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OLED displays
The OLED display in the new iPad Pro is a great leap forward
HOW IT WORKS
YOU WILL LEARN
How OLED displays work, and their advantages
KEY FACT
An OLED display can be thinner and lighter than a conventional LCD display, and this has given rise to a spate of foldable smartphones from Android– based manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola.
Apple is thought to be working on prototypes for a foldable iPhone — and a foldable MacBook too — but durability problems with folding screens seem to be holding this up.
The latest iPad Pro (see p66) is the first of Apple’s larger devices to benefit from an OLED display.
ORGANIC LIGHT–EMITTING DIODE (OLED) display technology has only ever been used in a limited way in Apple products, being chiefly found on the iPhone and Apple Watch. That looks set to change. With the new iPad Pro sporting an Ultra Retina XDR display that uses Tandem OLED, you can expect OLED to appear in even more Apple products in future, including Apple computers such as the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. So what is OLED, and what advantages does it offer over the more common LCD and LED display technologies that are in use today?