iPad Pro Pro 10.5 Color Accuracy vs. 9.7

[mcaswell]

I've seen several posts commenting on the appearance of blank white on the 10.5 being a bit more yellow, but I'm wondering how much of an impact this has on the color accuracy in general.

Earlier this year, I tried to use my Air 2 for editing photographs with Lightroom Mobile, but found the color to not be accurate enough, being too blueish (the closest I could get to matching my calibrated ACD 30" was by turning Night Shift on and dialing it back to almost the minimum). But when I bought the Pro 9.7, however, I found it to be spot on (TruTone and Night Shift off, brightness a tad below mid)... it's as perfect as I could possibly expect it to be.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone who has a 10.5 and 9.7 in hand could view a few photos (particularly some that feature skin tones) side by side on both, and evaluate how close they match each other?

 

[dan9700]

I've seen several posts commenting on the appearance of blank white on the 10.5 being a bit more yellow, but I'm wondering how much of an impact this has on the color accuracy in general.

Earlier this year, I tried to use my Air 2 for editing photographs with Lightroom Mobile, but found the color to not be accurate enough, being too blueish (the closest I could get to matching my calibrated ACD 30" was by turning Night Shift on and dialing it back to almost the minimum). But when I bought the Pro 9.7, however, I found it to be spot on (TruTone and Night Shift off, brightness a tad below mid)... it's as perfect as I could possibly expect it to be.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone who has a 10.5 and 9.7 in hand could view a few photos (particularly some that feature skin tones) side by side on both, and evaluate how close they match each other?

Yeah over the years this yellow tint has plagued me and its the same with the 10.5 its so yellow compared to my 7 plus and 9.7 its a shame cos the ipad is amazing but i cant be arsed to keep swapping it, why cant apple just calibrate the screens or let us change colour temperature

 

[thadoggfather]

I looked at a few videos/trailers side by side and I'd say this is representative, ymmv

you can even see the background, just looks more jaundice-y unnecessarily (without pay off)

The colors simply have more pop, crispness, and accuracy to my eyeballs. The 10.5's I had looked a little muted in saturation, and less pleasing

 

[mcaswell]

Thanks... that's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to receive. I'd read somewhere that the Pro 9.7 screens are actually calibrated/profiled at the factory, and I'm wondering if perhaps the new ones aren't? Or maybe the difference is a side-effect of the new 10 bit panel? Regardless, if those photos are indeed representative of the two, that's a bit too much of a difference for my line of work.

 

[thadoggfather]

Thanks... that's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to receive. I'd read somewhere that the Pro 9.7 screens are actually calibrated/profiled at the factory, and I'm wondering if perhaps the new ones aren't? Or maybe the difference is a side-effect of the new 10 bit panel? Regardless, if those photos are indeed representative of the two, that's a bit too much of a difference for my line of work.

It may just be panel lottery and not across the board

But i got two with near identical color representation/tint, and the third i didnt bother examining much because it had a yellow strip too that was taking me out of the experience

Happier now with my 9.7 pro than i was before, even though that ProMOtion is something

I wasn't satisfied with what I was seeing, seemed like a regression.

 

[PortableLover]

Thanks... that's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to receive. I'd read somewhere that the Pro 9.7 screens are actually calibrated/profiled at the factory, and I'm wondering if perhaps the new ones aren't? Or maybe the difference is a side-effect of the new 10 bit panel? Regardless, if those photos are indeed representative of the two, that's a bit too much of a difference for my line of work.

wait the new ipads are 10 bit?

 

[mcaswell]

Well, I decided to give the 10.5 a try since I was going to be in town today to photograph an event and it was convenient to stop by the Apple Store instead of having to make a special trip in.

But I took a stepped approach to evaluating the display accuracy. I didn't want to bring my current iPad into the store for a direct comparison, so what I did was put a photo on my web server, and then compared the 9.7's rendering of that image to my iPhone 6s (iPhone was just a tad more blue). Then when I got to the store, I loaded that image in Safari on several display units (with True Tone off), and observed that all of them were at least in the expected ballpark (in relation to the iPhone).

That made me feel comfortable enough to make the purchase (didn't want to buy if I knew I'd almost certainly have to return it). Sat down in the mall and pulled it out, set it up temporarily, and found that it too was about where I expected it to look compared to the iPhone. Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop (my event doesn't start for another few hours), and I've loaded Lightroom Mobile onto it for a direct comparison to the 9.7, and I'm finding it to be pretty much a perfect match. I'll study it more tonight when I get home, but as of now I felt confident enough to go ahead and order a case for it.

I don't THINK there's a yellow band at the bottom, or any other issues with the display. All the demos I looked at in the store, and this one as well, are DMPT serial numbers.

 

[thadoggfather]

Well, I decided to give the 10.5 a try since I was going to be in town today to photograph an event and it was convenient to stop by the Apple Store instead of having to make a special trip in.

But I took a stepped approach to evaluating the display accuracy. I didn't want to bring my current iPad into the store for a direct comparison, so what I did was put a photo on my web server, and then compared the 9.7's rendering of that image to my iPhone 6s (iPhone was just a tad more blue). Then when I got to the store, I loaded that image in Safari on several display units (with True Tone off), and observed that all of them were at least in the expected ballpark (in relation to the iPhone).

That made me feel comfortable enough to make the purchase (didn't want to buy if I knew I'd almost certainly have to return it). Sat down in the mall and pulled it out, set it up temporarily, and found that it too was about where I expected it to look compared to the iPhone. Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop (my event doesn't start for another few hours), and I've loaded Lightroom Mobile onto it for a direct comparison to the 9.7, and I'm finding it to be pretty much a perfect match. I'll study it more tonight when I get home, but as of now I felt confident enough to go ahead and order a case for it.

I don't THINK there's a yellow band at the bottom, or any other issues with the display. All the demos I looked at in the store, and this one as well, are DMPT serial numbers.

Hope you got a keeper too! I'd be curious what yours look like side by side if it ws comparable to my experience

 

[mcaswell]

Just a little follow up to this, for the sake of anyone else who may have an interest. My 10.5 has been working out great for photo editing in LR Mobile for the past 8 months or so, and my wife decided she wanted one as well (also for photo editing).

I had 3 options... buy her a 10.5, buy her a regular 9.7, or buy myself a 12.9 and give her my 10.5. I went to Best Buy to examine the color accuracy, similar to how I did it before with my iPhone as the reference point (interestingly, I had since upgraded from a 6s to an 8 Plus, and have found the colors on the 8 Plus to be almost a perfect match to the 10.5).

Ensuring true tone and night shift were off, I found the 9.7 (non pro) and the 12.9 to have a noticeably more magenta cast... not enough to say the test images looked "bad", but enough to make me hesitant to them for image editing. The 10.5 on display there looked as expected.

While I didn't necessarily think the 9.7 would be perfect, I did have higher expectations for the 12.9. Regardless, I think it would have been a bit too big for my liking anyway. Walked out with another 10.5.

 

[DaniJoy]

honestly they are hard to keep color accurate over time because there is no way to color calibrate them with ICC profiles , all screens drift. the newest model will be best because they are factory calibrated. I hope someday iOS has ICC profiles for art creation. i do have an app that displays color corrected photos from my Wacom Cintiq, but i cannot create accurate color on the ipad.