Big iPad, Mini LED: Why Apple’s new iPad Pro display is better and brighter

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Apple’s latest iPad Pro may look very similar to the model it replaces, but it includes several major upgrades on the inside. It has the same powerful, energy-efficient M1 chip as the latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and now the redesigned iMac. Mobile models have made the leap to 5G. The front camera can zoom and pan so you can focus on video calls. But processor aside, the biggest technical leap is exclusive to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro: this is what Apple calls the “Liquid Retina XDR,” a new display that uses Mini LED backlighting to deliver higher brightness and achieve greater contrast than any iPad (or Mac) the company has ever made.

Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro can reach 1000 nits of full-screen brightness – comparable to the ultra-expensive Pro Display XDR – and that parts of the screen can hit 1600 nits when playing HDR content. That’s brighter than many 4K HDR TVs on the market.

In comparison, the previous iPad Pro topped 600 nits. Point. These measurements also destroy Apple’s Mac lineup. The 16-inch MacBook Pro can go up to 500 nits. The flashy 24-inch iMac introduced yesterday? Also 500 nits. Things get a little closer when you look at the iPhone 12 Pro’s OLED screen, which can hit a maximum brightness of 800 nits and 1200 in HDR.

But Apple isn’t ready to make the move to OLED for its tablets just yet, and the reasoning likely boils down to the brightness advantage of Mini LED – plus the company’s promise that this iPad Pro, with its fancy display, will still be the standard. 10 has. -long battery life that iPad users are used to. Regardless, this is an upgrade that should be clearly visible to the eye.

What is Mini LED?

Unlike OLED, where individual pixels are self-illuminating and can be turned off completely when not needed, Mini LED is more of a natural development from the LCD screens that have become such a mainstay of consumer electronics. But where this new approach stands out is the size and number of LEDs behind the screen. Speaking at the Spring Loaded event, Apple’s Heidi Delgado said the previous iPad Pro had 72 LEDs, but the new “Liquid Retina XDR” manages to pack more than 10,000. Apple has achieved this by miniaturizing the LEDs to a size “120 times smaller in volume than the previous design.”

Apple says the 12.9-inch iPad Pro has more than 10,000 LEDs.
Image: Apple

The mini LEDs are grouped into more than 2500 local dimming zones that can be individually illuminated and dimmed based on what is shown on the display. According to Delgado, this level of detailed control results in customers seeing “the brightest highlights along with subtle details in the darkest parts of an image.”


The dimming zones can light up and dim based on what is on the screen.

Apple is not the first to use Mini LED

While this may be the first time that Mini LED has made its way to a tablet, the technology has already made it to TVs. TCL really fueled the trend in 2019, and apparently Samsung and LG have noticed: their high-end 2021 LCD TVs now also use Mini LED backlights.

A visualization of TCL’s Mini LED implementation on its TVs.
Image: TCL

Here’s how TCL explains the visual enhancements:

LED LCD TVs have two parts of the screen that together form an image. The “LCD” (liquid crystal display) portion of the display creates an image and the “LED” (light-emitting diode) portion of the display provides light that shines through the image for your eyes to see. Thus, the advantage of thousands of precisely controlled mini LEDs in an active matrix backlight is more powerful light that spreads more smoothly across the screen, more precisely controlled for sharp contrast, and more effective at creating vividly saturated colors that dazzle the eye. Mini-LED simply delivers significantly better image performance.

The massive increase in LEDs could also result in improved panel uniformity; some owners of the previous 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros have noticed uneven backlighting. Since I redeemed one or two for this reason, I can vouch. The “panel lottery” is a thing with almost any device – TVs, laptops, tablets, etc. – but the switch to Mini LED should help with consistency.

What have I heard about MicroLED?

MicroLED is seen as the next leap in TV display technology and the potential successor to OLED. It shares many of OLED’s best features (such as self-emitting LEDs), increases brightness, and has most of the associated drawbacks because the technology is inorganic. But right now, MicroLED is extremely expensive, and really only found in Samsung’s ultra-premium luxury TVs.

The final impressions of the new iPad Pro will have to wait until we get our hands on it. But as someone who uses the previous 12.9-inch model on a daily basis for productive and creative purposes, I’m really curious to see what Mini LED adds to the iPad experience.

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