Apple recently announced its latest range of iPads, including the iPad Pro (2024) and the iPad Air 6.
A highlight on the new iPad Pro is its bright Ultra Retina XDR screen. Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s latest display technology.
What is Ultra Retina XDR?
Ultra Retina XDR is the latest version of Apple’s Retina display technology, announced alongside the iPad Pro (2024) at the company’s May launch event. The screen is designed to push beyond the capabilities of the Liquid Retina XDR display found in 2022’s iPad Pro M2.
So what is the Apple Ultra Retina XDR?
To break it down simply, a Retina display is any Apple IPS LCD or OLED screen with a pixel density high enough that your eyes shouldn’t be able to distinguish individual pixels at a certain viewing distance.
A Retina XDR display is a Retina display with support for XDR – or Extreme Dynamic Range.
Ultra Retina XDR is the next step in Apple’s display technology and “the world’s most advanced display”, according to the company.
The display tech launched alongside the M4-powered iPad Pro, taking advantage of the tablet’s new Tandem OLED screen. The display combines the light from two OLED panels to offer improved full-screen brightness, resulting in up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, or a huge 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness, on the iPad Pro.
“No other device of its kind delivers this level of extreme dynamic range”, brags Apple in the press release.
The Tandem OLED screen also enables sub-millisecond control over the colour and luminance of each pixel on the screen, taking the tablet’s XDR precision further than was possible on previous displays.
This means you’ll be able to see brighter highlights, greater detail from shadows, and improved responsiveness to content in motion, making the display tech better for digital artists and movie lovers alike.
