More vendors lining up to supply Mini LED screen in 2020 iPad Pro

Another report has emerged claiming Apple is looking towards adding Mini LED to its iPad Pro lineup in 2020, with GIS working alongside Epistar, TSMT, and others said to be prepared to gain component orders and to become part of the model's supply chain.

A few reports have surfaced in recent days suggesting Apple was examining the prospect of using Mini LED screens in some of its products, including the iPad Pro lineup. In a new report, citing supply chain sources, the list of companies signed up to assist in the production of a Mini LED-clad iPad Pro has increased.

According to DigiTimes, Apple is working on creating a 12.9-inch iPad Pro using Mini LED technology for the backlighting, one that is scheduled to ship in the third quarter of 2020. This seems to match the earlier reports, including analysis from Ming-Chi Kuo on the possible launch timing of Mini LED devices.

As with the other reports, General Interface Solution (GIS) is named as a potential supplier of the technology for the iPad, along with Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology (TSMT), Zhen Ding Technology, Epistar, and Flexium Interconnect. Given the other lists, it seems that GIS and TSMT will be the most important component suppliers for the display, with the rest providing other secondary parts.

DigiTimes does tend to have a good track record with regards to supply chain reports and rumors, but doesn't have as much luck when it comes to reporting on product features. It isn't clear if DigiTimes is repeating other reports, or has independently sourced its own information in this case.

While Mini LED is getting the immediate attention, Apple is still looking towards other display technologies, such as Micro LED. Potentially creating a thinner display due to not requiring a backlight, the technology stands to offer a plausibly more robust display than that of OLED, while providing similar levels of contrast and a brighter picture.

It is believed Apple has been collaborating with Epistar and other suppliers on developing Mini LED and Micro LED displays for use in its products.

7 Comments

davgreg 1046 comments · 9 Years

About 4 years ago

So how will this impact battery life?

The greatest advantage my iPad Pro has over my MacBook Air is battery life when doing similar stuff.

tht 5592 comments · 23 Years

About 4 years ago

davgreg said:

So how will this impact battery life?

The greatest advantage my iPad Pro has over my MacBook Air is battery life when doing similar stuff.

It should improve runtime as individual LED lights can be turned off or down for dark colors. In a normal LCD with LED backlighting, the LED light is on at all times, even for black colors. For dark or black colors, the LCD pixels have to be turned dark and block the LED light from leaking out. If there is a high contrast bright area and dark area, the LED backlight has to shine brighter to produce the bright area, while the dark area typically becomes grayer as it can only block so much of the increased backlighting from come out.

With miniLED, where there is a 10,000 LED backlights that power blocks of some 500 pixels, instead of one backlight for all the pixels, the dark areas can be generated by turning off individual backlights. So, net-net, less energy is needed because of this.

The display in Macs isn’t the greatest user of power or energy. It’s the CPU or CPU+GPU. It’ll help, but won’t help too much when the CPU is using 2x the power the display is. (Much more obvious for the MBP as the CPUs in those machines can use 5x, 10x the power of the display). The iPad Pro has the advantage of having a SoC that uses about half the power the MBA CPU does, so miniLED on the iPad will be bigger net win relative to the MBA.

jbdragon 2312 comments · 10 Years

About 4 years ago

davgreg said:

So how will this impact battery life?

The greatest advantage my iPad Pro has over my MacBook Air is battery life when doing similar stuff.

The Apple Watch uses OLED as it's more energy efficient. There is no back light. So anything black on the screen uses no power and white uses the most power. This is also why most all of the watch faces are mostly black. Dark Mode on a iPhone with a OLED screen will give you similar results.

MicroLED are even more energy efficient than OLED.

So I remember Apple acquiring a company that was working on MicroLED displays a few years ago. Samsung has their HUGE MicroLED display and it's large because they hadn't gotten the MicroLED's small enough to use in a smaller 4K TV. Now it's down to iPad side? Home come not a single other Computer, Tablet, etc are using MircoLED as this article sounds like everyone is lining up to make them for Apple. Seems kind of strange to me.

CloudTalkin 916 comments · 5 Years

About 4 years ago

jbdragon said:

davgreg said:

So how will this impact battery life?

The greatest advantage my iPad Pro has over my MacBook Air is battery life when doing similar stuff.

The Apple Watch uses OLED as it's more energy efficient. There is no back light. So anything black on the screen uses no power and white uses the most power. This is also why most all of the watch faces are mostly black. Dark Mode on a iPhone with a OLED screen will give you similar results.

MicroLED are even more energy efficient than OLED.

So I remember Apple acquiring a company that was working on MicroLED displays a few years ago. Samsung has their HUGE MicroLED display and it's large because they hadn't gotten the MicroLED's small enough to use in a smaller 4K TV. Now it's down to iPad side? Home come not a single other Computer, Tablet, etc are using MircoLED as this article sounds like everyone is lining up to make them for Apple. Seems kind of strange to me.

JB. You're confusing MiniLED - the topic here- with MicroLED. This isn't about MicroLED.

tht 5592 comments · 23 Years

About 4 years ago

jbdragon said:

davgreg said:

So how will this impact battery life?

The greatest advantage my iPad Pro has over my MacBook Air is battery life when doing similar stuff.

The Apple Watch uses OLED as it's more energy efficient. There is no back light. So anything black on the screen uses no power and white uses the most power. This is also why most all of the watch faces are mostly black. Dark Mode on a iPhone with a OLED screen will give you similar results.

MicroLED are even more energy efficient than OLED.

So I remember Apple acquiring a company that was working on MicroLED displays a few years ago. Samsung has their HUGE MicroLED display and it's large because they hadn't gotten the MicroLED's small enough to use in a smaller 4K TV. Now it's down to iPad side? Home come not a single other Computer, Tablet, etc are using MircoLED as this article sounds like everyone is lining up to make them for Apple. Seems kind of strange to me.

The company was LuxVue. Apple won’t be building their own fab. They’ll design it, including the fab process itself, and have companies bid to build their own fab and make them for Apple. They aren’t keeping Japan Display afloat for nothing.

The rumor is for a “miniLED” LCD display, not a microLED LCD display. I understand the terms to mean:

LED LCD = 1 backlight per panel
microLED = 1 backlight per pixel
miniLED = the continuum in between the top two.

Eg, the Pro Display XDR has some 576 LED backlights, instead of just 1. Each backlight will power about 35.3k pixels. At 218 PPI, that would make a 0.86x0.86 inch square that each backlight is powering. So a miniLED display.

The rumored iPad and MBP displays are rumored to have up to 10,000 LED backlights. At typical iPad Pro or MBP resolutions, that makes for about 500 pixels per backlight and about 0.1 x 0.1 inch per backlight for 250 PPI. So a miniLED display.

Suffice it to say, I don’t want to be coding up the drivers for these beasts. Sounds complex.

MicroLED would have 5, 6, 18 million LED backlights. One per pixel. Samsung’s 4K microLED TV was something like 80 inches. They have a ways to go. Japan Display is almost there with a Watch sized display, but needs another couples of years.