Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AppleFeller

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2020
371
520
So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.
 

aevan

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2015
4,458
7,101
Serbia
So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.

Their auto-brightness is sometimes a bit too agressive, but they wouldn’t design it in a way you describe and it doesn’t happen to my M4 iPad Pro.
 

garethjs

macrumors 65816
Nov 11, 2008
1,117
616
I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sheepish-Lord

AppleFeller

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2020
371
520
Their auto-brightness is sometimes a bit too agressive, but they wouldn’t design it in a way you describe and it doesn’t happen to my M4 iPad Pro.
Have you adjusted your brightness ever since using it? Because in my experience stops it from dimming below whatever you set and you have to manually go re toggle auto brightness to get full auto. I will test more when I get home in a daytime lit room. I swear when the back light sensor is covered auto brightness thinks it’s pitch black and takes brightness to literally 0 which is understandably difficult to see but if I uncover it or hold it different it’ll work as normal and brightness is adjusted perfectly for the dim or lit room. I can see the behavior in control center too the brightness slider adjusting from 5% to 0% when covering it and then back when it’s uncovered.
 

AppleFeller

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2020
371
520
I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.
Yep same thing and I’ve finally isolated it to that rear camera/light sensor being obscured that’s when I see auto brightness go to 0. If I uncover it, the auto brightness behavior is identical to my 15 pro and I have no issues visibility wise.
 

aevan

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2015
4,458
7,101
Serbia
Have you adjusted your brightness ever since using it? Because in my experience stops it from dimming below whatever you set and you have to manually go re toggle auto brightness to get full auto. I will test more when I get home in a daytime lit room. I swear when the back light sensor is covered auto brightness thinks it’s pitch black and takes brightness to literally 0 which is understandably difficult to see but if I uncover it or hold it different it’ll work as normal and brightness is adjusted perfectly for the dim or lit room. I can see the behavior in control center too the brightness slider adjusting from 5% to 0% when covering it and then back when it’s uncovered.

Something is not working properly if your iPad behaves that way.
 

Lobwedgephil

Contributor
Apr 7, 2012
5,749
4,695
So I commonly use my iPad in bed with it just laying flat. The light sensor on these is on the back camera housing now apparently and falsely thinks your in a pitch black room if you set the iPad down on any surface. Really annoying because my iPhone doesn’t have that issue and also if you pick up the iPad the brightness correctly adjusts to idk 5% like my iPhone sets to with most my lights off in the room. This is super annoying and causes eye strain I hope apple can fix the behavior to not rely just on the back camera light sensor as that method of light measuring seems poor due to various positions someone may have their iPad during normal usage.
The light sensor is still on the front according to recent articles. The new one on the back is for different use.
 

profdraper

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2017
383
286
Brisbane, Australia
I turn off auto-brightness & just set where I want manually. In terms of a dark room, Netflix or similar, for HDR/4k the display needs to be full-wack to make the most of that - 13” iPad Pro here. The display in this context is excellent. I also tend to turn on low power mode in this context, seems to make zero difference to the display quality.

The only setting I use for display is true tone on, the rest is manual & added to the Control Centre for easy access. Generally 75% for daily work, 100% for TV.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppleFeller

AppleFeller

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2020
371
520
Something is not working properly if your iPad behaves that way.
Yah I’m confused not noticing the behavior if room is lit normal when I set the iPad down. So idk what I’m even seeing now.
 

klasma

macrumors 603
Jun 8, 2017
6,241
17,532
Yah I’m confused not noticing the behavior if room is lit normal when I set the iPad down. So idk what I’m even seeing now.
Maybe the front sensors (there are two, one beside the camera and one on the short side) are less sensitive on your unit. Still that might be a defect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppleFeller

Sheepish-Lord

macrumors 68020
Oct 13, 2021
2,348
4,789
I’ve never had an issue with minimum brightness on an Apple device until now. Even my iPhone 15 in the dark at minum brightness is too bright I feel but with the iPad Pro m4 11” the screen is so dark I have to manually adjust the brightness.
I have the 13” and 11”, both have very aggressive auto brightness especially in low/no light as you describe. Pretty annoying really.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppleFeller
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.