A mini-LED iPad Pro could launch as soon as the first quarter of 2021

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By Oliver Haslam
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iPad Pro Hero
iPad Pro Hero (Image credit: Karen Freeman/iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple is reportedly launching a mini-LED display-equipped iPad Pro in the first quarter of next year.
  • The displays are said to be coming from LG.
  • They would offer many of the same benefits as OLED screens.

Apple will launch a new iPad Pro with a mini-LED display as soon as the first quarter of next year if a new report by ETNews turns out to be on the money. The Korean tech outlet claims that LG Display has plans to begin mass production of the new screens by the end of this year.

Rumors of a mini-LED iPad have been and gone all year and DigiTimes has made similar noises about a potential early-2021 launch before. Now, it seems, plans are afoot to get everything ready for the big launch.

LG Display is preparing to supply its Mini LED backlight LCDs to Apple. Its new display uses a small LED as the backlight and has improved performance in brightness and contrast ratio. Because it is reported that Apple will look to actively use Mini Led LCDs starting with iPads early next year and other products such as MacBook and iMac, there are expected to be changes in the global LCD market and to LCD technology.

That's also an important point to consider. Apple is thought to be moving more products to mini-LED sooner or later.

The use of mini-LED will bring many of the same advantages of OLED, including improved contrast, power efficiency, and brightness capabilities. The new screens will also likely be thinner and lighter than the standard LCD-based screens that are in use today.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

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.