Apple is planning major display upgrades for the MacBook Air, iPad Air, and iPad Mini lines over the next two years, with all three brands reportedly set to receive OLED displays.
The iPhone maker has been slowly transitioning its devices from LCD to OLED, with the iPad Pro the latest line to receive the upgrade in 2024. OLED technology delivers more vivid, saturated colors and a wider range of tones compared to LCD, as each pixel emits its own light. Because of this, OLED displays do not need a backlight, making them thinner, lighter, and more flexible than LCD.
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The iPad Mini will be the first of the three to receive the upgrade, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who broke the news.
The OLED model will arrive in the spring of next year, alongside the iPad Air, which will retain the standard LCD. Apple has also reportedly been exploring a new speaker system that uses vibration technology, removing the need for speaker holes. This, alongside a new water-resistant casing, is part of Apple’s plan to make the iPad Mini the first water-resistant iPad. The iPhone is already water-resistant up to six meters for 30 minutes.
The water resistance and OLED display are part of Apple’s push to raise the iPad Mini’s price, which is currently $499. That’s higher than the base iPad model but cheaper than the iPad Air and iPad Pro. The new model is expected to be about $100 more expensive than the current 2024 version.
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The iPad Air will be the last iPad to receive the OLED upgrade, most likely in spring 2027 with the next refresh. The base iPad is not expected to be upgraded to OLED in the near future. The iPad Mini and iPad Air are expected to feature the latest M5 chip.
Alongside the iPad upgrades, Apple is also planning to add OLED displays to its MacBook lineup in the next two years. The MacBook Pro will be first, with a touchscreen OLED display potentially arriving in the next redesign, scheduled for sometime in 2026. The MacBook Air will be next, reportedly receiving its OLED upgrade in 2028.
While OLED has long been the standard for mobile devices, with around 90% of high-end smartphones using the display, it remains far less common in tablets and laptops. Samsung uses its own OLED variant, Super AMOLED, on its Galaxy Tab S series of tablets, as do Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Huawei on their high-end models.
However, most mid-range and budget tablets still use LCD. The same holds true for laptops, according to consultancy firm Omdia: only 19% had OLED displays at the end of 2024.
Apple recently revealed that digital passport support is arriving in Apple Wallet soon, a moment many are calling a watershed for digital identification in the United States.
