Upcoming 12.9-Inch iPad Pro Supplies Could Be Limited Due to Mini-LED Production Issues

Sunday April 11, 2021 9:47 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple's upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro may be in short supply when it launches due to production issues of the mini-LED display being used in the device, reports Bloomberg.

iPad Pro Mini LED
Apple suppliers are experiencing poor manufacturing yields of the display, and at least one mini-LED maker has had to pause production as a result of these issues.

Though there are troubles with mini-LED display manufacturing, Apple is still intending to introduce new 11 and 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌ models as early as this month, and as prior rumors have suggested, the mini-LED display will be exclusive to the larger 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌.

Mini-LED technology will offer multiple benefits, such as a better contrast ratio and improved brightness.

Bloomberg in March said that the refreshed ‌iPad Pro‌ models would come as early as April, but there is still no narrower timeline available. It is not clear if the new tablets will be introduced via press release or if Apple has some kind of event in the works, as the iPad mini is also expected to see a refresh.

Along with a mini-LED display, the new ‌iPad Pro‌ models are expected to feature an A14X chip with M1-like performance and Thunderbolt connectivity.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro

Buyer's Guide: iPad Pro (Neutral)

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Top Rated Comments

JPack

70 months ago

how is mini LED better than OLED? OLED can turn light off per pixel, so it’s inherently better at accurate blacks (miniLED pixels have to share backlighting, so if some are supposed to be black and others are not, the device has to compromise, which causes halos or other artifacts). OLED has better viewing angles. MiniLED more or less wins only for absolute brightness and lack of burn in, unless i’m forgetting something.

Mini LED can more easily achieve full color gamut (Rec. 2020) compared to OLED. It's the next step after DCI-P3. Mini LED also offers higher luminance without the lifetime tradeoffs compared to OLED. All other things are roughly equal, including power consumption.

There seems to be this whole religion on "true blacks" offered by OLED. If you ask what creative professionals actually want, that's not high on their list. Wide color gamut and luminance is.

Every single time MacRumors posts an article about iPad Pro and MacBook Pro moving to mini LED, a number of posters seem genuinely surprised with that news. "Why would iPad Pro get mini LED while iPad Air gets OLED? OLED is clearly better than mini LED, right!?" If it wasn't obvious with the XDR, it should be abundantly clear by now. Mini LED offers more advantages compared to OLED.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

wouwout

70 months ago

why not OLED? Samsung has large OLED tablets. Better than mini LED will ever be
(don't start about burn in, your iphone doesn't have burn in either)

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MacFan23

70 months ago

why not OLED? Samsung has large OLED tablets. Better than mini LED will ever be
(don't start about burn in, your iphone doesn't have burn in either)

Rene Ritchie has said in the past that it's due to a number of factors: brightness uniformity, off-axis colour shift, burn in, pulse-width modulation at lower frequencies: