Apple should soon unveil a batch of highly anticipated products. The iPad Pros are finally getting OLED panels. The 6th-gen iPad Air will come in a larger size. And I’m excited to see what the iPad mini 7 will have to offer. Then there’s the M3 MacBook Air, coming in two flavors.
While we wait for Apple’s spring event, we’ll likely see plenty of leaks, like the purported OLED iPad Pro CAD files that reveal the tablet’s dimensions. The iPad Pro will be significantly thinner if the information is accurate. It might become the thinnest tablet out there until Samsung comes out with new Galaxy Tab S models.
As with any leaks, there’s no way to confirm anything. But after CES and especially MWC, I do have reasons to believe the leaks are accurate. Samsung already has incredibly thin OLED displays that might be ready for commercial deployment. And I’ve seen some of them in action in Barcelona earlier this week.
The OLED iPad Pro dimensions you’re about to see come from MacRumors. The blog obtained the purported OLED iPad Pro designs that reveal the information. These dimensions are critically important to accessory makers. They’ll want to have cases ready for the tablets when they hit the market.
Let’s take a look at the OLED iPad Pro dimensions compared to the current sizes:
Current 11-inch iPad Pro – 247.6 x 178.5 x 5.9 mm
Upcoming ~11-inch iPad Pro – 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.1 mm
Current 12.9-inch iPad Pro – 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.4 mm
Upcoming ~13-inch iPad Pro – 281.5 x 215.5 x 5.0 mm
The drop in thinnest is incredible, especially for the larger model. If this is accurate, the 13-inch iPad Pro will be just 5.0 mm thick, more than 1 mm thinner.
This isn’t the first time we have heard such claims. OLED iPad Pro reports have repeatedly made this point. Apple is going for OLED panels not just for the obvious advantages over LCD and mini LED. The screens would help reduce the thickness and weight of the tablets. The OLED panels would also be more efficient and might prolong the life of Apple’s tablets.
According to reports, Samsung and LG are tasked to make these panels. Samsung has used OLED screens in the Galaxy Tab S line for years. These are the tablets competing against Apple’s iPad Pro. The Galaxy Tab S9 series comes in three options, with thickness ranging from 5.5 mm to 5.9 mm. They’d be thicker than Apple’s upcoming iPad Pros.
But, again, the OLED panels that Apple wanted for the iPad Pro should feature new technologies. They should be thinner than before.
To put things in perspective, I’ll remind you that Honor’s incredibly thin Magic V2 foldable has a profile of only 4.7 mm when unfolded. The TCL NXTPAPER 14 Pro, whose screen impressed me at MWC, is 6.99 mm thin. And I loved the way this large-screen tablet felt in my hand.
Back to Samsung, the Korean giant’s Display ARM unveiled its ultra-thin OLED panels for tablets and laptops at CES in January. I speculated at the time the screen in the photo above would also be used in Apple’s OLED iPad Pro.
I then visited Samsung Display’s MWC booth earlier this week in search of its newest screen innovations. Samsung had on display various foldable and rollable screens, and a wrist phone concept. I also saw how incredibly thin Samsung’s flexible OLED panels are.
These screens can equip rollable or foldable devices. A Samsung rep told me they’re the screens do not need any other components, like a layer of ultra thin glass on top of the OLED. They’re ready to be used in commercial products. But I didn’t get examples of what such products might be.
I’m not saying the screens above are identical to what’s coming to the OLED iPad Pros. But MWC is a big trade show. Samsung Display is showing its latest screens to potential customers. Apple adopting OLED displays in iPads might push other tablet vendors to do the same. Samsung will probably use OLED panels like the ones in the iPad Pros for the Galaxy Tab S10 series.
Samsung would want to show off its best OLED tech at such an event, including panels that might be destined to hit the iPad Pro.
That’s why I think the OLED iPad Pro CAD files might be genuine. If crazy-thin OLED panels exist, then crazy-thin tablets are coming, including iPad Pros.
With February almost over, we won’t have to wait that long to see the 2024 iPad Pros. Apple might hold a spring event in late March or early April to unveil the new products.