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iPad mini Bluish shadow at top of retina Mini screen (pic included)

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justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
Does anybody else have a bluish shadow at the very top of their retina Mini (along the side with the Facetime camera)? I haven't seen an iPad Air yet in person, but I'm wondering if this is similar to what the Air owners are calling the book-spine effect.

I took a picture so you can sort of see what I'm talking about. The picture isn't the best, but it shows just how much of a shadow I have on one side of the screen. In this picture, the shadow is on the left where the Facetime camera is and the Home button is on the right.

I also have mild yellowing on the home button side at the bottom of the iPad, but it's not as easy to see in this pic, although you can still tell.

When reading from left to right in landscape mode, the experience is:

dark bluish shadow -> bright white -> dimmer and yellowing

This is a Week 51 rMini, so definitely one of the later ones, which doesn't make me too optimistic about exchanging it for a new one.
 

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M

mrgossett

macrumors 6502
Mar 18, 2008
432
31
I had an Air that I exchanged for my rMini that had a bit of the "bookspine" effect on the left side, which looked somewhat similar to what's in the photo. My rMini screen is beautiful and uniform from side to side with no discolored areas.
 
A

AdonisSMU

macrumors 604
Oct 23, 2010
7,303
3,063
mrgossett said:
I had an Air that I exchanged for my rMini that had a bit of the "bookspine" effect on the left side, which looked somewhat similar to what's in the photo. My rMini screen is beautiful and uniform from side to side with no discolored areas.
Click to expand...

Its really the luck of the draw.
 
ventuss

ventuss

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2011
371
15
Here I am sad about my poor two colored screen and no more chances to replace it, when another person like you come and show me a much worse screen than mine.. OMG.. Do yourself a favor and return it while you can man.
 
D

Dlanod

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,000
96
UK
It's a complete joke. Air has yellowing left to right. Mini bottom to top. If you're really unlucky this is bottom left to top right, i.e. on the diagonal.

I thought I had a decent one at last until I started using landscape mode and nope, yellow left (home button) and white right. Man I'm so fed up with this and so wishing I'd kept my perfect iPad 4 and original Mini.

And I'm really starting to consider a wholescale move to Android where at least there is a choice of manufacturers. I've already gone to an LG G2 for my phone which is a truly excellent handset.
 
J

justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
ventuss said:
Here I am sad about my poor two colored screen and no more chances to replace it, when another person like you come and show me a much worse screen than mine.. OMG.. Do yourself a favor and return it while you can man.
Click to expand...

I am going to exchange it at Best Buy next week and it will be my first exchange of an Apple product.

Why don't you have any more chances to replace it? Isn't it still under Apple's warranty?
 
J

justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
Just updating this thread to say that I exchanged my rMini for a new one today, and my new one is great as far as I can tell. No shadow and no yellow tint at all. Very happy!
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,144
648
Dlanod said:
It's a complete joke. Air has yellowing left to right. Mini bottom to top. If you're really unlucky this is bottom left to top right, i.e. on the diagonal.

I thought I had a decent one at last until I started using landscape mode and nope, yellow left (home button) and white right. Man I'm so fed up with this and so wishing I'd kept my perfect iPad 4 and original Mini.

And I'm really starting to consider a wholescale move to Android where at least there is a choice of manufacturers. I've already gone to an LG G2 for my phone which is a truly excellent handset.
Click to expand...

You'll find similar issues on Android devices. It's just that no other device on that side sells at the same scale as the iPad. So issues aren't publicized as much.
 
V

vgamedude

macrumors 6502a
Dec 10, 2013
798
6
thelookingglass said:
You'll find similar issues on Android devices. It's just that no other device on that side sells at the same scale as the iPad. So issues aren't publicized as much.
Click to expand...



You actually think the iPad airs issues are publicized? They aren't, no major tech sites or people I see have acknowledged this, even apple employees and "geniuses" don't.
 
macfacts

macfacts

macrumors 603
Oct 7, 2012
5,029
5,985
Cybertron
thelookingglass said:
You'll find similar issues on Android devices. It's just that no other device on that side sells at the same scale as the iPad. So issues aren't publicized as much.
Click to expand...

Tell me how many ipad air/mini2 reviews you read that mentioned the display panel lottery, or the safari crashes or tab reloads?
 
