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iPad Pro Cautious buyer’s experience with iPad Pro 12.9 M1

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vikky2426

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2013
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I bought M1 12.9 iPad Pro this weekend and now seriously thinking of returning it. I always had doubt about it due to the blooming issue but I thought lets buy it and see it for myself. A lot of reviewers on the YouTube said that it’s not a big deal and I also went to my local electronics shop to see iPad myself and it looked fine to me there probably because it was quite bright there. But after buying it and playing with it I can confirm that blooming is a real thing and it’s quite bad and distracting To me at least.

I also wear glasses to it’s probably worse for me than for those who don’t wear glasses as my glasses are not always spotless. It’s also a bit psychological. Every time when I’m reading something with dark background I’m always wondering is it blooming or it’s not blooming same with watching any content. If I’m investing almost £1500 on an iPad i should not be worrying about this.

Other than this blooming issue, I absolutely love iPad. It’s an amazing device and I’ll definitely be buying another one next year. I was thinking of buying 2020 version but I don’t want to spend almost £1000 for an older product.

I was also torn about either going with Magic Keyboard or Logitech Combo with my iPad pro and I ended up going with the Magic Keyboard mainly because of it’s small footprint and quality of keyboard. Magic keyboard is absolutely amazing and I’ll definitely be buying it again - no complaints. I just wish Apple could add a bit more protection on the sides of the iPad so I could take it off and use it without a worry.

I was also thinking of buying MacBook Air/Pro but the new version of MacBook Pro/Air is coming up in the next couple of months so I’m thinking of waiting a bit more and will go with MacBook Pro Oct/Nov and then buy new iPad next year.
 
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I’m curious what’s the reasoning for buying again next year? If you’re not happy with the blooming now, it’ll likely be the same next year too if they use the same type of display. The blooming is just a result of how the Mini-LED display technology works…not necessarily that the manufacturing process needs to be improved (other than switching to OLED or Micro-LED). Just something to keep in mind…
 
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BigBlur said:
I’m curious what’s the reasoning for buying again next year? If you’re not happy with the blooming now, it’ll likely be the same next year too if they use the same type of display. The blooming is just a result of how the Mini-LED display technology works…not necessarily that the manufacturing process needs to be improved (other than switching to OLED or Micro-LED). Just something to keep in mind…
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You are right I’ll probably won’t buy it then. I really hope that Apple either replace the Mini LED with OLED for next iPad Pro as it’s still the most superior display out there right now or increase the dimming zones(maybe double it).

I honestly believe Apple didn’t go with OLED with iPad Pro to reduce the product development cost and increase profit margins. I don’t see any other reason.
 
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I honestly can say I have not seen any serious blooming when used in a realistic way (i.e., not blasting it to 100 percent brightness in a pitch black room). Bur everyone's perception and sensitivity is different though, so only you can decide.
 
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I seriously wanted to buy iPad Pro 12.9” but no local store in my area has it in stock and I can’t wait for over four weeks without iPad. It has become my secondary computer that I do various tasks and I can’t risk not having it. So I end up going for 11” instead, which is what I used to 2 years ago. Love it. But maybe next year or so I might look into getting one of the bigger one. Like, iPad Pro is the cheapest miniLED display apple has produced, so.
 
Shirasaki said:
I seriously wanted to buy iPad Pro 12.9” but no local store in my area has it in stock and I can’t wait for over four weeks without iPad. It has become my secondary computer that I do various tasks and I can’t risk not having it. So I end up going for 11” instead, which is what I used to 2 years ago. Love it. But maybe next year or so I might look into getting one of the bigger one. Like, iPad Pro is the cheapest miniLED display apple has produced, so.
Click to expand...

Stores get new stock every few days, If you waited, you probably would have had one in less than a week. But the 11 is a great option, with it's own advantages.
 
Rafterman said:
Stores get new stock every few days, If you waited, you probably would have had one in less than a week. But the 11 is a great option, with it's own advantages.
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I visited two of my local stores almost once per week and they all said no stock for any 12.9”. That was the trend throughout entire June. Website showed July delivery time.

11” iPad is far more portable than 12.9” and I can hold it both hands in landscape mode and type reasonably fast. Can’t do that on 12.9”. It’s just too big.
 
Dunno if the blooming issue is an eye issue (blurring evidently occurs as cataracts develop), or that you have just gotten sensitized to the issue.

Personally I haven't seen it, but that is probably because I'm not looking for it. If it bothers you there is no reason to keep a >$1k nuisance.
 
Theres definitely blooming visible on mine, firstly because I know that its blooming, if I didnt know what it is, I could just simply assume that its there by design due to high brightness. Does it bother me? Yes and no. Yes - its very expensive device and comes with less than perfect tech embeded into its display. No - because thats how the tech works right now(hopefully Apple havent cheaped out to save money and time on R&D and production costs tho). What is imho more visible to some extent(again, because I know what it is for the mots part) is screen edge shadowing :D !
But I wanted larger screen tablet and chose 2021 iPP over 2020 simply because the price-performance difference wasnt big enough to go for 2020 mode.

Oh and upcoming MBPs are also said to have miniLED, so no changes expected in this regard.
 
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darngooddesign said:
I have a hard time believing that Apple would burn so much R&D effort for a single year, single model screen technology. I predict Mini LED will be around for a couple of years.
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I have the same fear... I hope at least they increase the dimming zones to reduce this blooming thing at least.
 
Optics is hard but here is an interesting read. I confess, much more reading in the subject are is needed for a more scientific explanation. As far as I understand this is going on.

Summary : eye have a static contrast of 1:100 which would apply to white text in dark background. Dynamic contrast is 1:1000000 (HDR) but only because we have an ability of adjust the “exposure” of the eye. Blooming (and flare and glare) is always there but apparently normally under the detection level of the eye in a particular static contrast range. The brighter miniLED makes it detectable. Pitch black combined a bright light spots always gives problems because of the physics of optics. As we likely have slightly different static range perception and various issues of the lenses of the eye, we have different sensitive to the blooming. The solution seem to be to reduce the contrast, that is, the brightness so it fit you eyes.

That being said, it is unclear why apple bins 4 LED into one. Why not use all 10.000 independently to reduce the size of the light bleed area around the LED?


phys.libretexts.org

25.1: The Human Eye

The human eye is an organ that reacts with light and allows light perception, color vision and depth perception.
phys.libretexts.org phys.libretexts.org

physics.stackexchange.com

Why is glow visible around bright light sources in darkness?

I've noticed that when I walk in the street at night, traffic lights, street lights and some other bright sources of light have a "glow" around them. I first thought it was due to some fog in the ...
physics.stackexchange.com physics.stackexchange.com
 
The only thing I know (sorry but didn't follow you) is that the iPad with mini led is one of the best screens money can buy right now.
*I've had OLED burning issues before... So...
I can tell the difference.
 
Yeah, I don't get it. The blooming is only noticeable if there's tons of black on the screen, and even then only in certain situations. The screen is obviously superior in every way to the old screen despite some blooming here and there.

Also the MBP is going to have the same tech.

OLED is also not automatically better...MiniLED has better off-angle viewing, peak brightness, no burn-in worries, etc. About the only advantage OLED has is infinite contrast. But MicroLED is the end game anyway, so I think Apple wants to invest in this sort of tech because they know it's going to improve dramatically.
 
Just curious in what conditions do you notice blooming?

Do you see it in the daytime or is it only in pitch black with the brightness up high?
 
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