- Upcoming iPad Professional rumored to have slimmest bezels to this point
- Change might come from adoption of LG chip-on-film OLED panel
- Timeline for the redesign stays unclear
Apple’s iPad Professional might be set for an excellent slicker design. A new rumor suggests the next-generation OLED iPad Professional will have the slimmest bezels of any Apple pill to this point – bringing it nearer than ever to a true edge-to-edge show expertise.
In accordance with a post on Chinese language social media platform Weibo, upcoming fashions of the iPad Professional will have bezels related in width to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Extremely. The data was shared by Immediate Digital, a longtime leaker with greater than 1.4 million followers.
The publish additionally means that Apple has found out the best way to scale back the width of the borders across the iPad show with out introducing a notch, just like the one discovered on the Galaxy Tab S10 Extremely. That pill already has a screen-to-body ratio of greater than 90%. With out a notch, the redesigned iPad Professional line could be firmly in all-screen territory.
Exciting as this newest iPad show rumor is, it additionally raises a lot of questions – and leaves a lot of them unanswered.
A borderless future?
We’ve heard rumors about ultra-slim iPad Professional bezels earlier than, a few of which got here from the exact same supply. Whereas Immediate Digital has precisely leaked some Apple specs forward of time, the account has additionally had its share of misses. That offers trigger to take the options with a pinch of skepticism.
Nonetheless, creating a pill with ultra-sim bezels actually looks like one thing inside the Apple wheelhouse. And if there’s one gadget Apple loves to indicate off its design chops with, it’s the iPad Professional. From mini-LED panels to Apple Pencil hover help, the Professional line has lengthy been a playground for premium options.
The transfer would require a reconfiguration of the inner {hardware}, significantly in relation to the show. Latest studies counsel a part of the reply might come from chip-on-film expertise, which LG will reportedly use to make built-in OLED panels for future iPad Professional fashions.
With slim bezels and no notch, Apple will nonetheless want someplace to cover the front-facing digicam and TrueDepth sensor system required for Face ID. When it eliminated the notch from the iPhone 14 Professional, Apple launched the Dynamic Island. One possibility might be to deliver this function over to the iPad Professional lineup.
An alternate resolution could be under-display sensors. We’ve seen these on different gadgets. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold vary, together with the newest Z Fold 6, has lengthy been outfitted with under-display cameras. We’ve additionally written about a latest Apple patent for an under-display Face ID system. This means that Apple is engaged on a approach to eradicate notches from its iPhone vary – and the expertise might actually be prolonged to its tablets.
Maybe essentially the most urgent query is when all of it will truly come about. The Weibo publish makes clear that arrival level of the redesign is ‘not essentially the following era’.
The present iPad Professional (2024) launched in Might 2024. The following-generation iPad Professional is predicted to land late in 2025 with an M5 processor. As a lot as we’d wish to see an all-screen iPad this yr, it appears extra sensible to hedge our bets and wait for slimmer bezels on the next era – probably due within the first half of 2027.