Apple equipped the new MacBook Pro with quantum dot displays, but didn’t tell anyone about it

Two weeks ago, Apple introduced a new generation of MacBook Pro – the computers received M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. But during the announcement, the company did not say that another innovation was higher-quality quantum dot displays.

Image source: apple.com

Apple still puts IPS LCD screens on MacBooks, albeit better ones than on most other laptops. The manufacturer indicates that they use advanced miniLED backlighting – small LEDs that allow you to locally lighten or darken areas of the screen. In other words, the underlying technology for these displays hasn’t changed in quite some time, but noticeable improvements in brightness and contrast have been achieved.

Previous Apple M-series MacBook Pro models used KSF red phosphor film, which provides a wider color gamut than is typically possible with the miniLED backlight. This is a fairly effective solution, but not as effective as quantum dots, which, according to display analyst Ross Young, debuted quietly in the MacBook Pro with M4 processors. In the comments to his post on social network X, users added that the response speed of displays on new generation computers has also increased.

Quantum dot technology has been around for quite some time, but Apple was slow to implement it because previous generations of quantum dots were made using cadmium. The company announced back in 2015 that it did not want to use it – the World Health Organization declared that it is a carcinogen for humans, and recycling and disposal of electronics containing cadmium is dangerous.