B

brhume

macrumors member
Jan 1, 2014
57
0
justinf77 said:
Just updating this thread to say that I exchanged my rMini for a new one today, and my new one is great as far as I can tell. No shadow and no yellow tint at all. Very happy!
Click to expand...

Just curious, if you did the IR Marco test on it...

It seems that most of the "even white" displays (not all) have a "technical limitation" and have some Image Retention, but nearly not visible and not disturbing during normal use...

If you didn't did the test yet, don't do it... No need to search for a non-issue... :cool:
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,144
648
brhume said:
Just curious, if you did the IR Marco test on it...

It seems that most of the "even white" displays (not all) have a "technical limitation" and have some Image Retention, but nearly not visible and not disturbing during normal use...

If you didn't did the test yet, don't do it... No need to search for a non-issue... :cool:
Click to expand...

Best advice ever. Do not run any tests if your screen looks fine to you.
 
J

justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
brhume said:
Just curious, if you did the IR Marco test on it...

It seems that most of the "even white" displays (not all) have a "technical limitation" and have some Image Retention, but nearly not visible and not disturbing during normal use...

If you didn't did the test yet, don't do it... No need to search for a non-issue... :cool:
Click to expand...

I didn't do the IR Marco test on it because I really don't care about image retention unless it affects my real world use. The only time I have the same image on the screen for a while is if I'm reading, which I've been doing a lot of on my new rMini. No image retention as far as I can see.

I'd be happy to do the test though if you want me to. It won't bother me in the slightest even if it does have IR.
 
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brhume

macrumors member
Jan 1, 2014
57
0
justinf77 said:
I didn't do the IR Marco test on it because I really don't care about image retention unless it affects my real world use. The only time I have the same image on the screen for a while is if I'm reading, which I've been doing a lot of on my new rMini. No image retention as far as I can see.

I'd be happy to do the test though if you want me to. It won't bother me in the slightest even if it does have IR.
Click to expand...

No, don't do it. It was just in case you did... Technical curiosity... :)

My rMini has a beautiful screen like yours and I never noted any IR while reading or surfing...
 
D

Davidsr20

macrumors member
Nov 21, 2013
48
0
It's because the led backlight is only on one end. My replacement has it slightly. Not much though. These are production tablets all will have it.
 
J

justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
brhume said:
No, don't do it. It was just in case you did... Technical curiosity... :)

My rMini has a beautiful screen like yours and I never noted any IR while reading or surfing...
Click to expand...

I went against your advice and did the test anyway :) I ran it for 7 minutes and surprisingly, there was no image retention.

Again, I wouldn't have cared either way with IR. I consider uneven tint to be much worse. Just ran the test out of technical curiosity.
 
J

justinf77

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 18, 2003
627
544
Davidsr20 said:
It's because the led backlight is only on one end. My replacement has it slightly. Not much though. These are production tablets all will have it.
Click to expand...

I do think you're correct about the culprit being the backlight. But there is clearly significant variation between units, and it's unfortunate that a large percentage of people seem to have considerable yellowing on the bottom portion of the screen. Hopefully Apple will sort out these production issues in time.
 
B

brhume

macrumors member
Jan 1, 2014
57
0
justinf77 said:
I went against your advice and did the test anyway :) I ran it for 7 minutes and surprisingly, there was no image retention.

Again, I wouldn't have cared either way with IR. I consider uneven tint to be much worse. Just ran the test out of technical curiosity.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information :)
Indeed, yellow tint is a pain ! Always visible...

Could you give us the production week ?
You can use:

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

Thanx... :)
 
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stockscalper

stockscalper

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2003
917
235
Area 51
Seems that devices that use screens manufactured by LG are having this problem - last year's Nexus 7 and current Kindle Fire HDX are just a couple of notable ones.
 
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brhume

macrumors member
Jan 1, 2014
57
0
stockscalper said:
Seems that devices that use screens manufactured by LG are having this problem - last year's Nexus 7 and current Kindle Fire HDX are just a couple of notable ones.
Click to expand...

Basically, it seems that the rMini use to type of screens:

Sharp: most (if not all) have some image retension, hardly visible in real life use, and otherwise very even backlight and colors. Colors are also more "vibrant" (close to the one of the iPad 3 or 4).

LG: suffer from the "yellowing", "blueish", and uneven color problem. Very variable from one rMini to another... Colors are a little more "muted".

Just my two cents...
 
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