iPad Air gets OLED screen earlier than expected

Although the iPad Pro with a mini LED screen was introduced a few months ago, Apple already seems to be working on the next big step: an OLED screen on both the iPad Air 2022 and the iPad Pro 2023.

iPad Air 2022: oled

According to the usually reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPad Air, which currently still has a traditional LCD screen, will be the first iPad model to receive an OLED screen in 2022.

Unlike the OLED screens on the current iPhones, this would not have a flexible OLED panel. Apple uses this technique with the iPhone so that the screen can be bent internally under the bezel, resulting in thinner screen edges. With the upcoming iPad Air, the screen edges will probably remain the same as with the current model due to the lack of such a flexible panel.

iPad Pro 2023

In addition to the iPad Air, the iPad Pro models would also receive an OLED screen in 2023. It is remarkable that the largest iPad Pro 2021 received the upgrade to a mini LED screen in April, and Apple usually does not switch screen technology so quickly.

Just like OLED, Mini-LED offers a greatly improved contrast compared to LCD. It is also cheaper to produce, but has the disadvantage that blooming effects can occur in some circumstances. This means that light images on a dark background have an ambient glow. OLED screens do not have this problem.

In the case of the new iPad Pro, Apple would have opted for flexible OLED panels, so Apple can make the screen edges of the iPad Pro thinner. Bloomberg wrote at the beginning of June about a possible new design for the iPad Pro, in which, like the current iPhones, the back will be made of glass to make wireless charging possible. Apple could therefore simultaneously process thinner screen edges in this new design due to the arrival of an OLED screen.