OLED iPad Pro reportedly in production for April delivery

The long-awaited OLED iPad Pro is nearly here – and you could be looking at yours as soon as April.

That's according to a new report that says the panels for both of Apple's next-gen iPad Pros are now in production, and that device shipments are currently planned for April 2024.

The report comes from electronics trade publication The Elec, which says that LG has begun manufacturing the TFT (thin film transistor) layers for the 13-inch iPad Pro, while Samsung will begin production for the 11-inch iPad Pro this week. The TFT's job is to control the individual OLED pixels.

According to the report, the complete iPad Pro devices are expected to enter mass production in March, most likely for April shipping. That ties with previous reports from analysts including Ming-Chi Kuo, who has predicted a launch between April and June 2024.

OLED iPad Pros: what we know so far

The OLED displays are only going to feature in Apple's most premium iPads for the time being, although they've been in the iPhone since 2017's iPhone X.

A 14-inch model was widely predicted for a 2023 release but never made it into production, and Apple has settled on sizes of 11.1-inches and 13-inches. That makes them 0.1 inches larger than the current versions.

Rumours suggest that the new models will also have slimmer bezels to compensate, which should mean they'll remain compatible with existing accessories – handy given the fairly hefty prices of add-ons such as Apple's Magic Keyboard.

The two new Pros are expected to have a version of the M3 processor inside them, making them as powerful as current MacBook Pros.

While we're not expecting to see a 14-inch OLED iPad, a 16-inch non-OLED iPad may well be in the works.

Apple's biggest-ever iPad reportedly entered production at the very end of 2024 with a suggested launch date of March 2024, although the rumour mill has been quiet about that one since.

Both Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and display analyst Ross Young say that the 16-inch iPad is an iPad Air model and other than its size, it won't differ in any significant way from the current iPad Air range.