A Late-2020 iPad Pro will reportedly use mini-LED for the first time

2020 iPad Pro renders (Image credit: OnLeaks / iGeeksBlog)

What you need to know

A new report claims an iPad Pro will arrive in late-2020.
That iPad Pro will also use mini-LED technology.
That will enable a thinner and lighter display.

We've been hearing noises surrounding future mini-LED products from Apple for months, and the first one might be coming later this year in the form of an iPad Pro. That's according to a new report by Taiwanese outfit Economic Daily News.

The story goes that Taiwan-based Innolux has won a deal with Apple, with mini-LED screens having already passed Apple's inspections. The report expects those displays to be used in an iPad Pro model, with a release window set for the second half of this year.

The arrival of mini-LED should mean thinner and lighter devices, with the technology also able to offer some of the benefits of OLED – including those inky blacks that OLED screens are so famous for.

Rumors of the same technology being used in notebooks have already been swirling since the latter part of 2019, although claims that the 16-inch MacBook Pro would use the tech were wide of the mark.

Apple is also rumored to be launching new iPad Pro models as soon as next month. It's unlikely that it will announce new iPad Pro devices twice in a year, so clearly something doesn't quite line up. We expect Apple to announce new products in March, so all eyes will be on the next few weeks to see if iPad Pro gets some love, or not.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.