Apple's First OLED iPad Coming in 2023, According to Display Experts

Wednesday July 7, 2021 11:16 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple is expected to release its first OLED iPad in 2023, Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) said today in its newest quarterly OLED Shipment Report. Apple will enter the market with a 10.9-inch AMOLED ‌iPad‌, which prior sources have suggested could be an iPad Air.

OLED iPad Pro Feature
There have been multiple reports about Apple's work on an OLED ‌iPad‌, and the sheer number of rumors all but confirm that the technology is in development. Right now, OLED displays are limited to Apple's iPhone lineup, the Apple Watch, and the MacBook Pro Touch Bar, but Apple has been working to bring OLED to Macs and iPads.

Most of the rumors that we've heard about an OLED ‌iPad‌ suggest that it's coming in 2022, which is earlier than the DSCC report predicts. The Elec recently said that Apple will release a 10.8-inch ‌iPad‌ with an OLED display in 2022, and back in March, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is expected to start using OLED next year. DigiTimes has also predicted a 2022 release for an OLED ‌iPad‌, as have sites like ETNews, which rely on supply chain data.

Kuo also said that Apple's first OLED ‌iPad‌ would be an ‌iPad Air‌ rather than an iPad Pro, with Apple continuing to use mini-LED technology for the ‌iPad Pro‌ lineup. Several reports about the OLED ‌iPad‌ haven't specified that the device will be an ‌iPad Air‌, but that's the general expectation as Kuo often has reliable insight into Apple's plans.

OLED technology is expensive, which is a factor that has thus far limited it to smaller devices like iPhones and Apple Watches. When adopted in the ‌iPad‌, it will bring improved brightness, higher contrast, deeper blacks, and wider viewing angles.

The DSCC report also suggests that Apple will "cancel the Touch Bar" in the future, which is in line with ‌MacBook Pro‌ rumors. The new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models expected in 2021 will do away with the OLED Touch Bar, with Apple instead returning to a standard function row of keys.

Related Roundup: iPad Air

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Top Rated Comments

XciteMePls

60 months ago

Hopefully I can say this without getting swarmed on like bees, but I'm tired of the whole "OLED = vastly superior, anything else = utter crap" narrative. And I own OLED displays, I've seen my friend's LG OLED in person many times. When I was looking to buy a new 4K TV two years ago, price was NOT a concern and I had narrowed my choice down to a 77" LG C8 OLED, or a 75" Sony Z9D LED. I chose the Sony Z9D and to this day the TV still amazes me, and I don't yearn for an OLED TV even though I know it gives better contrast.

Yes, they have perfect blacks. But take a look at rtings.com and see the difference in peak luminance and brightness between today's OLEDs and a good, high-quality LED TV with local dimming (Local dimming for LED is a must... if it doesn't have good local dimming, it WILL have crappy contrast). HDR movies are mastered at a minimum of 1,000 nits, the LG CX can only reach a max of about 650 nits on a small, tiny portion of its screen. As that portion gets bigger, the brightness gets even lower. OLEDS have ABL (Auto Brightness Limiter) so in large, bright scenes (think of a snowy arctic tundra, or a bright sunny desert, etc), it'll look dull and dim compared to an LED. Today's brightest LEDs can reach up to 1,800 nits. On my Z9D, I get a beautifully balanced combination of deep blacks, and bright highlights. It doesn't have to be one or the other, like some make it seem.

I'm not saying OLED sucks, quite the opposite. It's a beautiful display tech. But each display has its own pros and cons. With HDR material, LEDs will have more pop and impact. If you watch a lot of content at night with the lights off in a pitch black room, OLED will look better. In a bright living room with lots of windows, LED will have better visibility. If you game a lot (hours on end) and watch static logo TV channels, you won't have to worry about burn-in with LED. Let the people decide what's better for their needs.

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CWallace

60 months ago

Oled is better why do you think Oled TVs are more flagship

OLED is better for visual media consumption in a dark room (I have an OLED TV in a room I can control the light levels) which compensates for the lower peak brightness of OLED compared to (Mini)LED.

In my main room with large windows and a lot of natural light, my OLED TV would struggle with viewability. In that application, I have a MiniLED TV where the higher peak and sustained brightness makes the image more visiable.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

BornAgainMac

60 months ago

What about a classic Cathode-ray tube (CRT) iPad display? A nice throwback of the 1980s/1990s technology.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CWallace

60 months ago

So now the air will have a better display than the pros don’t get it

The OLED display will have some benefits over the MiniLED display, but the MiniLED display will have benefits over the OLED.

MiniLED's benefits like higher brightness levels, better off-axis viewing, lower off-axis color shifting and such are better suited to the iPad Pro's general use cases so it will remain on MiniLED.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)