An OLED display iPad Pro and portless iPhone 13 Pro Max may await in 2021
So far, there have been two Apple rumormongers that claimed there will be a completely portless iPhone at some point in the not too distant future, and now a third one, Jon Prosser, is adding more water in his 'Look, Ma, no ports!' rumor mill.
Previously, both renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and the established leakster Fudge tipped a portless iPhone 13 may be on the horizon, while earlier Bloomberg reported that Apple has been toying with the portless idea since the original iPhone X that started all that notch-y design thing.
Apple, however, needed new technology if it was going to ditch ports, cables, and other annoying charge paraphernalia. Enter 2020's iPhone MagSafe pucks and other accessories that attach magnetically to the back of the iPhone 12 models, and top them up sans cables.
Now that the general idea is clear, Jon Prosser swoops to try and fill in the details, such as the case of the single iPhone 13 portless model. Which one will it be, remains to be heard, but, given that Apple is scheduled to issue four iPhone in 2021, we doubt that it will add a fifth one dedicated to the portless cause, but instead equip its most expensive model, potentially the iPhone 13 Pro Max, with the new and exclusive looks.
This will look consumers even further into the MagSafe ecosystem, rather than go with the USB-C flow, as the EU may have skipped the session on Apple fines for wireless charging. Heck, Apple may even be awarded some green environmental trophy next year while maintaining a proprietary charging system, this time in the wireless realm.
The iPad Pro 2021 is going OLED thanks to Samsung and LG Display
The iPhone 12 Pro Max buyers may be a bit upset that their $1099 phone doesn't have a 60Hz display but lest we forget, it was Apple that unleashed a 120Hz refresh rate device way back in 2017 when 90Hz was still a twinkle in a lot of phone maker's eye.
Yes, we are talking about the ProMotion Display on the iPad Pro models, and in 2021 Apple may turn the tables on the competition once again by employing OLED panels for the next iPad Pro entrants. This rumor comes courtesy of Korean display industry insiders who claim that, if Apple's miniLED display plans for an iPad Pro in the spring don't pan out, it may release iPad Pro 2021 models in the second half of the year with OLED screens.
The specifications for said iPad OLED panels it has given to LG and Samsung, however, are higher than what it demands from them for the current iPhone 12 crop - you know, 120Hz Pro Motion or higher - so it remains to be seen whether the Korean companies will be able to fulfil them on time.
Both Samsung at its A4 plant, and LG at its E5 factory, are reportedly hard at work producing samples for the evential iPad Pro tablets with OLED displays, tip the insiders, trying to master the so-called "tandem" production structure. It apparently lets two or even three RGB emitting layers to be stacked, thus prolonging the life of the emitting material (especially blue) compared to the current one-layer depositions to prevent any whiff of burn in after extended usage.
One might wonder why isn't Samsung a near-exclusive OLED display supplier for the iPad Pro 2021 as it is for Apple's iPhones, but it turns out that LG has been using the tandem emitting layers method for a while in the OLED panels it crafts for many major car makers, and has some experience, too. A car is something that will be used for quite a bit longer than a consumer electronics device, so an infotainment display there has to meet and exceed those prolonged usage scenarios.
А 120Hz or even 240Hz iPad Pro OLED display would be a match made in heaven, so we can't wait to see whether it will be Apple's miniLED or OLED panels efforts that will pan out first in 2021. What do you think?
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