Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Air iPad screen looks always dirty
- Thread starter Sensamic
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yes and so do their phones but doesn’t mean they don’t smudge up.
How long have you had the iPad? The oleophobic coating wears off. My own experience and reports from others indicate the coating is effective for about six months to about two years. The durability depends upon usage and cleaning, materials and frequency.
www.ifixit.com
An older thread.
This lasted a couple of weeks to a couple of months — consistent across at least a few reviews.
How to Restore or Apply an Oleophobic Coating
Use this guide along with an oleophobic coating kit to restore the oleophobic coating on your device, or to add an oleophobic coating to your...
www.ifixit.com
An older thread.
OLEOPEL Oleophobic Coating Wipe On Kit 4ml Anti Fingerprint Liquid for All Smartphones Tablets Smart Watches Glasses Camera Lenses and Touch Screens
OLEOPEL by ProofTech is a cutting-edge, transparent coating that bonds to the glass of your device offering enhanced smudge and fingerprint resistance. This extremely thin and invisible coating replenishes and improves the oleophobic properties of the glass surface by improving it’s water and oil...
www.amazon.com
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
The coating may reduce the smudges but as a touch-oriented device, it can't be avoided if you use your fingers.
You should put a screen protector on it, as using it without one will probably make the screen dirtier and is risky as well.
That is how the oleophobic layer is supposed to behave... if not, then every single iPad that I've owned with an oleophobic layer was defective.
That is why I use matte screen protectors in my iPads. Sure, clarity suffers slightly, but fingerprint smudges don't happen, glare from overhead lights are diffused, and my finger and smoothly and consistently slide across the screen. (without a matte screen protector, my fingers would drag on clean spots but glidely quickly where finger oils were present)
Yes it looks dirty all the time. Unless you use it with the Pencil exclusively and don't ever accidentally touch the display with your fingers out of habit it's going to show fingerprints.
Your phone will also have these but unless you hold it at an angle and look for them you won't notice them as much. On the bigger iPad screen it's more easily noticeable.
It's worse on the iPad's nanotexture display as the smudges interfere with looking at the content in direct sunlight. The sun will reflect off the fingerprints strongly and the exceptional brightness of the Tandem OLED doesn't quite cut through that.
Only way to avoid is to use the Pencil...
Your phone will also have these but unless you hold it at an angle and look for them you won't notice them as much. On the bigger iPad screen it's more easily noticeable.
It's worse on the iPad's nanotexture display as the smudges interfere with looking at the content in direct sunlight. The sun will reflect off the fingerprints strongly and the exceptional brightness of the Tandem OLED doesn't quite cut through that.
Only way to avoid is to use the Pencil...
The only way around this is a screen protector, end of the story
I've learned to combat this by becoming a rabid screen-on-shirt wiper 🤣
The only way I can use these glassy devices is with a matte screen protector. Since 2017? I've been using the iCarez matte protectors on my iPads, Watch, and Phone (no relation to the company) - and it's surprising how many people ask me to put one on their devices after they see mine (family/friends/etc).
Even with a screen protector, when I had an iPad, I had to use a tiny little cloth to keep my hand from smudging up the screen while writing with the Apple Pencil - especially in the summer.
Even with a screen protector, when I had an iPad, I had to use a tiny little cloth to keep my hand from smudging up the screen while writing with the Apple Pencil - especially in the summer.
The coating makes it easier to clean the smudges off, in my experience. Once it becomes hard to simply wipe them off is when you know the coating's shot.
The oiliophobic coating tends to wear off which means it attracts fingerprints easier and they're harder to clean off, due to this I buy glass screen protectors which come with their own coating.
I was just thinking the very same thing. I use Whoosh! screen Shine. Before Apple started to put oleophobic coatings on their portable stuff, they used Whoosh! Screen Shine at Apple stores. They now use distilled water. But as you point out, a quality glass screen protector has its own coating, and is easy to replace if needed. So I am using Whoosh! It works very well, and I don't have to worry about the coating wearing off the iPad and iPhone.
This. Particularly with the phone.
Along the lines of Whoosh, eyeglass cleaner for coated lenses and a clean microfiber that is GENTLY wiped across the screen does the job on iDevices. Ditto on Mac screens. Applying elbow grease to the microfiber, for me, just seems to smear things up even more so and makes it tougher to get it off.
I read up on this recently. I decided to engage in a renewed Web search on what type of cloth is best for cleaning monitors, displays, screens, etc. Most of the results noted to first gently wipe with a dry microfiber. And even though microfiber has been touted as generally superior for polishing-like cleaning, I’ve seen a couple of videos, such a this somewhat recent by JayzTwoCents, that remind it’s still important to be careful with microfiber. Therefore, I added different materials, such as cotton, to the inquiry. Yet, the recommendation was microfiber because it was less likely leave behind material (e.g., lint) and is far more absorbent than something like cotton.
Combining these details, I’m gong to go forward — hopefully, beyond a trial period — wiping the display more frequently but with as minimal of pressure as possible. If greasiness still exists, apply a little amount of low concentration, ~10 - 25%, isopropyl alcohol.
I can hear Siri on my iPad screaming when I put a bucket of Original Recipe down next to it.
They will all look disgusting if you use them without a screen protector. That’s part of the reason why I have one on all my iPads and iPhones. I cans stand dirty screens. A shame we can’t put one on the Mac’s because I’m forever cleaning mine with a microfibre cloth.
There is this.
MacBook Pro Series Screen Protector GLAS.tR SLIM - Spigen.com
Shield your MacBook Pro (13" / 14" / 16") with our GLAS.tR SLIM Screen Protector. Designed to handle every day scratches and to keep your screen fingerprint free. Shop now.
www.spigen.com