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While what you say is true to a certain extent, for consuming content, that's not how it works.

For watching my OLED TV, I usually watch in a dimly lit room. My screen is at maximum brightness. Peak brightness on that TV is close to 1000 nits... but only if a small part of the screen is at full brightness.

For example, if I'm watching a night scene, everything is pretty dark, but there might be a street light in the corner that is at full brightness. Obviously, this doesn't burn out my eyes.
Yup. HDR content is mastered at absolute brightness levels. A 700 nit screen and a 1600nit screen should look nearly identical for most of the content of the screen. Only highlights that are specified to be greater than 700 nits should look brighter on the 1600nit screen. The average light level for each pixel over the duration of a movie or episode is probably less than 50 nits.
 
That's a good decision for you, but the fact of the matter is that PWM for most users is not a headache inducing issue. You represent the minority. A significant minority, but a minority nonetheless.
That's a very selfish opinion to carry, and frankly I don't think you nor I have any perspective on exactly how many people are affected by PWM. Many people likely don't realize that the hours they spend staring at their phone's OLED all day long are contributing to headaches that they may not be able to explain or attribute to a cause -- what many of us might just write off as "migraines" or "stress" headaches.

Moreover, it is disappointing that Apple, the supposedly accessibility-focused company that they purport to be, has done nothing to recognize the issue, nor offer DC dimming or non-OLED options in their premium products. Arguably, this iPad Pro with miniLED is the closest concession to accessibility among those who are affected by PWM I've seen in the last 4 years from Apple. Now they just need to do the same with iPhone.
 
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 is not BS, when your room is very dark (or completely dark), you can see the bloom / light bleed. I was caught off guard.
 
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That's a very selfish opinion to carry, and frankly I don't think you nor I have any perspective on exactly how many people are affected by PWM. Many people likely don't realize that the hours they spend staring at their phone's OLED all day long are contributing to headaches that they may not be able to explain or attribute to a cause -- what many of us might just write off as "migraines" or "stress" headaches.

Moreover, it is disappointing that Apple, the supposedly accessibility-focused company that they purport to be, has done nothing to recognize the issue, nor offer DC dimming or non-OLED options in their premium products. Arguably, this iPad Pro with miniLED is the closest concession to accessibility among those who are affected by PWM I've seen in the last 4 years from Apple. Now they just need to do the same with iPhone.
It's not selfish. It's just reality. We already know from various studies that the frequencies used for PWM in current products significantly affect only a minority of users likely well under 10%.

Yes it sucks that you're in that minority, but you're free to buy other products. Apple isn't forcing you to buy their OLED products. However, it seems you have made the decision for yourself already that even though you suffer this problem, you're still willing to buy Apple OLED iPhones even though other options exist.

The other thing you should remember that PWM frequency depends upon ambient lighting. Turn up the ambient lighting, and PWM frequencies increase, lowering the incidence of headaches.

If you still have problems, then the solution is to choose something else, or to use the OLED device less.
 
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Pictures of this effect viewed on a different device don’t give us any idea of the reality. I have no idea if it’s terrible, overplayed, or underplayed based on these pictures taken in the dark and then viewed on my screen. I will have to see one in real life.
 
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Pictures of this effect viewed on a different device don’t give us any idea of the reality. I have no idea if it’s terrible, overplayed, or underplayed based on these pictures taken in the dark and then viewed on my screen. I will have to see one in real life.
In general blooming is not as obvious in real life as pictures might suggest, and to be honest I'd be shocked if they were anywhere near as bad in real-world usage as in those pictures.

That said, it still exists, and it would be more obvious than essentially any OLED display. True blooming essentially does not exist with OLED, although I suppose you can get blooming like effects from the interaction with the front glass, etc., but even in that scenario it would be much less on OLED than essentially any mini-LED product.

Those claiming Apple's mini-LED solution just wouldn't have blooming... because mini-LED... were just fooling themselves. However, for the iPad Pro's intended usage and true main target customer base, it wouldn't be that big of a deal either most of the time.

However, I still think that if you're mainly a bedtime content consumer or something you might be better off buying a rumoured 2022 iPad Air with OLED than you would be buying a 2021 iPad Pro 12.9 with mini-LED.
 
