It’s not unusual in pieces around Apple’s move to OLED for iPads (now) and MacBooks (in future) to have someone ask in the comments why the company doesn’t just skip ahead to micro-LED. The latest Samsung’s micro-LED TVs point to two very good reasons …
Apple’s journey toward micro-LED
Apple is so far still in the middle of transitioning to its third display technology:
- Originally, it used LCD with conventional backlighting
- Then it moved on to LCD with mini-LED backlighting
- The Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad Pro currently use OLED
- With MacBooks to follow
But the company’s next step after OLED is expected to be micro-LED. This will provide improved brightness, color accuracy, longevity, and power efficiency. In particular, it doesn’t suffer the same burn-in problem as OLED.
But microLED is difficult and expensive
The tech, however, is extremely difficult to produce, with Apple recently reported to have delayed its planned launch for a future Apple Watch Ultra.
The larger the display panel, the tricker and more expensive it becomes – and nowhere is that better illustrated than with with the latest Samsung micro-LED TVs.
Samsung’s latest micro-LED TVs
Samsung’s latest micro-LED TVs are available in four sizes, ranging from 89-inches to 114-inches.
Those giant sizes are not coincidental. It’s because the tech is still way too expensive to be used in consumer devices, so these are firmly aimed at the commercial market (and the occasional multi-millionaire).
Costs range from $110,000 to $150,000.
Obviously for that kind of price you’re getting like 16K resolution or something, right? Nope. Even for the 114-inch model, resolution is 4968×2808, which is a bit better than 4K.
So don’t hold your breath for Apple micro-LED devices
When you consider both the insane cost of the tech, and the very limited PPI achieved even at these prices, then it’s no surprise that it’s taking a while for the latest display technology to reach the point where it’s feasible to use it for Apple devices.
Image: Samsung
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