In Apple's 2021 MacBook Pros, Mini-LED Panels Come Into the (Bright) Light

During yesterday's Apple's launch event for its new line of MacBook Pro laptops (among a few other things), the company claimed it had developed the "world's best notebook display" using Mini-LED backlight tech in its LCD panel. 

But what is Mini-LED backlighting, exactly, and how does it work? Perhaps more important, do you actually need it, or is it just a marketing checklist item meant to sell you on an upgrade? Let's dig into the tech to find out.

Mini-LED Makes a Big (and Hot) Splash

LCD panels backlit by what are known as Mini-LEDs use an array of tiny LED diodes lining the back of the display. They first debuted to the public in the Asus ProArt PA32UCX content creator monitor in 2019. Unfortunately, back then, the tech, or at least that early monitor, was temperamental. Despite months of attempts and several separate review units sent to us that died on duty, we were never actually able to give that panel a proper review.

The next big launch in the world of "Mini-LED-adjacent" displays came when Apple entered the arena with its Pro Display XDR in early 2020, a Editors' Choice-award-winning content-creation monitor that we hailed as a triumphant showing of both engineering and design. (It was also well known for its $999 optional stand.)

Now, to be clear, Apple doesn't refer to the 576 LEDs inside the Pro Display XDR illuminating the panel as "Mini-LED," but in practice it's close enough to consider the two cousins. While traditional televisions and monitors may just have a thin strip of LEDs along the edges, displays like the XDR and others with Mini-LED use hundreds, sometimes thousands, of smaller LEDs laid across the back of the entire panel.

This gives the display more control over what are known as "dimming zones." In so many words, the more dimming zones a display has, the more accurately it will be able to control the contrast of two separate elements on the screen, like the red of a character's jacket and a black car behind the person. Every dimming zone is tied to one Mini-LED backlight; as a result, the more, the better.

This is important on screens that support HDR because the more accurate contrast a screen can produce, the better its colors will stand out. (Indeed, that is the whole point of watching or working in HDR—and paying extra for it!—in the first place.)

One of Apple's major innovations in its Pro Display XDR over the Asus ProArt was in how it dealt with what had historically been one of Mini-LED's biggest drawbacks: increased heat output over more traditional backlight solutions. The PA32UCX was a heavy, thick monitor equipped with a thermal solution cooled by several large, loud fans that shot hot air out of every vent.

"Loud and hot" not really being Apple's M.O., the Pro Display XDR, on the other hand, found a way to integrate a passive heatsink into the structure of the monitor itself. Take a look at the monitor under the lens of our FLIR One Pro thermal camera...

This design was both sturdy and beautiful to look at, while also proving quite adept at evenly dissipating the immense amount of heat that a 5K screen like the Pro Display XDR can generate at sustained peak HDR 1600 brightness.

Which leads us to the introduction of Mini-LED displays in laptops and tablets, and the subject of Apple's improbably thin MacBook Pro Liquid Retina XDR Display panel. More specifically: How did the company's engineers get past physics—that is, the heat problem—to bring this contrast-boosting, color-enriching tech to mobile computing?

Mini-LED Hits the Road

Well for starters, Apple wasn't the first to do it. As has been the case with almost all technologies, Mini-LED has been been refined over time, and the MSI Creator 17 gaming/content creator laptop we reviewed a few weeks back was actually the second in MSI's line to feature Mini-LED backlighting. (MSI's first Mini-LED Creator model, which we didn't get in for review, was actually shown at CES 2020.) It didn't generate the same kind of significant heat output that we saw in the Apple Pro Display XDR and the Asus ProArt PA32UCX.

However, the difference this time around is while the Creator 17 sported a mere 240 dimming zones, Apple claims the MacBook Pro's XDR display will support "thousands," though the exact number has yet to be disclosed. What we do know firmly about Apple's mobile Mini-LED aspirations comes from the most recent issue of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. That device was released earlier this year to a lukewarm reaction from us, but one of the high points was the display. It sports a mind-boggling 10,000 dimming zones on its 12.9-inch screen. We won't speculate if the same panel or dimming-zone count are being used in the new MacBook Pro. But if it looks even half as good as the iPad Pro panel, then MacBook Pro buyers have a lot to "look" forward to in their next purchase.

As mentioned above, the more dimming zones a Mini-LED display has, the more accurate it is. This is likely why Apple has also leaned into advertising the DCI-P3 color gamut of the new MacBook Pros, as that gamut is most commonly used for mastering by professionals who work in the film industry. (DCI-P3 is a cinematic color standard.)

Overall, the people who will get the most out of the new MacBook Pro and its Mini-LED-backed Liquid Retina Pro Display XDR work in the same creative fields that Apple has been courting for years: filmmakers, photographers, and the overall creative crowd.

That said, Mini-LED technology also has the added benefit of making all HDR content look incredible. So, if you consume a lot of shows or movies mastered for HDR (on the go, or at home), the HDR 1600 rating of the MacBook Pro panel will be more than enough to sear your (small "r") retinas with brightness from a few feet away. That is also why Mini-LED is starting to show up in some higher-end TVs from suspects such as LG and Samsung.

As we said during our review of the original Pro Display XDR, Apple's magic versus displays like the ProArt from Asus isn't just in finding ways to fit more power into its displays—it's the whole package. The design, the added software tuning in macOS, and the attention to detail are something the company has become known for, and we'd expect nothing less from its adoption of this exciting display-backlighting technology into the new MacBook Pro line.

All Eyes on Mini-LED

The $19 Apple polishing cloth that the company put on sale for your new MacBook Pro's Mini-LED display was also right on brand. Until we get a chance to review the new Apple MacBook Pros (they go on sale next week), we'll have to reserve judgement on whether the Apple laptop implementation of Mini-LED truly shines. But based on the other times we've laid eyes on Mini-LED tech, we have high hopes that you'll want to coddle yours with a pricey cloth...and maybe don your shades. The future of mobile display tech is that bright.