Apple introduced its latest iPad Pro models at the “Let Loose” event on May 7th, 2024. The show’s star was the iPad Pro. It brought significant upgrades over its predecessor, including a new Tandem OLED screen, Apple M4, a landscape camera, and more.
One thing that has caught everyone’s attention is the new Tandem OLED display. Some critics say it’s just a marketing gimmick but a really impressive breakthrough. So, what exactly is this breakthrough, and how is it better than a regular OLED display? Let us find out in this article.
What is Tandem OLED?
Tandem OLEDs are multiple OLED displays stacked on top of each other. Apple calls the Tandem OLED on the iPad Pro “Ultra XDR Retina.” They are much brighter and more efficient than regular OLEDs.
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The Need for Tandem OLED
Earlier, the Cupertino giant used mini-LED screens on its flagship iPads, better than LCD screens but not as good as OLED screens. The mini-LED screens on the older iPad Pro had blooming issues when viewing content with deep blacks.
OLED (or Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology has revolutionized the display industry with its ability to deliver stunning visuals, deep blacks, and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, OLED displays also have their issues, making it difficult for manufacturers to use them on large screens while retaining high brightness.
Advantages of Tandem OLED over regular OLED
Tandem OLED solves most of the issues with OLED displays. So, what exactly are these issues? These can be broadly classified into two categories: brightness and burn-in issues.
1. Brightness
Regular OLED displays can struggle to achieve high brightness levels, especially in bright environments. The previous iPad Pro with mini-LED could achieve a peak brightness of 1600 nits. If Apple used a regular OLED display, the brightness achieved would not even be close.
Other OLED tablets, such as the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, can reach a manual brightness of 350 nits and a peak brightness of 930 nits. With Tandem OLED, Apple stacked the brightness of two OLED displays, resulting in a much brighter display that can go up to 1000 nits in HBM and 1600 nits when viewing HDR content, matching the brightness of the mini-LED iPad Pro.
In short, Tandem OLED is significantly brighter than regular OLED.
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2. Screen Burn-in
Another problem that the Tandem OLED solves is screen burn-in. OLED displays, as the name suggests, are made of organic material. This means that the OLED display can suffer from burn-in over time, where static images can leave a permanent mark on the screen.
Burn-in usually happens when the OLED display gets too hot. As you can probably understand, increasing the brightness of the OLED display generates more heat, increasing the likelihood of burn-in. Since Tandem OLED achieves its high brightness by stacking two OLED displays working at their usual brightness limits, the likelihood of a screen burn-in is significantly lower.
In short, Tandem OLED is less likely to get a screen burn-in than a regular OLED.
3. Efficiency
OLED displays are (obviously) more efficient than, say, an LCD or even a mini-LED display. Tandem OLED takes this efficiency up a notch by minimizing the energy used by each OLED layer. BOE, one of the three manufacturers for Tandem OLED, says that their Tandem OLED is 30% more efficient than a regular OLED.
A question might come to your mind: how, when the Tandem OLED is a combination of two OLED displays, does it consume less power? Well, to achieve the brightness of, say, 600 nits, each layer of the Tandem OLED displays needs to reach 300 nits. A lower brightness level requires lower current and the current increases with the brightness. Thus, a 600 nit Tandem OLED can operate at lower currents than a regular OLED.
4. Longevity
OLED displays, being made out of organic material, don’t last very long. Tandem OLED, however, fixes this problem, as it has 4 times the lifespan. With this significant improvement in longevity, Tandem OLED displays will last you more than a decade.
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Who Makes Tandem OLED Displays?
At the time of writing, there are three display manufacturers that make Tandem OLED—LG, Samsung, and BOE. Apple has not yet disclosed as to who is manufacturing the Tandem OLED on the iPad Pro. We can assume that it’s either LG or Samsung.
BOE is out of the question since they are currently only manufacturing for Chinese OEMs. Speaking of which, rumors are floating around that Chinese manufacturers will soon be using Tandem OLED on their smartphones.
Tandem OLED: The Future of OLED Displays?
Tandem OLED displays retain all the benefits of an OLED display, like the high contrast ratio, better viewing angles, and excellent motion smoothness, while also improving brightness and energy efficiency and reducing the likelihood of a screen burn-in.
Apple had long been rumored to use Tandem OLED displays on the iPad Pro, but that didn’t happen until now due to mass production issues. Now that we have the first devices with Tandem OLED displays on the market, expect more manufacturers to use this technology on their devices, especially those with large screens like tablets, TVs, and laptops.
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