Apple Reportedly Planning 13-Inch MacBook Air and iPad Pros With OLED Displays

It appears "increasingly likely" that Apple will launch a new 13-inch MacBook with an OLED display in 2024, according to display industry analyst Ross Young. In a tweet shared with his Super Followers today, Young said the notebook is expected to be a new MacBook Air, but he said there is a possibility it will have other branding.

Oled iPads and MackBook Pro Notch
Young, who has accurately revealed a range of display-related information for the iPhone 13 Pro, iPad mini, MacBook Pro, and other devices, also expects Apple to release new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models with OLED displays in 2024.

In another tweet shared with his Super Followers, Young said the OLED displays in all three new devices will adopt a two-stack tandem structure, in which there are two red, green, and blue emission layers, allowing for increased brightness and lower power consumption. OLED displays also do not require backlighting for further power efficiency.

Young said all of the devices will adopt LTPO display technology for a variable refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz, a feature that Apple calls ProMotion. All iPad Pro models released since 2017 already feature ProMotion, but the refresh rate can only drop as low as 24Hz, while ProMotion would be all new to the MacBook Air.

Apple is currently focused on transitioning its Mac and iPad lines to LCD displays with mini-LED backlighting, and OLED displays would be the next step. Unlike mini-LED displays, OLED panels use self-emitting pixels and do not require backlighting, which could improve contrast ratio and further contribute to longer battery life.

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

Top Rated Comments

macsplusmacs Avatar
19 months ago
My always on screen on my 2024 MacBook will say:

GET BACK TO WORK.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
19 months ago

It seems more than a little...unseemly...to report information on a free website that the original author is reporting to his Super Followers on his Twitter feed. It feels uncomfortably like scraping a photo off a website and using it despite copyright issues. There would be challenges to Fair Use, I think. It's a news item, but there are commercial ads on this page. It would be hard not to use the great majority of a tweet, rather than an insubstantial portion. And using the report here damages the Tweeter's ability to charge for subscriptions. I'm not a lawyer, but a professional photographer, and most of us have had experience with copyright infringers. This feels like it.
Ross Young gave us his ongoing permission to publish information he shares with his Super Followers on Twitter.

(We simply asked him. We're not paying him extra or anything like that.)
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jarman92 Avatar
19 months ago
Yeah, makes total sense that Apple would debut new (and very expensive) screen technology in their cheapest laptop ?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CWallace Avatar
19 months ago

I mean how many years does Apple need to release OLED notebooks? Samsung and LG has been doing this for years...
Apple doesn't release a technology just because they can. They release it when it's up to their standards.

Samsung had OLED smartphone displays before Apple, but the iPhone X's OLED display was better than the peer Galaxy (even though both used OLEDs from Samsung Display) because Apple had higher standards than Samsung Electronics did.

So you can be confident that Apple's laptop OLEDs will be superior to the competition, even if they are sourced from the same supplier.



OLED is no blooming, but prone to burn-in.
There are a number of burn-in mitigation technologies available to mitigate this. Apple could also decide to cover burn-in under AppleCare (like Alienware does with their new QD-OLED gaming monitor) to help address concerns.



Interestingly, QD-OLED will be on other brands of laptops and tablets in 2024 and even maybe microled by then. Apple needs to step up.
Consumer Micro-LED in the size for laptop, tablet and phone displays is probably a decade away. Micro-LED modules are still measured in meters and priced in the tens of thousands of dollars which is why Micro-LED TVs are in the 100"-plus range with $100,000-plus price-tags.


Yeah, makes total sense that Apple would debut new (and very expensive) screen technology in their cheapest laptop ?
OLED is excellent for video content consumption and I expect that is a common use case for Airs.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Love-hate ? relationship Avatar
19 months ago

I mean how many years does Apple need to release OLED notebooks? Samsung and LG has been doing this for years...

and then I think MiniLED notebooks are fine enough. It's not like any professional will be doing heavy lifting of perfecting colors on notebook screen anyway...

Making notebook lighter would be my preference. I know it's difficult to make notebooks as rock solid as MacBooks without compromising some on weights, but there must be ways nonetheless...
well that's doublestack oled which is something that doesnt exist for purchase as of now,i believe

miniled are fine,but oled with dark mode with help saving a ton of battery.+ltpo with 1hz too

also ,you know,blooming.and even better contrast.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kevin2055 Avatar
19 months ago

Don’t agree, OLED had many screen burn problems in early years but now they are pretty resilient to this. Also own a iPhone X for newly 5 years and has a OLED screen and not one problem with it no screen burn or anything. Apple would never use them if they had a chance of this
Because you don’t leave a menu bar or task bar on screen for hours to days on phone.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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