The rumored 12.9-inch iPad Air won't have a fancy mini-LED display after all, analyst warns

Following recent rumors that the 12.9-inch iPad Air that we expect to be announced next month would feature an impressive mini-LED display, the person who shared that rumor initially now says it wasn't right after all.

Display supply chain analyst Ross Young is normally extremely accurate when detailing information about which displays will feature in future products, but he says that he got this one wrong. Writing in a paywalled post on the X social network, Young said that he had heard from supply chain sources that the new 12.9-inch mini-LED display was destined for the iPad Air but that other sources have now said that won't be the case after all.

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The news will no doubt be a disappointment for anyone who had originally planned to pick up a new 12.9-inch iPad Air, although the lack of mini-LED display does make sense. Such technology, currently employed on the iPad Pro lineup, is expensive and it never quite matched up with a place in the iPad Air lineup. However, it was a possibility that Apple could be using up older iPad Pro inventory, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.

Young did say that the new 12.9-inch mini-LED display is real, and that it will debut in a new iPad later in the year - but it isn't yet clear what that will be or where it will sit in Apple's current lineup.

As for the iPad Air itself, that's expected to be announced alongside an OLED iPad Pro at Apple's now-confirmed May 7 event. The iPad Air is expected to see its 11-inch tablet refreshed while the 12.9-inch model will join it in the lineup. Both tablets are expected to be powered by Apple's M2 chip, an upgrade over the M1 that is used in the current iPad Air.

The OLED iPad Pro is also expected to see its 11-inch model refreshed alongside the high-end 12.9-inch tablet and get a speed boost at the same time. The iPad Pro that is on sale today uses the M2 chip, but it's expected that the new OLED refresh will also see Apple bring the M3 chip to the iPad lineup for the first time. That chip is already being used in Apple's laptop and desktop computer lineups including the 24-inch iMac and both the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air machines.

Alongside the new tablets Apple is also expected to announce a new Apple Pencil stylus and a more sturdy version of the Apple Magic Keyboard.