iPad 2 white color uniformity

[mmo]

Hi

I am wondering how many of you can see a clear difference in the luminance uniformity of the white color on the iPad 2 display. I just discovered that on mine it sort of fades towards a brownish/yellowish tone near the bottom of the screen. I just discovered it, but it's sort of annoying as in my usage, as opposed to light bleeding, this is actually relatively noticeable when one has become aware of it.

 

[kfscoll]

Hi

I am wondering how many of you can see a clear difference in the luminance uniformity of the white color on the iPad 2 display. I just discovered that on mine it sort of fades towards a brownish/yellowish tone near the bottom of the screen. I just discovered it, but it's sort of annoying as in my usage, as opposed to light bleeding, this is actually relatively noticeable when one has become aware of it.

Yep, I definitely had this issue on two of the three iPad 2s I've had. The first had really bad light bleeding and awful uniformity issues, the second had minor bleeding and minor uniformity issues, and the one I kept has mild bleeding but almost perfect uniformity.

At this stage in the game it's pretty clear to me that you're not going to get a perfect iPad 2 screen. If you happen to get one with no light bleeding, it'll more than likely have uniformity issues. As for me, I'll take minor light bleeding over uniformity issues any day of the week.

 

[interwebs]

I've noticed a substantial amount of this in the majority of ipads I've seen, on top of problems with mild to severe falloff on one or both sides (e.g. non-uniform luminance across the screen). The cases in which I have found this to be mild have all been screens I would consider too dim to be acceptable, leading me to suspect that it may be there but much more difficult to detect due to lower overall brightness. The brightest screens I've seen have had fairly pronounced color shift, although usually it's left-right rather than top-bottom.

I agree, though, that's it's annoying. As in your case, this issue is much more noticeable to me than backlight bleed given my uses. I ended up settling on favoring higher brightness w/ more noticeable shift over lower brightness w/ less noticeable shift as I found dimness even more annoying given the conditions in which I often find myself using the ipad.

 

[mmo]

Thanks for the replies. Anyone else have this problem?

What would you guys think the risk of getting another iPad with uniformity issues is if I exchange? I really don't wanna join the "exchange circus" where I keep exchanging and end up wishing I never bought an iPad, so if the risk of getting one with similar problems is too high, I think I'll rather just keep it.

 

[interwebs]

Thanks for the replies. Anyone else have this problem?

What would you guys think the risk of getting another iPad with uniformity issues is if I exchange? I really don't wanna join the "exchange circus" where I keep exchanging and end up wishing I never bought an iPad, so if the risk of getting one with similar problems is too high, I think I'll rather just keep it.

The risk of getting one with uniformity issues is very high. The risk of getting one worse than what you have currently depends on severity. If it's mild, I'd say the risk is relatively high. My recommendation would be to go to an Apple Store (if one is near you), take a look at the ones on display, and calibrate your impressions based on that. In the alternative, you could try posting a representative photo and I might be able to guess.

 

[mmo]

The risk of getting one with uniformity issues is very high. The risk of getting one worse than what you have currently depends on severity. If it's mild, I'd say the risk is relatively high. My recommendation would be to go to an Apple Store (if one is near you), take a look at the ones on display, and calibrate your impressions based on that. In the alternative, you could try posting a representative photo and I might be able to guess.

Thanks a lot. I will try to create a picture for you and post it, as it seems you know quite a lot on the subject. I am currently at work so I'll post it at some point when I get home tonight.
Of course the decision of whether to exchange is also influenced by the fact that I have moderate to severe light bleeding. The bleeding is not something that I would have exchanged it over since it's not really noticeable in my usage, but it might still influence my decision.

 

[mmo]

By the way one of the reasons why I'm so reluctant to replace is that I live in Denmark where we have NO Apple stores. So I have to hand in my iPad at the store where I bought it and wait for at least a week, and most likely longer than that, to get another one - or possibly the same one if they consider it being within specs.

 

[mmo]

As promised, here are two photos. It's surprisingly difficult to take a proper picture of the screen, but I believe the images show the issue.
They show the same piece of text, but I have rotated the iPad so that it is displayed in both sides of the screen.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/194/uniformity1.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/uniformity2.jpg/

 

[interwebs]

Hmm...it might be easier for me to tell if you were to take a picture of the whole screen with it displaying white. I have seen units that don't seem to fade/shift towards the sides but those typically fade towards the center, creating a sort of aura of often a brown shading there. From your description, it sounds like yours has the brighter center, dimmer sides/corners. Other than in some rather dim screens overall, I haven't seen any screens that didn't have a noticeable amount of this. There is a third type that is quite bright along the center vertically, but has severe falloff on the left side and moderate on the right. I've seen maybe three like this and they looked identical so it seems to be a feature of whatever model panel that is.

