Apple could be making a micro-LED Apple Watch – and more affordable AirPods too

(Image credit: Apple)

published 4 January 2023

When it comes to Apple products, there's often a very blurry line between rumours and informed speculation. The former tends to be what you'll find from oddly named people on Twitter, and the latter often comes from well-connected industry analysts whose contacts have told them things off the record. I'm hoping the latest Apple Watch and AirPods rumours are the latter.

According to tech analyst Jeff Pu as reported by MacRumors, Apple is working on two important products for 2024: lower-priced AirPods, and a brand new Apple Watch Ultra with a micro-LED display.

Why we're taking these predictions with a big pinch of salt

According to Pu, the new Apple Watch will be a high-end model – most likely the Ultra – with a 2.1-inch micro-LED display. That's very slightly larger than the one in the current Ultra, which is 1.92 inches. The main advantage of micro-LED is significantly improved brightness without increased power drain, making it an ideal option for wearables such as the Apple Watch.

If Apple is indeed moving to micro-LED, I doubt we'll see it in the standard Apple Watch models: it's a good way to differentiate the Ultra, much as Apple has done with the always-on displays in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

As for the AirPods, while Pu calls them "AirPods Lite" it's highly unlikely that Apple would use such branding – but unfortunately Pu has very little other information to share other than that these AirPods would be priced lower in order to compete with the best true wireless earbuds from other firms.

As MacRumors points out, Pu has a "mixed" track record with Apple predictions – and as these are the first we've heard of either a micro-LED Apple Watch or cheaper AirPods, we should probably curb our enthusiasm: even if Pu is right, Apple's plans could well change between now and the likely late-2024 launch of these predicted products.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).