TheProDisplayXDRhashundredsofLEDbacklights,butnot
enoughtobetrulycalleda MiniLEDdisplay.individually control
the brightness of the
backlight on hundreds
of tiny ‘zones’ and
then further refine the
brightness with the LCD
layer. This improves
contrast and power
efficiency, and allows
for darker black levels.
Mini LED technology
takes this even further,
with thousands or even
tens of thousands of
really tiny LEDs divided
into hundreds or
thousands of lighting
zones. The display can control the
backlight intensity behind just a few
hundred pixels.
This further improves power
efficiency, and also makes it possible
to have finer control over the brightest
and darkest areas of the screen. One
LED backlight can be cranked up really
bright without causing light to bleed
into a dark area nearby.
It’s likely that Apple products with
Mini LED displays will have higher
peak and sustained brightness,
though not up to the level of the Pro
Display XDR’s impressive 1,000 nits
sustained and 1,600 nits peak. That
sort of thing generates a lot of heat
and requires significant cooling. This,
combined with great black levels, will
mean really high contrast ratios and
brilliant HDR quality.NOT THE SAME AS MICRO-LED
There’s another technology coming
down the pike with a similar-sounding
name: Micro-LED. Likely to appear
first in the Apple Watch due to cost,
Micro-LED is not at all the same thing
as Mini LED. If you read the description
of Mini LED and thought, “why don’t
they just make the LEDs so small that
there’s one for every subpixel?”, then
you’re right on target. That’s exactly
what Micro-LED is.