Apple Working on MacBook Air With 13-Inch OLED Display
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Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO, Ross Young says Apple is currently developing a MacBook Air equipped with a 13.4-inch OLED display. The display would be slightly smaller than the 13.6-inch LCD display panel currently being used on the MacBook Air.
Young, a tweeted to his subscribers today that Apple will likely delay the release of a MacBook Pro with an OLED display until at least 2026. He says that’s when Apple’s supply chain is finally expected to have enough production capacity for notebook-optimized OLED displays. He says that until then, Apple’s suppliers will concentrate on producing OLED displays for Apple’s iPad Pro.
Young said back in December that Apple has plans for a new MacBook Air and 11.1-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models sporting OLED displays as soon as 2024.
Apple currently offers a mini-LED iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch display, as well as an 11-inch iPad Pro sporting a traditional LCD display. If the Cupertino company does use OLED displays in the new iPad Pro models, it would mark a return to feature parity for the two models. The new models are rumored to have slimmed-down bezels, which means the overall size of the devices will likely remain about the same.
Apple last refreshed its 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro devices back in October 2022, when the tablets were upgraded with the M2 chip.
OLED displays would provide improved brightness and contrast ratio compared to the LCD displays Apple currently uses. The displays would also be more power efficient, likely resulting in extended battery life.
Samsung Display is also reportedly working on producing a 13.3-inch OLED panel for an upcoming MacBook Air model. Apple is also said to be planning to switch several of its products to the new and improved OLED display technology.
In the meantime, Young says he expects to see Apple release a larger 15-inch MacBook Air equipped with an LCD display panel this year.
Ross Young has a decent track record when it comes to making display-related predictions such as this, as he has made accurate predictions about several upcoming Apple products.
Earlier today, The Elec reported that while LG Display is reportedly developing OLED displays for Apple’s future iPad Pro models, in both 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, LG is said to lack the production capacity for MacBook Air OLED display. Apple has instead elected Samsung to produce the MacBook Air OLED display panels. Samsung is also reported to be working on an 11-inch OLED panel for an upcoming iPad model, so Samsung could gain a portion of the 11-inch iPad Pro display orders.
The Elec also said it isn’t clear when the 13.3-inch OLED display-equipped MacBook Air will actually be released, since Apple generally has a two-year product development project timeline leading up to mass production of its products. The mass production timeframe for key components, including display panels, has not yet been reported.
The Elec says that Apple’s development of a 13.3-inch OLED panel for the MacBook Air lineup could serve as a test run for mass production of OLED panels for future MacBook Pro models.
