A new supply-chain report says that LG will make mini-LED screens for the 5th-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It says that the new model — which is also expected to support 5G — will launch in the final quarter of this year “at the earliest.”
It follows an earlier report that LG will this year end Samsung’s monopoly as sole supplier of OLED iPhone screens…
As we’ve noted before, mini-LED shouldn’t be confused with microLED, which will be a completely new form of display technology, likely to be seen first in the Apple Watch. Mini-LED is a new form of backlighting used for LCD screens.
The power and controllability makes for brighter screens with deeper blacks; greater power efficiency; and thinner devices.
So what are microLEDs? They are an order of magnitude smaller than the mini variant and are as tiny as 1/100th the size of a traditional LED backlight in an LCD display. They go further with the benefits that mini LED has over standard LED-powered LCD displays and can provide over 30x greater brightness compared to OLED.
We heard back in February that Innolux had been appointed as another mini-LED supplier, though that one didn’t specify which models.
Although both reports make reference to a launch later this year, there have been suggestions that this may now have been pushed back into 2021.
This is looking increasingly likely, given possible delays to the launch and/or availability of the iPhone 12, Apple naturally prioritizing this over the next-generation iPad.
Today’s report comes from TheElec:
You can read more about what to expect from the next iPad Pro refresh in our guide.
LG Display will supply 12.9-inch miniLED panels for the fifth-generation iPad Pro […] The 12.9-inch miniLED iPad Pro is in trial production. It launch in the fourth quarter at the earliest.
