Apple Says iPad Pro's XDR Display Designed to Minimize Blooming, but Some Users Still Notice the Effect

[cp1160]

I had already killed one LG OLED TV. It wasn't a burn in, but the red color was gone in the middle of the screen. Simpsons in green. An TV with mini LED can be a good option.

Anyone that thinks OLED TVs don‘t have issues should think otherwise. First, any device can fail, but his issues were not failure. First, the screen definitely burns in. He is a EPSN/Sports nut. You can clearly see the shape of the standard “banner“ that appears at the bottom of the screen. It’s an odd muddy look when looking at movies, etc.

Second, the TV is clearly losing vibrancy and had noticeable color change. Two Superbowls and I walked in and asked what happened to the old TV, this one looks like crap.

Third, the screen began failing.

Not pounding on OLED, just saying they also are not perfect technology.

There will likely never be a perfect technology…always a tradeoff.

And for everyone that always posts “I will wait for the next version….well….they usually wait for the next and the next and the next version. Perhaps they never were going to really upgrade, perhaps they enjoy complaining.

For those that cannot stand the blooming (as opposed to the halo effect from your eyes), don’t get one.

For things we notice, hopefully Apple can address.

For everyone that says Apple is a remnant of itself, cannot deliver anything….well I have a heck of lot of issues with my Windows 10 laptops, my wife has issues with her Samsun Galaxy phone, my son hates his Chromebook…everyone has a “preference” and a “tolerance”. Is your care perfect? Do you spend hours on a forum complaining? Is your job perfect? Do you spend hours on a forum complaining? Apple releases something….you spend hours on a forum complaining.

Life is too short. Return it. Don’t buy it. Relax.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

That's not how it works. Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

While it's possible you can get a perceived halo on OLED, it's never anywhere near as significant as what people describe here, unless they have cataracts or something.

Do you have access to an OLED capable of 1600 nits? Because, it’s directly tied to the brightness. If you put a dim light next to a bright light, one’s going to bloom brighter than the other, guess which one? When OLED’s are capable of replacing mini-LED because they can reach 1600 nits, it’ll be the same conversation all over again.

 

[EugW]

Do you have access to an OLED capable of 1600 nits? Because, it’s directly tied to the brightness. If you put a dim light next to a bright light, one’s going to bloom brighter than the other, guess which one? When OLED’s are capable of replacing mini-LED because they can reach 1600 nits, it’ll be the same conversation all over again.

Even with brightness partially turned down people are noticing this issue on the iPad Pro mini-LED. Furthermore, people describe being able to observe the actual dimming grid system. This is coming from people who look at screens for a living too, not just n00bies.

I have an OLED capable of 1000 nits for highlights in dark scenes and I don't notice anything like this, even in complete darkness with the screen at maximum brightness, and I have a strong prescription with a significant astigmatism as well.

 

[Voyageur]

That's not how it works. Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

While it's possible you can get a perceived halo on OLED, it's never anywhere near as significant as what people describe here, unless they have cataracts or something.

This is the launch of my 12 mini, shot with the XS. Shooting the XS screen with the 12 mini shows the same thing. This blooming was seen both with unarmed eyes and in the camera. As I said above, this is a consequence of some laws of physics.

 

[EugW]

This is the launch of my 12 mini, shot with the XS. Shooting the XS screen with the 12 mini shows the same thing. This blooming was seen both with unarmed eyes and in the camera. As I said above, this is a consequence of some laws of physics.
View attachment 1783330

I never said it doesn't exist. I said it's not as prominent as you would get a with a LCD setup, mini-LED or not.

I mean I even said it right in the text you quoted:

While it's possible you can get a perceived halo on OLED, it's never anywhere near as significant as what people describe here

 

[mi7chy]

Because OLED burns in over time? I don't understand why so few people seem to know this, or at least talk about it.

LEDs wear or burn out over time. I'd say OLED wear is more even over time so it's the lesser of two evils.

 

[mateytate]

Are you people sure this isn't BS from android fanboys and girls? The tiny backlights are very tiny. To bleed like these pictures show into the blackness is strange.

It even says "Some MacRumors Editors experienced blooming with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's XDR display" - I'm pretty sure they are not Android fanboys.

 

[Jt69yupper]

i agree with both assessments - the intense contrast creates a glow that my eyes find hard to adjust to. I have good eyes, early 30s no glasses, but its harsh and i’m constantly turning brightness down in low light…

but i also see ‘Blooming’ as reported in this thread, for sure. It’s disappointing. The handles at the bottom and top right create massive blooms on black screens before movies begin playing. I’ve seen a small amount of blooming in movies where there a dark background, too... hopefully future software updates can help address this issue… reading in dark mode has ridiculous pillowing, it is annoying to see, i keep thinking it’s my eyes!

Same issue I returned mine could not read on on this tablet

 

[AppleTLDR]

I don’t know if this helps anybody decide to buy or not but here is a couple of photos taken on a Sony ZV1 with HDR off (which tends to over expose the blooming in many examples I’ve seen). It’s still there in real life but honestly it isn’t so bad that it affects my enjoyment. Hope this useful 🙂

 

[rxp]

Was disapointed that it wasn't OLED - knew this would be an issue. Only reason I use a tablet is media consumption on the go - with the world situation atm that's not a priority but soon as it is Samsung has a 14.4" OLED tablet coming out that i'll grab.Will blow the plane screens away!

