Apple has long used LCD displays on most of its devices, a trend that only really started to change with the iPhone X, which used OLED for the first time on an iPhone. It would seem, however, that Apple would rather not use OLED in most of its products, as a new report from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors) suggests that future iPad and MacBook devices will come with mini-LED displays to replace the LCD panels.
The report is in line with information shared by Kuo back in April, when the analyst also shared Apple"s plans for a high-end display in 2019 - which turned out to be the LCD-based Pro Display XDR. According to the latest report, the displays on the newer iPad and Macbook devices will have approximately 10,000 LEDs, a pretty major bump from the 576 in the Pro Display XDR.
The mini-LED panels would allow Apple to make devices thinner while still offering a wide color gamut and HDR capabilities. They would also support local dimming, so areas displaying black pixels can be turned off entirely.
The iPad models to use these displays will have screens between 10 and 12 inches diagonally, and the MacBook models will be somewhere between 15 and 17 inches. Kuo also says these will be high-end devices in the respective lineups, which is likely implying these would be the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, though this hasn"t been confirmed.
Finally, according to the report, the iPad in question would arrive sometime between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, while the MacBook would come between the first and second quarters of 2021.