Apple expected to bring OLED tech to iPad mini and Air in 2026

May 24, 202412:56 PM EDT
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A new report on OLED supply orders Apple has placed with Samsung’s display arm predicts that the iPad mini and Air will both get OLED panels in 2026.

The rumours state that these iPads will come with a regular single-layer OLED, which will run dimmer and at a lower refresh rate than the M4 iPad Pro.

If the leak is to be believed, the OLED iPad mini displays are slated to go into mass production in the back half of 2025 and Apple is increasing the screen from 8.3 to 8.7 inches.

Since this launch is still years away, things can always shift, and other reports have stated that the iPad Air and iPad mini will get OLED refreshes in 2026 and 2027, instead of at the same time in 2026. They also claim that the 11-inch iPad Air could get updated separately, leaving the 13-inch to get the OLED upgrade a year later. Again, all of this is rumours so far.

One thing that will likely happen when more iPads adopt OLED displays is that Apple will be able to make them thinner, like the M4 Pro. I usually hate to say this, since any iPad you can buy right now is pretty amazing, but if you really want a next-gen iPad experience, it could be worth waiting for OLED panels to bring better screens and thinner tablets to the market at a lower price point than the M4 iPad Pro.

The other part of this rumour that intrigues me is the idea of the Air and the mini being released at the same event. Prior to the Air getting M-series chipsets and a larger display, both it and the mini sat in the middle of Apple’s iPad lineup. It might make sense for Apple to rebrand the mini as a smaller version of the Air. This makes the entry-level iPad one size, the Air in three sizes, and the Pro two.

This helps segment the iPad landscape into three categories, with the Air getting the most attention. This is also good because the ‘mini’ branding has been fairly nonsensical. It’s smaller but more expensive than the base model iPad, even if both perform quite similarly in 2024. When it was released in 2021 the Mini was closer to the Air at the time, but in the years since, the iPad lineup has shifted, making the mini less and less of a good deal. Truly the only reason to get one is for its portable size at this point and it feels strange to pay a premium for less screen.

Wrapping the small iPad up with the Air means it gets an M chip, which is easily understandable as it’s more capable than an A chip. If it gets OLED, that’s also a nice upgrade over the base model iPad, making Apple’s pricing model make more sense.

All of that said, there are even more rumours swirling about an iPad mini refresh that could happen at the end of 2024.

Source: MacRumors, ZDNet Korea