Pictures of this effect viewed on a different device don’t give us any idea of the reality. I have no idea if it’s terrible, overplayed, or underplayed based on these pictures taken in the dark and then viewed on my screen. I will have to see one in real life.
When it's about Apple the internet is always overblown with purposely-created drama. Had this been Samsung's tablet nobody wouldn't even say a word on the internet about the screen blooming or even care.
 
For me personally I love the screen, HDR content is stunning. I have noticed blooming on my iPad, it did this a few minutes ago while updating to 14.6 but happy to tolerate this given how impressive it is at displaying HDR content. All display technologies have advantages and disadvantages and it’s down to individual preference which one you prefer.
 
Has nothing to do with making things cheaply argument, at this time it is technology limited. What is the alternatives? Certainly not microLED at this time. Maybe some variation of QLED might offer less blooming, but then we have the same QLED vs OLED vs microLED TV argument again with OLED yielding best image quality but not practical in direct sunlight situations. :D
But for ultra mobile devices like the iPhone OLED is sufficient LOL
I bet there are more iPhones used in direct sunlight, than iPads. Especially >1000$ iPads.
Or do I believe people use these devices on the beach to read magazines??? LOL
 
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That is why we will never see an OLED Mac - you have a permanent menubar that is on screen for hours per day.

Mini-LED is the holdover until micro-led, which is basically OLED without the burn-in issues.

Whilst I agree with your sentiment about OLED burn-in, my real experiences are different.

I’ve been using an LG C8 55" TV as a ‘Remote Desktop’ machine for just about a year, with static elements like Start buttons and taskbars showing for 6-8+ hours each day (not every day but a few days a week.) and it’s been fine, no perceptible burn-in when I do calibration tests, or just observe with solid backgrounds.

I think OLED has matured a bit, and there are things my TV does, like Pixel-Shift Technology (XDR levels of cringy branding names) that I can only assume it’s doing something to stop burn-in.

But yes, OLEDS, overall, can burn in, I just must be extremely lucky given the amount of abuse I’ve thrown it’s way.

</anecdote>
 
For those who have the ipad and have updated to 14.6 does it fix it or is this issue pretty much a done deal? I dont own the iPad yet, I was going to wait til WWDC to see what kind of software is announced..I want the iPad but this blooming thing, is it kind of like the light bleed issues from yrs past where some have it and some dont or does everyone pretty much have it..with OLED screens, I think there would be burn issues with that so I guess with every screen there is something
 
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Just played with the XDR iPad on display at a Best Buy while it was sitting next to an 11" Pro. Noticed 0 blooming.
 
It's not selfish. It's just reality. We already know from various studies that the frequencies used for PWM in current products significantly affect only a minority of users likely well under 10%.

Yes it sucks that you're in that minority, but you're free to buy other products. Apple isn't forcing you to buy their OLED products. However, it seems you have made the decision for yourself already that even though you suffer this problem, you're still willing to buy Apple OLED iPhones even though other options exist.

The other thing you should remember that PWM frequency depends upon ambient lighting. Turn up the ambient lighting, and PWM frequencies increase, lowering the incidence of headaches.

If you still have problems, then the solution is to choose something else, or to use the OLED device less.
It is selfish, and everything about this response reaffirms it. You’re essentially saying, “I’m not affected, so too bad for you and anybody else who might be. I’d rather have darker blacks in my display than a good product that doesn’t impact the health of some of its users.” By your standard, I should be advocating for them to remove the hearing aid support because I don’t have hearing loss. I’m certain you wouldn’t feel that way if you were affected by PWM.

Secondly, there aren’t other options. Virtually all of the Android devices on the market use OLED, as well.

And finally, none of those are privacy-conscious options, as Apple products are. Why should I or anyone else have to sacrifice privacy and choose a second-rate product, while the company that claims to be in favor of helping those with disabilities use its products refuses to make a product — mind you, their premium-priced flagship product — that doesn’t cause adverse health affects among a portion of its users?

There’s no reason to support the continued use of PWM-based dimming displays in any of these products when other solutions like IPS are tried-and-true, work well, cost less, and don’t cause these effects. OLED is more expensive, delivers minimal benefit, and has other drawbacks, like the potential for burn-in. But most of all, it should be about accessibility. Since we know that PWM negatively affects some people, we should be moving away from it rather than hoping or advocating for using it in more products.
 
