iPad Pro With Mini-LED Display Reportedly in Trial Production, Late 2020 Launch Possible But 2021 More Likely

Apple's rumored 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display has entered trial production, according to Korean website The Elec.

ipad pro 2020 display
The report claims that LG will supply the Mini-LED panels for the device, while Foxconn will be tasked with final assembly. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously said that Mini-LED technology will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays, including high contrast and dynamic range.

The new iPad Pro will launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 at the earliest, the report adds, but a release next year appears more likely at this point. Earlier this month, it was rumored that new iPad Pro models with a Mini-LED display, A14X chip, and 5G connectivity will launch in the first half of 2021, a timeframe that several other sources have echoed.

Apple last refreshed the iPad Pro in March, but it was a relatively minor update, with new features including an A12Z Bionic chip that is essentially an A12X chip with an extra GPU core enabled, an Ultra Wide camera that enables 0.5x zoom, a LiDAR Scanner for enhanced augmented reality, and better sounding microphones. It was the first update to the iPad Pro since the device received a major redesign in October 2018.

Apple is also expected to release its first Macs with Mini-LED displays by the end of 2021.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Buyer's Guide: iPad Pro (Neutral)

Popular Stories

iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro teal 1

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Coming to These 8 U.S. States, But Rollout Remains Slow

Wednesday March 19, 2025 6:55 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly. It has been three and a half years since Apple first announced the...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

iOS 19 Coming in June With These New Features

Thursday March 20, 2025 2:04 pm PDT by
While the first iOS 19 beta is still more than two months away, there are already plenty of rumors about the upcoming software update. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far. visionOS-Like Design In January, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech revealed a redesigned Camera app that is allegedly planned for iOS 19. According to Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser, the Camera app...
Windows Vista

Apple Might Be Having Its Windows Vista Moment, Says Analyst

Thursday March 20, 2025 6:52 am PDT by
Is Apple experiencing a "Vista-like drift into systemically poor execution?" That was a question posed by well-known technology analyst Benedict Evans, in a recent blog post covering Apple's innovation and execution, or seemingly lack thereof as of late. He is referring to Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, which was widely criticized when it launched in 2007 due to software bugs,...
iPhone 17 Air Fanned Feature

First iPhone 17 Air Case Has Camera Bar, Camera Control Button Cutouts

Wednesday March 19, 2025 5:29 am PDT by
Serial leaker Sonny Dickson today shared an image of what he claims is a first look at a third-party case for Apple's iPhone 17 Air. "If you didn’t know an Air was coming, you'd swear it was a Google Pixel case," he said. Case manufacturers often obtain design specifications of upcoming iPhone models before their release by collaborating with Apple through official partnerships or...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

Latest iPhone 17 Pro Dummies Highlight Apple's New Part-Glass Design

Thursday March 20, 2025 5:27 am PDT by
Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson has shared more dummy models of Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 series, with the latest lot revealing a noticeable shift in Apple's iPhone Pro model design that goes beyond the much-talked-about new rear camera bar. Dickson points out that the iPhone 17 Pro dummy models feature an outlined area on the back, beginning just below the camera module and extending to the...
iphone 16 pro ghost hand

Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro Already Rumored to Have Five New Features

Tuesday March 18, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro models are still around a year and a half away from launching, there are already some early rumors about the devices. Below, we recap some key iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far. Under-Screen Face ID In April 2023, display industry analyst Ross Young shared a roadmap showing that iPhone 17 Pro models would feature under-display Face ID. In May 2024, however, Young said ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

iOS 19 and iOS 20 Must Include a Long List of Major Changes, EU Says

Wednesday March 19, 2025 10:26 am PDT by
The European Commission today announced a long list of changes that Apple is legally required to implement in future iOS 19 and iOS 20 updates. The announcement clarifies interoperability requirements that Apple is required to adhere to in the EU, under the Digital Markets Act, which has been fully enforced since March 2024. The changes will further open up the iPhone and its technologies to ...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 18, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...

Top Rated Comments

costica1234 Avatar
62 months ago
Good luck beta testers!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iReality85 Avatar
62 months ago

Really looking forward to mini LED across the product lines, best of both LCD and OLED!
Mini-LED is just LCD with LED full-array local dimming (commonly referred to as "FALD") as the light source. Usually, this falls in the range of 500-2000 LEDs. It's really not anything to write home about. It's better than LCD with edge-lit LED, but nowhere near on par with OLED or (eventually) Micro-LED.

I'm really curious to see how much blooming will result from FALD.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alphaswift Avatar
62 months ago
Can we all agree that we've reached peak thinness? If they can save space, can you make the battery bigger please.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Falhófnir Avatar
62 months ago

MicroLED is the "end game", but they aren't using OLED because when they switch to MiniLED, it's a step backwards in some areas or they calculated they wouldn't make more money switching to OLED.
μLED isn't really worth talking about at the moment, it's meant to still be years away even on Apple watch scale, much less for large iPad/ MacBook displays. The high contrast is the main benefit of OLED over LCD, so if this closes the gap significantly to me that gives you the best of both technologies, as you're spared burn in & PWM dimming problems and PenTile sub pixel layouts which are massive rankles in current OLED panels IMO.


Maybe Apple has improved upon the tech. As far as mini-LED goes, FALD is a fairly off-the-shelf technology that's been used for awhile now but to mixed results, mostly in TVs and monitors. I believe even Apple's XDR Display shows visible blooming. It really comes down to how manufacturers implement it.

I will say though, that if people want Apple to expand their 120Hz Pro Motion tech to other products, OLED is definitely the way to go since it has an extremely fast pixel response time, so no motion blur.
I guess we'll see how Apple's done with it in the next 12 months, this seems a happy medium tech to me, you escape a lot of the downsides of OLED tech, while getting at least closer to the high contrast it offers.

In theory OLED is meant to offer the best response times, though there's commercially available 300Hz LCD panels with supposedly near 1ms response times while we're just now seeing 120Hz OLED panels in phones, and laptops are still at 60Hz as far as I can see... though that might be because OLED laptops tend to use 4K panels which really stress the GPU at high refresh rates.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
62 months ago

Do you own the keyboard? Would you mind commenting on the battery life of the iPad after using it? I have read that it is a massive battery drain.
I own one. No noticeable battery drain. Apparently there was a bad batch.


What specific use cases would having miniled be great?
Watching movies? Better dynamic range and black levels than LED. Also longer battery life, probably.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
moabal Avatar
62 months ago

Do you own the keyboard? Would you mind commenting on the battery life of the iPad after using it? I have read that it is a massive battery drain.
It seems fine but I keep the backlight off purposely. I do not need to look at the keys to type so no need to waste battery. I think a lot of people who are complaining are people with iPads with degraded batteries. For example, I just got a replacement due to bend and since it is a new one, the battery is a lot better.

It will be interesting to see any battery gains with Mini LED though.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)