Could Apple Bring a 90 Hz Display to the iPad Air?
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It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly ten years since Apple unveiled its 120 Hz ProMotion display on the first 12.9-inch iPad Pro. That’s probably because it remained exclusive to Apple’s high-end iPads for an unusually long time, only coming to the iPhone three years ago with the iPhone 13 Pro.
While the 2015 iPad Pro led the way in that area, the iPhone was relatively late to the game. While there’s a good chance the ProMotion displays would have landed on the iPhone a year earlier had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, that would have still been a five-year span during which only the iPad Pro has a display with a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz. During that time, rival Android handset makers had already begun pushing their displays to faster rates, with so-called “gaming” smartphones like the Razer Phone 2 and Asus ROG Phone 2 getting the new screen tech as early as 2017.
The first mainstream phone to make the leap was Google’s Pixel 4 in 2019, which adopted a 90 Hz display. However, it’s fair to say that wasn’t an ideal implementation, and many folks turned it off due to the hit the faster refresh rate took on battery life. Nevertheless, we’ve entered an era where even the most wallet-friendly Android phones feature at least 90 Hz displays.
Meanwhile, despite nearly annual rumors that faster displays would be coming to all iPhone models, Apple has stubbornly maintained the wide gulf between its Pro and standard iPhone models. The iPhone Pro and iPad Pro all feature 120 Hz ProMotion displays, while every other iPhone and iPad get left behind at 60 Hz. They’re still great screens, but they’re not the fastest on the market by any stretch.
To be fair, 60 Hz is more than enough for what many people use their iPhones for. Even 4K UHD video only plays at 60 frames per second (fps), and many traditional movies and TV shows are still recorded and presented at 24fps or 30fps. A 120 Hz screen does nothing for video, and the real downside to Apple’s fixed 60 Hz displays is not that they can’t go faster but that they can’t be slowed down to save battery life. It’s this variable refresh rate that accounts for the iPhone Pro’s longer video streaming and playback times.
Nevertheless, 90 Hz is now considered the minimum standard outside the iPhone garden, and many of the best budget Android phones now feature 120 Hz screens on phones that sell for less than Apple’s 2022 iPhone SE.
This gives some credence to a rumor that surfaced this week that Apple could be working on 90 Hz displays for at least some of its devices. First spotted by 9to5Mac, the rumor is sketchy at best since it comes from an unproven source, but it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
This comes from an entirely anonymous source who reached out to Jason Snell and Myke Hurley’s Upgrade podcast:
I have news on screen improvements for the next generation of the M3 iPad Air. Apple is working on a higher refresh rate LCD display with a new liquid motion panel fixed at around 90 Hz. They’re also working on expanding it to other models or products like a 24-inch iMac and a next-gen studio display.
The source oddly mentions an “M3 iPad Air,” which is already a nebulous product, and suggests that it could come to the next 24-inch iMac and a future Studio Display. Until recently, there’s been no clear roadmap on when to expect any of these products; based on Apple’s typical iPad release cycle, a new iPad Air wasn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest, by which time it could get an OLED display.
However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw us a curveball last month when he predicted that a new iPad Air will arrive in early 2025. That would mark the tightest release cycle we’ve ever seen for Apple’s mid-tier iPads; the last time two iPad Air models were released a year apart was in 2013 and 2014, long before they became the iPad Air models we know today.
If a new iPad Air does arrive in the spring — and Gurman has a pretty good track record for these predictions — then it’s more likely we’ll see an M3 iPad Air after all, as it would be the most logical chip to put inside at that point. It could also pave the way for the standard iPad to get an M1 chip while leaving a reasonable gap between the two families. The M3 would otherwise be retired by then, as an M4 MacBook Air is expected to arrive in the spring. However, using it in an iPad Air would be similar to what Apple just did with the iPad mini 7, which gained an A17 Pro chip that’s no longer being used in any current iPhone models.
While there’s no mention of the iPhone here, it seems plausible that may also be in the works, even if it’s just for a future iPhone SE. There’s another round of rumors that the entire iPhone 17 lineup will get 120 Hz ProMotion displays. This one is more believable as it comes from well-connected display analyst Ross Young, who is often right about these things. Plus, it’s about time.
Next year’s iPhone lineup is also expected to be a departure from what we’ve seen over the past few years. Rumors abound that a more premium “iPhone Slim” or “iPhone Air” is in the works that will replace the iPhone 16 Plus but fit into an entirely different place in the lineup.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
