff together in that space in late 2020, even more so. The competitive space the iPad Pro is in is going to pick up. Second, the iPad Pro is likely to start to hit a similar 'wall' that the iPad ran into several years after introduction. A substantive number of people are going to be slow to upgrade. Pushing the "newest" price up past most of the MacBook price range isn't going help that. Going to push more folks into the "the current one works just fine" mode. Apple will need to bring that feature down into the more affordable range to get it to move. ( e.g., brining Apple Pencil down to the entry iPad).

Rating: 3 Votes

slagathor001

8 weeks ago

But I just bought the new 16" MBP...!

Rating: 3 Votes