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Can't "See" Promotion

O

ohsnaphappy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 14, 2013
240
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Everyone, and I mean every single tech journalist, is just enamored with promotion. Promotion just means the new iPad Pros scroll at 120hz. I just want to say I couldn't see the difference at all. I went into the Apple Store, did some drawing in Procreate, scrolled up and down all over the place, and I just couldn't tell the difference. I'm not downplaying the significance of promotion, I just think it's a good idea to try before you buy, you know, try to find out if your eyes can see it. The new iPad Pro is still a worthy upgrade, the new processor is incredible, IF you need it.

Right now, I think the first iPad Pro is a bargain on the used market. Especially if you want LTE.
 
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I'm honestly asking this, so sorry for sounding like a dick, but do you have corrected vision/normal eyesight? There's not a hard limit to the amount of frames per second the human eye can see, or if there is, it's way above 120 according to studies I've read.

Maybe some people just subconsciously ignore it, I don't know. I use a 144hz monitor at home, and have the new 10.5" iPad, and can easily discern the difference a refresh rate makes. Things are literally twice as smooth.
 
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ohsnaphappy said:
Everyone, and I mean every single tech journalist, is just enamored with promotion. Promotion just means the new iPad Pros scroll at 120hz. I just want to say I couldn't see the difference at all. I went into the Apple Store, did some drawing in Procreate, scrolled up and down all over the place, and I just couldn't tell the difference. I'm not downplaying the significance of promotion, I just think it's a good idea to try before you buy, you know, try to find out if your eyes can see it. The new iPad Pro is still a worthy upgrade, the new processor is incredible, IF you need it.

Right now, I think the first iPad Pro is a bargain on the used market. Especially if you want LTE.
Click to expand...

If you have owned older iPads or have a lot of experience with older iPads, you can easily discern the difference with the 120 HZ Promotion display. The refresh rate, speed and over-all responsiveness is immediately noticeable in how fluid everything is. But perception is everything and perhaps your eyes are not adapted to seeing it.
 
Here is the thing, if you are a journalist that gets invited and you feel special .. you are not going to say to Apple "meh, can't even tell, so this is bs probably", and risk not getting any fancy private invites or product glimpses.

You can say what you want : you know this is a factor. Even if it is just a little one.
 
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I also can't really see it. I certainly would never have noticed it if it wasn't mentioned everywhere all the time. When I scroll in Safari I guess it's more fluid but it's not like previous iPads juddered all over the place. Perhaps I would have noticed the better latency on the pencil if I'd used it before but this is my first Pro ipad so I can't comment on that.

I think I'll compare scrolling again later compared to the Air 1 and see if I can notice a difference.
 
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I had a similar experience. Went to the Apple Store to check out the new iPads. Played around with Safari, Pages and Procreate and didn't see a difference. None at all. And yes, I have multiple iPads at home.
 
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If I scroll on my laptop at work with the mouse then I can see a big difference compared to that. It's not smooth at all compared to the iPad.
 
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I am used to a 144 Hz display at home so I could instantly see similar effects on the new iPad Pros. There is less motion blur, scrolling is smoother and more responsive. I haven't owned a Pencil compatible iPad yet but from what I remember trying the previous ones, the Pencil on the new ones seems more responsive.
 
It definitely seems smoother, but I've not really noticed it overall. Perhaps because my old iPad was an old mini and so everything is faster on the new iPad and that feature is lost amongst the other improvements I'm noticing
 
Any of you guys that claim to not be able to see it ever think that the iPad is not using 120hz refresh rate in the apps you are testing it out in? I mean, I tested one out in Best Buy and I could instantly tell in Safari that ProMotion is a game changer, however, in other apps I could not tell at all. You must remember, it is not always using a 120hz refresh rate, it changes from 120hz all the way down to 30hz (I believe that is what I read) depending on the app you are using and how you are using it. I can tell the difference amazingly in Safari compared to my 9.7 iPad Pro. Unfortunately, the 10.5 iPP I played with at Best Buy did not have an Apple Pencil hooked up to it, so I could not test out any differences with ProMotion and the Apple Pencil. Just my two cents!

:apple:
 
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Count me in I could not see it at the apple store either.... AND I have an Ipad4... I don't get motion sickness or feel anything is WRONG when I do things on the Ipad4... HOWEVER... IF you know what to LOOK for and know IT (screen latency) when you see IT, you CAN see the difference... But if your NOT really looking for IT, its not that big of a deal or noticeable ...