I wish I could help more based on those two photos but I kind of need to see the whole screen in context to be able to compare it to what I've seen in other units. I definitely sympathize with not wanting to deal with the hassle, so I'll be pretty straight with you on whether I think it's worth pursuing given that context.

 

[mmo]

Thank you for taking the time.
What I try to show with the two images is the fact that in one of them, the color is noticeable more brownish and the other one is properly white.
My screen is like that. The color fades towards that brown tone to one side and is fine on the other. I haven't though much about the center of the screen, I think it has the same color as the good side, so the problem is, as far as my untrained eye can see, only that one side.
I could try to upload some images of the whole screen, I did take some but found them not really showing the issue that well...

 

[johndallas999]

Hi

I am wondering how many of you can see a clear difference in the luminance uniformity of the white color on the iPad 2 display. I just discovered that on mine it sort of fades towards a brownish/yellowish tone near the bottom of the screen. I just discovered it, but it's sort of annoying as in my usage, as opposed to light bleeding, this is actually relatively noticeable when one has become aware of it.

I saw a white one in best buy yesterday and it was dingy as can be. Granted alot of people have handled it but the white has changed to a yellowy off-white color. The black one looked great. I'd never buy white anything as it just shows too much grime.

 

[AppleGoddess]

I use mine 8 hours a day and no color problems.

 

[interwebs]

Thank you for taking the time.
What I try to show with the two images is the fact that in one of them, the color is noticeable more brownish and the other one is properly white.
My screen is like that. The color fades towards that brown tone to one side and is fine on the other. I haven't though much about the center of the screen, I think it has the same color as the good side, so the problem is, as far as my untrained eye can see, only that one side.
I could try to upload some images of the whole screen, I did take some but found them not really showing the issue that well...

I understand, and I do know a full screen picture to some degree may make it harder to see the effect. What I am trying to do is see if I can observe the overall pattern on your screen to match it to one of the ones I've seen and make a guess about which panel you probably have. If I can figure out which one you have, I can probably make a reasonable estimate on your likelihood of getting something better (or worse). I do know that's hard to photograph, though, so I'll take a look at the closeup photos again and see if I can get some sense of it.

 

[mmo]

I understand, and I do know a full screen picture to some degree may make it harder to see the effect. What I am trying to do is see if I can observe the overall pattern on your screen to match it to one of the ones I've seen and make a guess about which panel you probably have. If I can figure out which one you have, I can probably make a reasonable estimate on your likelihood of getting something better (or worse). I do know that's hard to photograph, though, so I'll take a look at the closeup photos again and see if I can get some sense of it.

Again thanks, I've been trying to take a picture of it, but it simply doesn't show in the pictures, there's too much disturbance.

 

[mmo]

I tried taking a full picture again, this time using my iPhone instead of my camera, and it seems to work better.

Here:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/uniformityfull.jpg/

The problem is at the top. The image makes it look a bit worse than it does IRL but it shows the tendency.

 

[interwebs]

By 'top' do you mean top of the image or the actual top of the device? I ask because it is horizontal orientation when I look at the photo.

 

[hashsi99]

I'm on my second ipad2 and both have had this problem. Not as noticeable at higher brightness, but i prefer to have at a lower brightness. I'm assuming every ipad 2 is going to have this issue.

Is it a big deal? To me it is, my wife thinks i'm crazy, doesn't notice a thing. I didn't notice it at first either, until I started looking for defects.

Screen looks fine for movies, pictures, etc. Only a problem when i'm reading a webpage.

I'm hoping after many hours of use, the screen will "brighten" up around the edges. If not, i'll just deal with it for a few months (i just bought it a couple of weeks ago), maybe a new "batch" of ipad 2's will come in.

 

[interwebs]

I'm on my second ipad2 and both have had this problem. Not as noticeable at higher brightness, but i prefer to have at a lower brightness. I'm assuming every ipad 2 is going to have this issue.

Is it a big deal? To me it is, my wife thinks i'm crazy, doesn't notice a thing. I didn't notice it at first either, until I started looking for defects.

Screen looks fine for movies, pictures, etc. Only a problem when i'm reading a webpage.

I'm hoping after many hours of use, the screen will "brighten" up around the edges. If not, i'll just deal with it for a few months (i just bought it a couple of weeks ago), maybe a new "batch" of ipad 2's will come in.

It won't change with use so if you're unhappy with it you can try an exchange. However, as I noted above, the only panels I've seen in which either color shift or backlight fade was not noticeable were panels that were rather dim so it may have been that the effect was just less noticeable. I doubt many here would want one of those panels though as they look pretty terrible compared to the others. So, it will more than likely come down to which pattern, more or less, is the least bothersome to you.

