Apple is rumoured to be in the process of testing out a new E-Ink display for potential use in upcoming foldable iPhone and iPad devices.
The tip comes from high profile Apple analyst and (mostly) reliable tipster Ming-Chi Kuo, who took to Twitter to reveal the following:
Kuo has heard that Apple is looking to use a color E-Ink technology for the secondary external display in a potential foldable iPhone or iPad.
Such a screen would prove considerably more energy-efficient than existing OLED and LCD panels, even if it wouldn’t supply as great a picture. Given the secondary nature of such a panel on foldable phones to date, this wouldn’t be a particularly big issue. This would leave the main or internal display to use a more advanced (read: traditional) technology.
Earlier in the year, Kuo tipped Apple to release an iPhone-iPad hybrid with a 9-inch foldable display some time in 2025. This device would apparently have a foldable OLED panel with a pixel-per-inch density somewhere between the iPhone and iPad.
Apple has seemingly been knocking around ideas for a foldable device for some time now. Kuo’s own 2025 prediction was a revision of his earlier assertion that 2024 would be the year of the bendy iPhone.
Other reports from earlier in the year have claimed that Apple is working on an even larger 20-inch foldable MacBook/iPad hybrid. Apparently, such a device would feature a virtual keyboard for use as a MacBook, or a foldable display that attaches to a physical keyboard.
Still other reports from the display supply chain appear to corroborate Kuo’s claims that 2025 could be the year for whatever Apple has cooking on the foldable front.
