The iPad Pro may not receive OLED display until 2022 - but there could still be an upgrade next year

Despite plenty of rumours indicating an OLED display would be coming to the iPad Pro's next generation, a new report suggests the technology actually won't arrive on Apple tablets until 2022. 

Instead, the devices face a temporary upgrade to Mini-LED displays before making the full transition to the more advanced OLED the year after. This is according to a source of SamMobile, who suggests that Apple will call on LG and Samsung to produce these hybrid OLED panels for iPad screens in 2022. 

Samsung is reportedly calling the screens 'Ultra Thin' panels, while LG is opting from 'Advanced Thin OLED', and they'll allegedly - and, perhaps, surprisingly - be thinner than typical OLED screens. The technique is the same either way, it seems, with both allegedly blending together a flexible film and rigid glass to deliver thinner OLED panels.

The obvious question, however, is why would Apple bother with such a limited-time upgrade, rather than waiting? Well, if the report does turn out to be true, it would be a surprise to see Apple shift from one upgrade to the next so quickly.

With that said, Mini-LED does still represent a significant upgrade on the current LED tech, even if it's not pure OLED. And since the iPhone 12 line has already made the shift to OLED, it naturally makes sense to continue down that line with iPad, too.

It may not be binned completely, either. If Apple does go down this route, it could continue to be used on the cheaper models of the iPad in the future, leaving the more expensive tiers open to OLED.

The only thing that's clear so far is that there's still plenty we don't know about the display tech of future iPad models. It feels fairly certain, of course, that OLED will appear sooner rather than later, but the timeline is still very much open to interpretation.

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