 

[mmo]

By 'top' do you mean top of the image or the actual top of the device? I ask because it is horizontal orientation when I look at the photo.

Yeah I mean top of the image! The pattern is so that it gradually gets more brown from the center and towards the top (or bottom depending on how one is holding the device) when in horizontal mode.

By the way, when almost all iPads have this issue, it's strange that there is not a huge thread on this, but instead on light bleed? I would say this is a MUCH bigger problem, but of course it does depend on how one is using it. I am almost always reading on it - so I have some white background, and on that it will always be visible unless I turn the brightness up to unbearable levels.

 

[mmo]

By the way, what's do you guys do when you return an iPad? Wipe it in settings? I don't wanna hand in one with all my apps and files on it...(if I DO exchange it)

 

[interwebs]

Okay from what I can see I'd say yours is not the worst I've seen by any stretch. I would say you have a moderate chance of getting a better one in this respect but there is definitely risk of getting one that is worse, and possibly of a color temperature you don't like either. Do you happen to have any sense of whether yours is cool, warm, neutral?

Regarding what to do when exchanging, just do the erase all settings and content function.

 

[mmo]

Okay from what I can see I'd say yours is not the worst I've seen by any stretch. I would say you have a moderate chance of getting a better one in this respect but there is definitely risk of getting one that is worse, and possibly of a color temperature you don't like either. Do you happen to have any sense of whether yours is cool, warm, neutral?

Regarding what to do when exchanging, just do the erase all settings and content function.

Hm, I would say mine is cool. Generally I like the colors on it.
Maybe I should just give it up and keep it then. I really don't want to start the exchange circus. Because the problem is, if one exchanges once and then gets one with problems again, one has to keep exchanging or it has been a huge waste of time...

 

[hashsi99]

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Okay from what I can see I'd say yours is not the worst I've seen by any stretch. I would say you have a moderate chance of getting a better one in this respect but there is definitely risk of getting one that is worse, and possibly of a color temperature you don't like either. Do you happen to have any sense of whether yours is cool, warm, neutral?

Regarding what to do when exchanging, just do the erase all settings and content function.

Hm, I would say mine is cool. Generally I like the colors on it.
Maybe I should just give it up and keep it then. I really don't want to start the exchange circus. Because the problem is, if one exchanges once and then gets one with problems again, one has to keep exchanging or it has been a huge waste of time...

I'm just keeping mine. Already swapped it out once and have the same problem. I feel much happier about it when I'm actually using it instead of staring at the edge of the screen for imperfections.

Looks fine for pictures, videos, etc. Just against white backgrounds.

Oh well.

 

[mmo]

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I'm just keeping mine. Already swapped it out once and have the same problem. I feel much happier about it when I'm actually using it instead of staring at the edge of the screen for imperfections.

Looks fine for pictures, videos, etc. Just against white backgrounds.

Oh well.

Yeah, I'm with you. I don't wanna sit and look for imperfections. I noticed this when I was actually just using the device and not looking for problems, but I guess I can live with it. As you say, it's just a matter of using the device and not really care about these issues. That's the problem of many of the people over in the light bleeding thread. They have become COMPLETELY obsessed with looking for imperfections and are now not enjoying their device at all.
I do think that such a relatively expensive device should not have such problems, though, but if so many of them have it that the risk of getting another one with problems when exchanging is quite high, it's simply not worth the hassle. These QC issues do make one think twice before buying Apple again, though. But I guess many manufacturers have similar problems, it's unfortunately the name of the game to some extend.

 

[interwebs]

Hm, I would say mine is cool. Generally I like the colors on it.
Maybe I should just give it up and keep it then. I really don't want to start the exchange circus. Because the problem is, if one exchanges once and then gets one with problems again, one has to keep exchanging or it has been a huge waste of time...

If you don't want to deal with the possibility of multiple exchanges I'd say you're probably right not to bother. I'd give it less than 50% chance of getting a panel you like better unless you are largely unconcerned with dead/stuck pixels, brightness, or color temperature. Considering this issue is bothersome, I would expect at least a couple of those to end up being bothersome as well. When I say dim panels, I'm talking at 100% brightness they're maybe what my current iPad is at 60-70%. So, not terrible, but clearly dimmer and in bright environments rather annoying. It seems like a lot of the recently manufactured units have them.

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I'm just keeping mine. Already swapped it out once and have the same problem. I feel much happier about it when I'm actually using it instead of staring at the edge of the screen for imperfections.

Looks fine for pictures, videos, etc. Just against white backgrounds.

Oh well.

unfortunately this seems to just generally be a problem with these panels. If you do the exchange game you may be able to get one where the effect is less noticeable, but it may have other issues. On the other hand, I at least find this to be one of the most noticeable problems as it catches my attention even passively; I don't really have to be looking for defects.