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AlterZgo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2011
115
95
Just got my M4 iPadPro 13" and finished set up. Regardless of whether I have auto brightness on or off, true tone on or off, etc., my M4 iPadPro is disappointingly dim. On the middle brightness setting, the iPadPro looks very dim. It only looks usable when I have it at or near max brightness. Compared to my M1 iPadPro with mini LED display, the mini LED display blows it away in brightness.

Is anybody having the same experience? Or do you think my M4 iPadPro is defective?

Here's the comparison. Auto brigthtness, true tone, night shift all off. M4 OLED on top, M1 mini LED on bottom...

This is with both screens set to middle brightness. M1 iPad (bottom) looks a good 50% brighter in real life:
IMG_1028.JPG


This is with M4 iPadPro (top) on max brightness and M1 iPadPro (bottom) on middle brightness setting:
IMG_1026.JPG



Can anybody with a mini-LED M1 or M2 iPadPro who also has a M4 OLED iPadPro weigh in and let me know if you have similar issues? Thank you.
 

klasma

macrumors 603
Jun 8, 2017
6,133
17,172
Just got my M4 iPadPro 13" and finished set up. Regardless of whether I have auto brightness on or off, true tone on or off, etc., my M4 iPadPro is disappointingly dim. On the middle brightness setting, the iPadPro looks very dim. It only looks usable when I have it at or near max brightness. Compared to my M1 iPadPro with mini LED display, the mini LED display blows it away in brightness.

Is anybody having the same experience? Or do you think my M4 iPadPro is defective?

Here's the comparison. Auto brigthtness, true tone, night shift all off. M4 OLED on top, M1 mini LED on bottom...

This is with both screens set to middle brightness. M1 iPad (bottom) looks a good 50% brighter in real life:
View attachment 2379618

This is with M4 iPadPro (top) on max brightness and M1 iPadPro (bottom) on middle brightness setting:
View attachment 2379619


Can anybody with a mini-LED M1 or M2 iPadPro who also has a M4 OLED iPadPro weigh in and let me know if you have similar issues? Thank you.
Clearly defective I would say. The M4 screen gets really bright.
 

Sheepish-Lord

macrumors 68020
Oct 13, 2021
2,311
4,756
Mine gets crazy dim as well at dusk or without a nearby light source. Auto brightness turns it down to zero and I have to bump the brightness button 1-2 notches. Definitely odd.
 

MrGimper

macrumors G3
Sep 22, 2012
8,649
12,199
Andover, UK
Is it restoring from a backup or hot at all. It could be dimming the screen as it's hot. I've fallen foul of this before with a replacement ipad that was restoring from backup and the screen had dimmed due to thermals. It looked much dimmer than the device it was replacing. After a while when it cooled, the screen got brighter.
 

AlterZgo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2011
115
95
It did just restore from a backup but it's not hot at all. I left it alone for a couple of hours and just turned it on again. Still dim. Frustrating. First defective Apple product I've purchased in 30 yrs.
 

Kleverguy

macrumors newbie
Dec 22, 2017
2
0
I’m having a similar experience to OP but I’ll give it a few more days. Could still be optimizing since I just got it yesterday. I’m in pretty standard commercial lighting at the moment and the screen is set to about 85% brightness. I don’t recall needing to go that bright with my other iDevices. That’s with and without auto-brightness enabled.
 

cmbarclay

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2009
491
399
Coming from a iPad M2 12.9 my 13 M4 is so bright at 100% it almost gives me a headache o_O. I keep it at 70% brightness. I would take it back and exhange it.
 

TheBigDutch

macrumors newbie
May 7, 2024
7
0
RETURN IT...get a brand new one. its defective

It is great you have your old iPad Pro as a point of reference.
 

AlterZgo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 17, 2011
115
95
OK to close the loop on this, I figured out my M4 iPad wasn't defective after all. I had to turn off "Reduce White Point". Of course, when I was having these issues, this setting was already off by default. However, when I turned the setting back on, I noticed white point was set at a reduced 60% and that is how dim my iPad looked when the setting was off so, for whatever reason, it was applying a 60% reduced white point even though that setting was turned off. Once I turned reduce white point back to off, the brightness of my new iPad instantly became super bright. So the trick is to toggle "Reduced White Poin" on then off again.

For people who experience this same odd bug, "Reduce White Point" is not under Display & Brightness. You access it from: Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size. Scroll down to the bottom and it is right above the Auto Brightness setting.
 

Macintosh101

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2017
583
1,035
OK to close the loop on this, I figured out my M4 iPad wasn't defective after all. I had to turn off "Reduce White Point". Of course, when I was having these issues, this setting was already off by default. However, when I turned the setting back on, I noticed white point was set at a reduced 60% and that is how dim my iPad looked when the setting was off so, for whatever reason, it was applying a 60% reduced white point even though that setting was turned off. Once I turned reduce white point back to off, the brightness of my new iPad instantly became super bright. So the trick is to toggle "Reduced White Poin" on then off again.

For people who experience this same odd bug, "Reduce White Point" is not under Display & Brightness. You access it from: Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size. Scroll down to the bottom and it is right above the Auto Brightness setting.
Great find. Happy you worked out the problem!
 
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Sowelu

macrumors 6502a
Aug 15, 2008
776
936
New York City
Glad you got that sorted. I used to have that setting on as well. One thing I noticed from your photos is that the M4 display has way better white balance and is overall more pleasing to the eye (assuming other settings like True Tone are even on both). The M1 has a bit of a green/cold cast. I am very sensitive to even the most slight green tint, which is very common in most displays, so this is probably not noticed by many.
 
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MrT-Man

macrumors regular
Jan 22, 2008
128
26
Just got my M4 iPadPro 13" and finished set up. Regardless of whether I have auto brightness on or off, true tone on or off, etc., my M4 iPadPro is disappointingly dim. On the middle brightness setting, the iPadPro looks very dim. It only looks usable when I have it at or near max brightness. Compared to my M1 iPadPro with mini LED display, the mini LED display blows it away in brightness.

Is anybody having the same experience? Or do you think my M4 iPadPro is defective?
I had this happen twice with two different M4 iPads. Rebooting fixed it, no change in settings required. Seems to be a bug when restoring from backup.
 
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MyAppleWorld

macrumors 6502a
Nov 1, 2005
617
93
Birmingham, UK
Great find. Happy you worked out the problem!
OK to close the loop on this, I figured out my M4 iPad wasn't defective after all. I had to turn off "Reduce White Point". Of course, when I was having these issues, this setting was already off by default. However, when I turned the setting back on, I noticed white point was set at a reduced 60% and that is how dim my iPad looked when the setting was off so, for whatever reason, it was applying a 60% reduced white point even though that setting was turned off. Once I turned reduce white point back to off, the brightness of my new iPad instantly became super bright. So the trick is to toggle "Reduced White Poin" on then off again.

For people who experience this same odd bug, "Reduce White Point" is not under Display & Brightness. You access it from: Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size. Scroll down to the bottom and it is right above the Auto Brightness setting.
Great @AlterZgo , I just did this and now the screen on 100% is crazy bright like everybody else is saying!!
 
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