Samsung Display is the world's biggest manufacturer of small-sized OLED display panels. It supplies OLED screens to various brands, including Apple. It is now being reported that Samsung's OLED panels will debut on the iPad sometime next year. Samsung's tablets have been using OLED screens for over a decade now (Galaxy Tab 7.7 released in 2011 was Samsung's first OLED tablet), which makes Apple laughably late to the game.
According to a new report from TheElec, Apple will launch its first iPad with a 10.86-inch OLED display in 2022. The device will reportedly be the successor to the current-generation iPad Air. Samsung Display is expected to be the exclusive supplier of rigid OLED panels for next year's iPad Air. In 2023, Apple will reportedly launch 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models with OLED screens.
This development seems odd as Apple recently switched from regular LCDs to mini-LED displays with the iPad Pro (2021). The mini-LED technology offers various improvements over LCDs, including higher brightness, higher contrast ratio, and deeper blacks. However, OLED is considered to be superior technology due to perfect blacks and an infinite contrast ratio. The OLED technology has just one downside: potential burn-in problems.
Resisting the OLED technology for years, then switching to mini-LED displays, only to use radically different OLED displays after just one year seems strange, especially coming from Apple. Still, it's great to know that Samsung has been using better display technology and has been ahead of Apple for ten years!