This (promotion /120mz) is just another way for APPLE to make a BIG deal of a tweak to an OLD technology, namely the Retina display... Its like, hmmm, TrueTone.... So it is what it is... IS the screen better than what is was four years ago, yes but the average person looking at a youtube video on an Ipad4 or a 10.5 would NOT be able to tell the difference.
 
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browser740 said:
Count me in I could not see it at the apple store either.... AND I have an Ipad4... I don't get motion sickness or feel anything is WRONG when I do things on the Ipad4... HOWEVER... IF you know what to LOOK for and know IT (screen latency) when you see IT, you CAN see the difference... But if your NOT really looking for IT, its not that big of a deal or noticeable ...

This (promotion /120mz) is just another way for APPLE to make a BIG deal of a tweak to an OLD technology, namely the Retina display... Its like, hmmm, TrueTone.... So it is what it is... IS the screen better than what is was four years ago, yes but the average person looking at a youtube video on an Ipad4 or a 10.5 would NOT be able to tell the difference.
Click to expand...
First of all, 120hz is a big deal to myself and many others.

Second, you are right that the average person would not be able to tell the difference when comparing a YouTube video on those two iPads. Because YouTube videos all run at 30fps or 60fps, meaning there wouldn't be a difference...Now if you set an iPad 4 and Pro 10.5 next to each other and compared just swiping around on the home screen or srcolling in safari, someone should absolutely be able to tell the difference.
 
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Trogdor796 said:
First of all, 120hz is a big deal to myself and many others.

Second, you are right that the average person would not be able to tell the difference when comparing a YouTube video on those two iPads. Because YouTube videos all run at 30fps or 60fps, meaning there wouldn't be a difference...Now if you set an iPad 4 and Pro 10.5 next to each other and compared just swiping around on the home screen or srcolling in safari, someone should absolutely be able to tell the difference.
Click to expand...

I guess that is the point, you can see it and it feels better to you... When Im "swiping around" or writing this reply on an Ipad4, I don't Notice anything that Makes me say, Oh this is horrible and I gotta get something better. It just looks fine to me. I truly wish PROMOTION was compelling enough to buy... And to the point of this thread, I did not see it at the store with a side by side comparison to the ipad4...
 
I wouldn't say it's the only reason to buy but as soon as I touched one at bestbuy the difference in scrolling through the home screen and safari was immediately noticeable.
 
i dont really see a difference either and i use an iPad Air 2 and an iPad Pro 10.5 at the same time. in fact i thought it wasnt working until iOS 11 is out lol
 
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I also tested promotion on a 10.5 at an Apple Store swiping around home screen and safari, and coming from a first gen 12.9 iPad Pro and mini 3, I think I noticed the difference but it was far from obvious. I'm sure if I tested it side by side it would be much more obvious but then what would the point of that be.
 
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ohsnaphappy said:
Everyone, and I mean every single tech journalist, is just enamored with promotion. Promotion just means the new iPad Pros scroll at 120hz. I just want to say I couldn't see the difference at all. I went into the Apple Store, did some drawing in Procreate, scrolled up and down all over the place, and I just couldn't tell the difference. I'm not downplaying the significance of promotion, I just think it's a good idea to try before you buy, you know, try to find out if your eyes can see it. The new iPad Pro is still a worthy upgrade, the new processor is incredible, IF you need it.

Right now, I think the first iPad Pro is a bargain on the used market. Especially if you want LTE.
Click to expand...

WOW, guess you're lucky you can't see a difference, you'll save some money. For me the difference is huge, but i upgraded from an original iPad Air 1.

You may have something wrong with your vision or something but in a way that may be a good thing for stuff like this.
 
One of the reasons I sent my 10.5 back and got a great deal on a pro 9.7 on eBay was that I couldn't see any difference. The Pencil seemed smoother, but not that much smoother. But scrolling on the home screen looked as blurry to me as it always does!! Maybe I've just got old f****d eyes.
 
I'm a techie. I can obviously see it. However, I have known people in the past that said they could not even tell the difference when I would show them a video game at 30 fps vs 60 fps..... some people are just weird. Lol
 
I am hoping someone else who can’t see the difference will buy my 9.7 :)

It isn’t a game changer or the primary reason I bought a new one. First and foremost I wanted the larger 12.9, next would be the improvements to stylus sensitivity, but the ProMotion is nice and icing on the cake :)
 
I couldn't really tell the difference either until I did a side by side comparison with the new iPad and my old iPad and iPhone. I immediately noticed how much smoother the new iPad is. Here's a video of a quick comparison where you can really see the difference.

 
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You almost don't notice it until you go back to the old one. It's especially noticable if you compare the same-sized iPads. Just going to the store and trying it a bit won't give big results. But use the new ones for a day, than go back to previous gen. Big difference.
 
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