DigiTimes: Mini-LED MacBook Air to Launch in 2022

Apple will this year begin transitioning its devices to mini-LED technology, according to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo‌, and a new DigiTimes report on Thursday reiterates Kuo's expectation that a mini-LED version of Apple's MacBook Air is set to arrive in 2022.

m1 macbook air
Kuo believes Apple will release iPad Pro models and redesigned MacBook Pros in 2021, followed by a new MacBook Air in 2022, all with mini-LED displays and Apple Silicon chips. Today's DigiTimes report, citing supply chain sources, echoes that general sentiment:

The sources expect that Apple's 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros and 16-inch MacBook Pro set to be released in 2021 will be equipped with miniLED displays and adoption of miniLED will be expanded to its MacBook Air products in 2022.

In addition to a redesigned 16-inch MacBook Pro, Kuo has said he expects Apple to launch a new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an all-new design in the late second quarter or third quarter of this year. Kuo says these MacBook Pro models will feature Mini-LED displays for increased brightness, improved contrast, richer colors, and more.

MacBook Pro models are projected to be the main driver of mini-LED panel shipments since they will purportedly gain mini-LED before the iPad and see faster shipment growth.

As a result, Apple will likely introduce mini-LED as a "Pro" Mac feature, however Kuo believes the company will be able to offset the increased cost because the cost of ‌Apple Silicon‌ chips is significantly lower than that of Intel processors, which will allow it to bring the technology to its most popular MacBook further down the line.

Kuo's optimistic scenario sees MacBook shipments growing by 100 percent over the next three years, with up to 35 million units per year, thanks to the adoption of ‌Apple Silicon‌ and the refreshed designs.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air
Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Popular Stories

iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

M5 Chip Achieves Impressive Feat in 14-Inch MacBook Pro Speed Test

Friday October 17, 2025 7:10 am PDT by
The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons. Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...

Top Rated Comments

ph001bi Avatar
63 months ago

How long has there been rumors now of a mini-led macbook coming next year? 5 years, 10 years?
Less than a year. Early 2020 we heard MacBook Pro with mini-Led would come out at the end of 2020 or early 2021. This has moved by about 6 months as we are still expecting MacBook Pro with mini-led in Q2/2021. The article above is about the MacBook Air, and that's the first time there is a rumour about a MacBook Air with mini-Led.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleTO Avatar
63 months ago
I don’t really see a massive advantage of Mini-LEDs in laptops to be honest. Even OLEDs really.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bazooka-joe Avatar
63 months ago
Yep i wanted to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro so that will be on my shopping list
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MedRed Avatar
63 months ago

I don’t really see a massive advantage of Mini-LEDs in laptops to be honest. Even OLEDs really.
Deeper black, more accurate color, weight/space efficiencies, reduced power consumption.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ruka.snow Avatar
63 months ago
Apple giving more for the same price is quite the norm for them. We seen it with the 5K iMac for instance. And moving the cost budget away from the CPU and onto other things makes a lot of sense to me. We are already very much past where people see big changes from processors, but everyone sees the benefit of a better screen, nicer keyboard, more natural sounding speakers, and hopefully the upcoming dawn of high quality webcams(though you can’t cheat physics so it will need to be computational as there isn’t room for huge sensors and lenses.).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alpi123 Avatar
63 months ago

Quoting DigiTimes again? Slow news day I suppose. I think we've all learned not to trust them, many years ago.
Read again - according to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo; new DigiTimes ('https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20210107PD207.html') report on Thursday reiterates Kuo's expectation ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/02/kuo-two-macbook-pros-2021-and-macbook-air-2022/')

It's still Kuo who "predicts" this will happen, not DigiTimes.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)