Tucked in an industry report about the uptake of midsize OLED displays in things like tablets and laptops, we learn the specs of the first iPad OLED screen. Unfortunately, it will be a single-stack affair, reports The Elec, perhaps in order to keep costs down.
This comes as a tangential proof that the first Apple tablet with OLED display may indeed be a lowly iPad Air 2022 replacement, on the way to the OLED iPad Pro 2023 models which the Korean supply chain sources tip will come with two-stack OLED panels.
What’s all that one-stack, two-stack talk you wonder? Well, apparently, for the midsize OLED panels Samsung is still using somewhat older technology with just one layer of red, green and blue organic light-emitting diodes which shortens the diodes lifespan before burn in fourfold compared to the two-stack solution. Samsung is using the single-stack OLED panels even in its new Galaxy Book Pro laptops, and plans to supply such screens to the iPad Air 2022 as well, tips the report.
Not only is the two-stack solution with much longer lifespan but it also supplies double the luminance of a comparable single-stack panel, so the iPad Pro 2023 will be equipped with two-stack OLED screens, as Apple obviously expects users to keep a Pro model much longer than an iPad Air before upgrading.
Phones can use single-stack OLEDs as they are smaller and used for a shorter period of time compared to iPads, says the report, but for longer use like high-end tablets and automotive displays the Korean screen makers would have to develop and supply a two-stack technology. LG already employs OLED screens with two diode layers for cars, so it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine that Samsung won’t be the sole supplier of iPad Pro 2023 screens.
