DigiTimes: Mini-LED MacBook Air to Launch in 2022

Apple will this year begin transitioning its devices to mini-LED technology, according to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo‌, and a new DigiTimes report on Thursday reiterates Kuo's expectation that a mini-LED version of Apple's MacBook Air is set to arrive in 2022.

m1 macbook air
Kuo believes Apple will release iPad Pro models and redesigned MacBook Pros in 2021, followed by a new MacBook Air in 2022, all with mini-LED displays and Apple Silicon chips. Today's DigiTimes report, citing supply chain sources, echoes that general sentiment:

The sources expect that Apple's 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros and 16-inch MacBook Pro set to be released in 2021 will be equipped with miniLED displays and adoption of miniLED will be expanded to its MacBook Air products in 2022.

In addition to a redesigned 16-inch MacBook Pro, Kuo has said he expects Apple to launch a new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an all-new design in the late second quarter or third quarter of this year. Kuo says these MacBook Pro models will feature Mini-LED displays for increased brightness, improved contrast, richer colors, and more.

MacBook Pro models are projected to be the main driver of mini-LED panel shipments since they will purportedly gain mini-LED before the iPad and see faster shipment growth.

As a result, Apple will likely introduce mini-LED as a "Pro" Mac feature, however Kuo believes the company will be able to offset the increased cost because the cost of ‌Apple Silicon‌ chips is significantly lower than that of Intel processors, which will allow it to bring the technology to its most popular MacBook further down the line.

Kuo's optimistic scenario sees MacBook shipments growing by 100 percent over the next three years, with up to 35 million units per year, thanks to the adoption of ‌Apple Silicon‌ and the refreshed designs.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air
Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

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Top Rated Comments

ph001bi Avatar
62 months ago

How long has there been rumors now of a mini-led macbook coming next year? 5 years, 10 years?
Less than a year. Early 2020 we heard MacBook Pro with mini-Led would come out at the end of 2020 or early 2021. This has moved by about 6 months as we are still expecting MacBook Pro with mini-led in Q2/2021. The article above is about the MacBook Air, and that's the first time there is a rumour about a MacBook Air with mini-Led.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleTO Avatar
62 months ago
I don’t really see a massive advantage of Mini-LEDs in laptops to be honest. Even OLEDs really.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bazooka-joe Avatar
62 months ago
Yep i wanted to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro so that will be on my shopping list
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MedRed Avatar
62 months ago

I don’t really see a massive advantage of Mini-LEDs in laptops to be honest. Even OLEDs really.
Deeper black, more accurate color, weight/space efficiencies, reduced power consumption.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ruka.snow Avatar
62 months ago
Apple giving more for the same price is quite the norm for them. We seen it with the 5K iMac for instance. And moving the cost budget away from the CPU and onto other things makes a lot of sense to me. We are already very much past where people see big changes from processors, but everyone sees the benefit of a better screen, nicer keyboard, more natural sounding speakers, and hopefully the upcoming dawn of high quality webcams(though you can’t cheat physics so it will need to be computational as there isn’t room for huge sensors and lenses.).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alpi123 Avatar
62 months ago

Quoting DigiTimes again? Slow news day I suppose. I think we've all learned not to trust them, many years ago.
Read again - according to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo; new DigiTimes ('https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20210107PD207.html') report on Thursday reiterates Kuo's expectation ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/02/kuo-two-macbook-pros-2021-and-macbook-air-2022/')

It's still Kuo who "predicts" this will happen, not DigiTimes.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)