As Apple gears up to bring OLED to the Mac, a new TrendForce report looks at the wider color gamut reportedly planned for future MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iMac displays. Here are the details.

Future Apple products could go beyond P3

Those who have been following the Mac rumor mill will probably know that Apple is expected to announce a redesigned OLED MacBook Pro (or perhaps MacBook Ultra) as early as this year, with an OLED iMac reportedly following a few years after that.

Rumors of OLED MacBooks and iMacs have circulated for years, but reports about Apple’s laptop plans have become increasingly specific in recent months.

If they prove true, these Macs will join the iPhone, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro in using OLED display technology, bringing OLED to arguably every major Apple product category.

That said, TrendForce has published a report outlining the display improvements Apple is reportedly targeting as it expands OLED across its product lineup.

According to the report, Apple “plans to gradually adopt OLED panels capable of achieving 95% coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut across future MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iMac product lines.”

From the report:

  ●BT.2020 imposes substantially higher requirements on color purity, spectral control, luminous efficiency, and power consumption compared to the current mainstream DCI-P3 color standard. As a result, competition in OLED technology is expected to shift beyond traditional metrics such as brightness, contrast, and panel thinness toward achieving an optimal balance among color purity, energy efficiency, and overall display performance.

TrendForce notes that these improvements are being enabled by advances in OLED materials, with manufacturers developing more sophisticated systems that can produce purer colors, use energy more efficiently, and potentially last longer:

  ●One notable example is multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF), which employs multi-resonance molecular structures to produce narrow-band emission. This improves color purity and enables compliance with BT.2020 requirements.

  ●Hyperfluorescence utilizes a host-TADF sensitizer-dopant architecture, where a TADF sensitizer enhances exciton utilization, thereby improving energy efficiency and reducing energy loss during light emission. Phosphorescence-assisted thermally activated sensitizing fluorescence (pTSF) further introduces phosphorescent materials into a host-phosphor-TADF-dopant dual-sensitizer architecture, mitigating efficiency roll-off while extending operational lifetime under high-brightness conditions.

The report says the new requirements are prompting display manufacturers to rethink their material supply chains. Samsung Display is developing both advanced OLED material systems and electroluminescent quantum-dot technology, while Chinese panel makers are adopting new emissive architectures and increasing their use of domestically developed materials.

For Apple, the shift could broaden the range of technologies and suppliers capable of meeting its display requirements, as TrendForce says “future competition will extend beyond improvements in efficiency and lifetime to the development of competitive and sustainable material platforms that balance cost, manufacturability, and intellectual property risks.”

Source: 9to5mac