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MacBook Air With OLED Display is Still Years Away

Apple is planning to launch a MacBook Air with an OLED display, but it won't come for several years after the MacBook Pro is updated with ‌OLED‌ screen technology.

macbook air cyber
We're not going to see an ‌OLED‌ ‌MacBook Air‌ until at least 2028, according to Bloomberg. Large, high-quality ‌OLED‌ displays are expensive, and it will take some time for the technology to come down in price enough that it can be used in Apple's midrange devices.

Apple brought ‌OLED‌ to the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models in 2024, introducing the first larger-sized ‌OLED‌ screens. The iPhone and Apple Watch have used ‌OLED‌ for years, but it is more complicated with bigger displays. Apple wants to transition its flagship Mac and iPad models to ‌OLED‌, with ‌OLED‌ eventually used across all product lines.

‌OLED‌ displays have better contrast than the LCD and mini-LED displays that Apple is using for current Macs, providing richer colors and deeper blacks. ‌OLED‌ also supports wider viewing angles and is often more power efficient because black pixels don't light up.

A ‌MacBook Pro‌ with a touchscreen ‌OLED‌ display is in development, and rumors suggest that we're going to get it as soon as late 2026, though Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today that we could be waiting until early 2027.

Kuo also said that we won't see an ‌OLED‌ ‌MacBook Air‌ until 2028 or 2029, so the ‌MacBook Air‌ will likely continue to use LCD display technology until then. It's possible Apple could do an interim mini-LED update, but there are no rumors suggesting that's the case yet.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Caution)
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Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane Avatar
9 months ago
This is so ridiculous.

It doesn't need a whole bunch of "development" or "figuring it out" or "more time to mature" -- none of that.

Lenovo, this very moment, sells a whole range of machines with the exact 15.3" OLED panel that would be perfect in an MBA.

I myself am sitting, typing this, in front of a $250 16" 3K 120HZ OLED portable monitor whose panel would also be perfect here.

It's breathtaking, with per pixel lighting, perfect blacks, "ProMotion" ... just the bees knees.

There's just no good reason for any of this to be taking years and years on Apples part.

How about offering screen options as a BTO choice?
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Macaholic868 Avatar
9 months ago
Why would Apple give consumers what they want at a price they can afford when they can upsell users on things they don’t want or need for several years instead?
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Funny Apple Man Avatar
9 months ago
Okay cool, but can they at least give us a MacBook Air with ProMotion?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jakey rolling Avatar
9 months ago

It doesn't need a whole bunch of "development" or "figuring it out" or "more time to mature" -- none of that.
It makes a lot more sense when you interpret the word "development" in the marketing sense rather than the technical one. Putting a larger OLED display into a laptop is a solved problem.

The real "development" effort is simply these two things:
1) Coming up with some expensive-sounding edge-case feature that probably benefits less than 0.001% of laptop users
2) Building the marketing narrative to convince the common masses that they are part of that 0.001%

I like to call this the "2000 nits" plan.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joshwithachance Avatar
9 months ago
I’m okay with the Air never getting OLED. But PLEASE give us 120Hz and/or miniLED.🙏🏼
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
9 months ago

I would’ve expected Mini LED is good enough for the Air demographic when the Pros move to tandem OLED to achieve the same 2000 nits of HDR brightness.
How about anything other than "the same panel (basically) from 12 years ago in a 15" rMBP?"
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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