Apple has requested OLED display panels designed for future iPad mini models from its suppliers, ZDNET Korea reports.
Samsung Display reportedly started developing sample 8-inch OLED panels for a future iPad mini last month, with plans to initiate mass production at its facility in Cheonan in the second half of 2025. The move is also apparently visible in Samsung's own supply chain in Korea. Samsung already supplies Apple with OLED panels for the new iPad Pro, which features a tandem design for improved brightness and power efficiency. The report adds that Apple will bring an OLED panel to the iPad Air alongside the iPad mini in 2026.
Apple's plans to move the iPad mini and iPad Air to OLED displays is now widely rumored. Research firm Omdia believes that the iPad Air will gain an OLED display in 2026, with the iPad mini following in 2027, but Korea's ET News agrees with ZDNET that both models will be refreshed with OLED simultaneously in 2026, and there is a chance that Apple will delay bringing OLED to the 13-inch iPad Air until 2027. While the OLED iPad Air will retain an 11-inch display, the iPad mini's screen may grow from 8.3- to 8.7-inches in size.
Unlike Apple's latest iPad Pro models, which feature two-stack low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) OLED panels, the iPad mini and iPad Air may have single-stack low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) panels, meaning that they may be dimmer and continue to lack ProMotion.
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