 

[MacBH928]

Money.
OLED is way more expensive especially on larger panels. miniLED is a regular LCD panel with FALD backlight. It's much cheaper than good quality OLED panels.

Seriously? they are skimping on a $1100 iPad?

 

[IceStormNG]

Seriously? they are skimping on a $1100 iPad?

They're somehow skimping on every machine? They need to keep their margin up. Look how they skimped on literally every mac with either subpar components or subpar cooling for the upper premium price. Every company is somehow skimping on their devices. You have to cut corners somewhere.

Incremental updates are great for business. Maybe OLED will come in a following generation. Or they just move to microLED straight away if they can manage to get that small and machinable for a "reasonable" price. Or they might do nothing in the next gens to the display.... only time will tell.

 

[Noseeam]

I have the same issue and mine looks as bad at the picture up top, I’m guessing some are worst then others. It’s going right back to Apple tomorrow. #bloominggate

 

[arvinsim]

A reasonably priced 5k 27" IPS monitor is all I need. I don't need anything fancy.

 

[Kamal89]

This is mine and I am heading to return it today. it is so annoying and not accepted at all from apple. I expected some blooming and it was ok for me based on the reviews I watched on YouTube and based on other tech reviewers content that it is not that big deal. But after I tried it myself at night as I like to read before bed on kindle using the dark mode and some time writing notes, this is what I saw and it was shocking to me, the screen brightness was even at the lower level - the said to notice the blooming you need to raise the brightness bar to the maximum - and my iPhone camera could not deliver how bad it was, so what you see in the pictures here is not the exact real thing I saw, it was worse.

 

[Voyageur]

This is mine and I am heading to return it today. it is so annoying and not accepted at all from apple. I expected some blooming and it was ok for me based on the reviews I watched on YouTube and based on other tech reviewers content that it is not that big deal. But after I tried it myself at night as I like to read before bed on kindle using the dark mode and some time writing notes, this is what I saw and it was shocking to me, the screen brightness was even at the lower level - the said to notice the blooming you need to raise the brightness bar to the maximum - and my iPhone camera could not deliver how bad it was, so what you see in the pictures here is not the exact real thing I saw, it was worse.

1. Reading in the dark and without light is very harmful to the eyes. In low light, there is no such blooming effect.

2. What's stopping you from choosing any other dark gray or paper color for your reading? Anything other than black. There will be no blooming.

 

[Yokon54]

I have watched OLED TVs a lot. They aren’t bright enough, the end. Unless you can put it in a controlled lighting room and don’t watch in a bright room, you’d be better off with a higher end QLED from Samsung.

 

[Okasian]

This is mine and I am heading to return it today. it is so annoying and not accepted at all from apple. I expected some blooming and it was ok for me based on the reviews I watched on YouTube and based on other tech reviewers content that it is not that big deal. But after I tried it myself at night as I like to read before bed on kindle using the dark mode and some time writing notes, this is what I saw and it was shocking to me, the screen brightness was even at the lower level - the said to notice the blooming you need to raise the brightness bar to the maximum - and my iPhone camera could not deliver how bad it was, so what you see in the pictures here is not the exact real thing I saw, it was worse.

Mini-LED iPads 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 (inferior underlying panel technology) to show you white text on a completely black background without causing bloom artefacts in a low-light environment.

This is different when compared to OLED, as the only blooming you will notice will be from other factors a.k.a. glasses, variable eye conditions, and occasionally the substrate, gap between the panel (i.e. not the panel itself)

If you go back to the first few pages of this thread, you can see the Apple distortion field in full effect.

In conclusion, returning it is a wise choice.

And personally, after seeing the issue in a fully-lit Apple store, this experimental offering is not fit for purpose relative to my standards and use-cases.

If you’re just consuming content and care less for the ecosystem/OS then you can get a Galaxy Tab S7 which is OLED and ‘ProMotion’ (120Hz) and cheaper, and probably not as bright as Mini-LED.

 

[UBS28]

I don't know why Apple just didn't use OLED in the first place for the iPads..

Because the Pro-XDR mini-LED is much better. Movies looks much better on the M1 iPad Pro than the on the OLED display of my iPhone.

 

[xpxp2002]

Because the Pro-XDR mini-LED is much better. Movies looks much better on the M1 iPad Pro than the on the OLED display of my iPhone.

And mini-LED doesn't use headache-inducing PWM. I would not "upgrade" to an iPad with OLED unless/until they fix the PWM dimming.

 

[HerbertDerb]

Because the Pro-XDR mini-LED is much better. Movies looks much better on the M1 iPad Pro than the on the OLED display of my iPhone.

+ fear of burn-in

 

[Jt69yupper]

1. Reading in the dark and without light is very harmful to the eyes. In low light, there is no such blooming effect.

2. What's stopping you from choosing any other dark gray or paper color for your reading? Anything other than black. There will be no blooming.

For the price he should not have to compromise

 

[arvinsim]

1. Reading in the dark and without light is very harmful to the eyes. In low light, there is no such blooming effect.

2. What's stopping you from choosing any other dark gray or paper color for your reading? Anything other than black. There will be no blooming.

a.k.a. "you're holding it wrong" 🙄

 

[Voyageur]

a.k.a. "you're holding it wrong" 🙄

Just common sense. Today any device allows you to customize it for convenience.

 

[Voyageur]

For the price he should not have to compromise

There will always be dissatisfied people. In view of the fact that there are no massive returns and complaints, such people need to look for problems in themselves. Especially if they use the device incorrectly or don't even try to bypass the display limitations as described above.