According to industry sources, Apple won’t be releasing an OLED iPad until 2023 at the earliest…


Plenty of laptops now run OLED displays. Phones too. But Apple’s iPad has remained resolutely stuck with LED screens – even the Pro models.

Once Apple’s iPhones made the switch to OLED from LED many believed the iPad would soon follow suit. After all, all of Apple’s iPhone 12 (and its soon-to-be-released iPhone 13) run OLED screens.

But this hasn’t happened yet. And according to reports, it isn’t going to happen any time soon either.

In fact, those that want an iPad with an OLED display will have to wait until at least 2023 – and that’s the earliest possible window.

However, other sources claim the OLED iPad will land in 2022.

Conflicting rumors are always the case with unreleased products. But if I were a betting man, I’d wager that we’ll see an OLED iPad before 2023.

OLED iPads – Why Don’t They Exist?

Apple has the resources, the production facilities, and the capabilities to make it happen. The only reason it hasn’t is because it doesn’t have to – Apple sells millions of iPads right now, so why mess with the format?

The good news here, however, is that an OLED iPad is coming – we just don’t know when exactly. It could be 2022 or it could be 2023. Or, it could be later this year. No one really knows how things will work.

Or, you could just get a laptop with an OLED display like this one from Samsung.

But one thing both of the above sources agree on is that 1) an OLED iPad is coming at some point inside the next two years, and 2) it will be coming to a 10.9in model – likely the iPad Air refresh.

And make no mistake, updating the iPad’s display to OLED was be a big deal. I think this is why Apple is holding off as long as it possibly can. Nothing quite like a bit of pleasure delaying, right?

By holding back OLED for iPad, Apple is effectively mining enthusiasm for the idea. It knows LED is terrible compared to OLED. And it knows once it does do an OLED iPad, everybody will buy one.

This is pretty much how Apple does things with iPhone, so it is no surprise to see the company hold back things like OLED panels on iPad in order to drive demand and expectation.

OLED iPad Release Date

Given what we know about Apple’s track record with iPhone, how it holds back features to drive adoption in the future, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Apple is keen on delaying rolling out OLED displays on its iPad.

My guess? The iPad with OLED will land at some point between 2022 and 2023. It will be a major update to the iPad platform, it will cost more, and after it debuts on a refreshed iPad Air, it will roll out to Apple’s new iPad Pro models.

OLED is coming to iPad, basically. It’s now just a case of when – or how long Apple can make its iPad fans wait.

And be sure to check out How To Use iPad As An External Display for Your Mac!