A Tuesday morning report from The Elec says that Samsung will provide OLED screens for a 2022 refresh of Apple’s MacBook Pro and iPad devices.
Samsung is reportedly starting to migrate one of its factories to produce larger OLED screens, which will be used for Apple’s refreshed devices. The Elec says that Samsung’s new “Gen 8.5” OLED line will be used to deliver screens first for an iPad refresh, and then for a later MacBook Pro with OLED screen.
Apple has long been rumored to be planning a shift to OLED displays for its MacBook Pro lineup. The new report claims that Samsung will be the supplier for those screens, and the move from LED to OLED will take place during 2022, into early 2023.
The report claims that Samsung is planning to ship up to six million OLED panels for tablets and notebook computers in the remainder of 2021.
The report says the first “large screen” device that will receive the new OLED displays is the 10.9-inch iPad, which is widely expected to debut sometime in early 2022.
Other rumors have suggested that Apple plans to update the iPad Pro to an OLED display by the end of 2021. However, that may not prove to be accurate, and Apple recently updated the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Liquid Retina LED display, similar to the one found in the Apple Pro Display XDR.
As is normal for reports like this, take all of this with a grain of your favorite low-sodium seasoning. Nothing is set in stone until Apple makes an official announcement.