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It is selfish, and everything about this response reaffirms it. You’re essentially saying, “I’m not affected, so too bad for you and anybody else who might be. I’d rather have darker blacks in my display than a good product that doesn’t impact the health of some of its users.” By your standard, I should be advocating for them to remove the hearing aid support because I don’t have hearing loss. I’m certain you wouldn’t feel that way if you were affected by PWM.

Secondly, there aren’t other options. Virtually all of the Android devices on the market use OLED, as well.

And finally, none of those are privacy-conscious options, as Apple products are. Why should I or anyone else have to sacrifice privacy and choose a second-rate product, while the company that claims to be in favor of helping those with disabilities use its products refuses to make a product — mind you, their premium-priced flagship product — that doesn’t cause adverse health affects among a portion of its users?

There’s no reason to support the continued use of PWM-based dimming displays in any of these products when other solutions like IPS are tried-and-true, work well, cost less, and don’t cause these effects. OLED is more expensive, delivers minimal benefit, and has other drawbacks, like the potential for burn-in. But most of all, it should be about accessibility. Since we know that PWM negatively affects some people, we should be moving away from it rather than hoping or advocating for using it in more products.
This is not my decision. It's Apple's. A lot more people want OLED than they want LCD on their iPhones, so that's what Apple sells.

Ironically, I'm OK with LCD on my iPhone, so you're barking up the wrong tree here. I mainly just got the iPhone 12 Pro Max to get a better camera. The other reason is my 7 Plus was just starting occasionally to lag. It wasn't bad by any means and I would have been fine with that performance for at least another year, but I definitely wanted a better camera.


Just played with the XDR iPad on display at a Best Buy while it was sitting next to an 11" Pro. Noticed 0 blooming.
I guess you haven't been reading the posts here. Blooming is usually not as much of an issue with sufficient ambient lighting. Inside Best Buy is about the worst place to assess for blooming (aside from trying to assess it outside in the parking lot).
 
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The blooming on this iPad is worse than I expected. In the case of dark mode in the Books app, the blooming shows up as a grid of large rectangles with very sharp borders against the black portions. Last gen had more gradation with the blooming which was less distracting.

Video content is very nice, but OLED blows this XDR screen out of the water. MicroLED will be an amazing advancement 5-10 years down the road, but in my view Mini LED has most of the bad qualities of LED, few of the benefits of OLED, and is overall an underwhelming stopgap.

I work in film and spend a lot of time staring at $50,000 monitors, so I’m likely more sensitive to the defects in this display than most. I’m keeping the iPad, but the XDR screen is a disappointment.
 
Lol I brought it up a few days ago and linked to my video and get “self promoted” glad to see this is being brought up!
 
The blooming on this iPad is worse than I expected. In the case of dark mode in the Books app, the blooming shows up as a grid of large rectangles with very sharp borders against the black portions. Last gen had more gradation with the blooming which was less distracting.

Video content is very nice, but OLED blows this XDR screen out of the water. MicroLED will be an amazing advancement 5-10 years down the road, but in my view Mini LED has most of the bad qualities of LED, few of the benefits of OLED, and is overall an underwhelming stopgap.

I work in film and spend a lot of time staring at $50,000 monitors, so I’m likely more sensitive to the defects in this display than most. I’m keeping the iPad, but the XDR screen is a disappointment.
Hmmm... That's worse than I was expecting, but yeah that might partially be because of your profession. What is your room environment though?
 
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I don't notice any difference. XDR is just like that lossless music quality. It a benefit for like 1% of the population that can use it.

My personal ‘screen tech to audio encoding’ comparison and weighting:
  • LED = 128k MP3 from Limewire with no ID3 metadata.
  • MiniLED = 256k AAC or 320k MP3. (Still lossy despite the price, but very good nonetheless.)
  • OLED = 1411k lossless FLAC/ALAC.
  • microLED = some 24-bit super FLAC monstrosity that doesn’t exist yet. (Correct me audiophiles If I’m wrong.)
 
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That's exactly what I expected.

1. Apple does not have much experience with designing local dimming algorithm for LCDs.
2. Local dimming is only a band-aid and has undefeatable side effects such as blooming. The more aggressive it is, the higher the input lag. The weaker it is, the more prominent blooming will occur. It's really a garbage solution if you ask me. Dual LCD is the better compromise.
3. Local dimming is a cheap emulation of OLED. It is not an OLED in the end of the day.
 
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