iPad Pro With Mini-LED Display Reportedly in Trial Production, Late 2020 Launch Possible But 2021 More Likely

Apple's rumored 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display has entered trial production, according to Korean website The Elec.

ipad pro 2020 display
The report claims that LG will supply the Mini-LED panels for the device, while Foxconn will be tasked with final assembly. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously said that Mini-LED technology will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays, including high contrast and dynamic range.

The new iPad Pro will launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 at the earliest, the report adds, but a release next year appears more likely at this point. Earlier this month, it was rumored that new iPad Pro models with a Mini-LED display, A14X chip, and 5G connectivity will launch in the first half of 2021, a timeframe that several other sources have echoed.

Apple last refreshed the iPad Pro in March, but it was a relatively minor update, with new features including an A12Z Bionic chip that is essentially an A12X chip with an extra GPU core enabled, an Ultra Wide camera that enables 0.5x zoom, a LiDAR Scanner for enhanced augmented reality, and better sounding microphones. It was the first update to the iPad Pro since the device received a major redesign in October 2018.

Apple is also expected to release its first Macs with Mini-LED displays by the end of 2021.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Buyer's Guide: iPad Pro (Neutral)

Popular Stories

Apple iPhone 16e Feature

Apple Announces iPhone 16e With A18 Chip and Apple Intelligence, Pricing Starts at $599

Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued. The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
iphone 17 pro asherdipps

iPhone 17 Pro Models Rumored to Feature Aluminum Frame Instead of Titanium Frame

Tuesday February 18, 2025 12:02 pm PST by
Over the years, Apple has switched from an aluminum frame to a stainless steel frame to a titanium frame for its highest-end iPhones. And now, it has been rumored that Apple will go back to using aluminum for three out of four iPhone 17 models. In an investor note with research firm GF Securities, obtained by MacRumors this week, Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu said the iPhone 17, iPhone...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

Here Are the New Apple Products We're Still Expecting This Spring

Thursday February 20, 2025 5:06 am PST by
Now that Apple has announced its new more affordable iPhone 16e, our thoughts turn to what else we are expecting from the company this spring. There are three product categories that we are definitely expecting to get upgraded before spring has ended. Keep reading to learn what they are. If we're lucky, Apple might make a surprise announcement about a completely new product category. M4...
Generic iOS 18

Here's When Apple Will Release iOS 18.4

Wednesday February 19, 2025 11:38 am PST by
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple updated its iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia pages to give a narrower timeline on when the next updates are set to launch. All three pages now state that new Apple Intelligence features and languages will launch in early April, an update from the more broader April timeframe that Apple provided before. The next major point updates will be iOS ...
apple launch feb 2025

Tim Cook Teases an 'Apple Launch' Next Wednesday

Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag. The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle. Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
apple c1

Apple Unveils 'C1' as First Custom Cellular Modem

Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:08 am PST by
Apple today announced its first custom cellular modem with the name "C1," debuting in the all-new iPhone 16e. The new modem contributes to the iPhone 16e's power efficiency, giving it the longest battery life of any iPhone with a 6.1-inch display, such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. Expanding the benefits of Apple silicon, C1 is the first modem designed by Apple and the most...
Apple Northbrook

Apple Store Permanently Closing at Struggling Mall in Chicago Area

Tuesday February 18, 2025 8:46 pm PST by
Apple is permanently closing its retail store at the Northbrook Court shopping mall in the Chicago area. The company confirmed the upcoming closure today in a statement, but it has yet to provide a closing date for the location. Apple Northbrook opened in 2005, and the store moved to a larger space in the mall in 2017. Apple confirmed that affected employees will continue to work for the...

Top Rated Comments

costica1234 Avatar
61 months ago
Good luck beta testers!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iReality85 Avatar
61 months ago

Really looking forward to mini LED across the product lines, best of both LCD and OLED!
Mini-LED is just LCD with LED full-array local dimming (commonly referred to as "FALD") as the light source. Usually, this falls in the range of 500-2000 LEDs. It's really not anything to write home about. It's better than LCD with edge-lit LED, but nowhere near on par with OLED or (eventually) Micro-LED.

I'm really curious to see how much blooming will result from FALD.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alphaswift Avatar
61 months ago
Can we all agree that we've reached peak thinness? If they can save space, can you make the battery bigger please.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Falhófnir Avatar
61 months ago

MicroLED is the "end game", but they aren't using OLED because when they switch to MiniLED, it's a step backwards in some areas or they calculated they wouldn't make more money switching to OLED.
μLED isn't really worth talking about at the moment, it's meant to still be years away even on Apple watch scale, much less for large iPad/ MacBook displays. The high contrast is the main benefit of OLED over LCD, so if this closes the gap significantly to me that gives you the best of both technologies, as you're spared burn in & PWM dimming problems and PenTile sub pixel layouts which are massive rankles in current OLED panels IMO.


Maybe Apple has improved upon the tech. As far as mini-LED goes, FALD is a fairly off-the-shelf technology that's been used for awhile now but to mixed results, mostly in TVs and monitors. I believe even Apple's XDR Display shows visible blooming. It really comes down to how manufacturers implement it.

I will say though, that if people want Apple to expand their 120Hz Pro Motion tech to other products, OLED is definitely the way to go since it has an extremely fast pixel response time, so no motion blur.
I guess we'll see how Apple's done with it in the next 12 months, this seems a happy medium tech to me, you escape a lot of the downsides of OLED tech, while getting at least closer to the high contrast it offers.

In theory OLED is meant to offer the best response times, though there's commercially available 300Hz LCD panels with supposedly near 1ms response times while we're just now seeing 120Hz OLED panels in phones, and laptops are still at 60Hz as far as I can see... though that might be because OLED laptops tend to use 4K panels which really stress the GPU at high refresh rates.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
61 months ago

Do you own the keyboard? Would you mind commenting on the battery life of the iPad after using it? I have read that it is a massive battery drain.
I own one. No noticeable battery drain. Apparently there was a bad batch.


What specific use cases would having miniled be great?
Watching movies? Better dynamic range and black levels than LED. Also longer battery life, probably.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
moabal Avatar
61 months ago

Do you own the keyboard? Would you mind commenting on the battery life of the iPad after using it? I have read that it is a massive battery drain.
It seems fine but I keep the backlight off purposely. I do not need to look at the keys to type so no need to waste battery. I think a lot of people who are complaining are people with iPads with degraded batteries. For example, I just got a replacement due to bend and since it is a new one, the battery is a lot better.

It will be interesting to see any battery gains with Mini LED though.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)