Mini-LED be damned, some iPads are rumored to jump to OLED next year

Lory sitting in a chair using iPad Air 4 (Image credit: Lory Gil / iMore)

What you need to know

Apple is rumored to be set to use OLED screens on some iPads starting next year.
The next iPad Air is likely the main candidate for a new screen.

Apple might have only just switched to a Mini-LED screen in the gorgeous new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but it's already looking at moving at least one tablet to OLED. That's according to a new report by Korea's ET News.

That report notes that Apple has decided to bring OLED to at least one iPad because the OLED market is expecting a new phase of growth – caused by Apple orders.

According to the industry on the 31st, Apple decided to apply OLED instead of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) from some iPad models in 2022. It is reported that Apple and display companies have agreed on production and delivery.

The specific switch from LCD to OLED might suggest that iPad Air will be the tablet to get the new hotness and that's something analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said earlier this year that iPad Air would go OLED next year, adding further fuel to the ET News fire.

Kuo also said that Apple will keep Mini-LED as an iPad Pro exclusive for the time being. Both it and OLED offer similarly impressive contrast and brightness, although OLED does suffer from screen burn, or image retention, which could be a problem for those who use their iPads as business tools. Static images can cause longevity issues on OLED displays in particular.

The new Mini-LED screen used in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is generally thought to be excellent and potentially worth the upgrade from an older version of Apple's highest of high-end tablets. Anyone planning to take the plunge should probably check out our list of the best iPad Pro deals before they do, too.

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.