OLED iMacs are coming, but are still years away

LG Display is reportedly developing 5-stack OLED panels rumored to be headed to the 24-inch iMac, which give ever better brightness and image quality.

Apple is clearly planning to bring OLED displays to all of its devices, potentially with the iPhone 20 Pro getting 2-stack or what the company calls Tandem OLED panels. Back in 2022, Apple was so keen on 2-stack for the iPad that it insisted an initially reluctant Samsung develop the design.

Samsung’s reluctance was because at the time, only Apple wanted the costly technology. Apple’s insistence was because 2-stack OLED has a longer life and produces a better image quality than single OLED panels.

But since January 2025, LG Display has been making 4-stack OLED television screens, and according to The Elec, it is now working on 5-stack versions. These may be used in TV sets, too, but Apple is said to have asked about a 24-inch display, clearly for a future iMac.

This isn’t the first time that LG has been reported to be working on 5-stack OLED. But a previous report concluded that such an iMac might not be produced until 2030.

The new report is fractionally more optimistic, predicting that a 24-inch 5-stack OLED iMac may launch in 2029.

Why Apple wants 5-stack OLED

While 2-stack OLED improves the life cycle of a display, compared to the previous single-stack version, it can still have burn-in. Familiar to Mac users from the CRT days of the 1980s and 1990s, it’s possible for a ghostly image of the menubar to appear permanently on screen.

An iMac will be at risk of this far more than an iPad or an iPhone, because it is more likely to be continually on for longer.

Then mounting multiple layers of OLED over one another ultimately affects brightness. To combat this, a 5-stack OLED panel will have three layers of blue LEDs instead of two.

Apple is claimed to have made requests to both LG Display and Samsung Display regarding OLED panels. Based on reports of those, the aim appears to be to get 24-inch displays with a resolution of 218 pixels per inch to 220 pixels per inch.

The technology to do this exists, but it currently comes at a cost. The panels themselves are more expensive, but they are also more complex to produce in volumes.

Or rather, they are for a large display like that of a 24-inch iMac. Or perhaps especially for TV sets where LG Display currently sells 4-stack models of up to 83 inches.

There is an issue of the quality of the display, which is an issue for a monitor where a user will be sitting immediately in front of it. It’s less of an issue for a TV set across the room.

Consequently, it’s possible that LG Display’s screens do not yet meet Apple’s standards for an iMac-sized screen. Yet given how Apple was pressing for 2-stack OLED back in 2022, it’s curious how it is still reported to be years away from using it in the iPhone.