So I do ALOT on online web browsing and shopping. And Ive decided to use my 14" MBP because the keyboard is so amazing I love its tactility. So Ive noticed that my eyes and vision is crisper and clearer on my 14" MBP than the iPad Pro. Its gotta be the frequency of the display and the text scale of the larger 14" laptop vs a 11" tablet.
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iPad Pro Question my eyes feel a lot better on my 14" M4 MBP than on my 11" M5 iPad Pro Why ?
- Thread starter TheRealAlex
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thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
thejadedmonkey
macrumors G3
iOS 26 and macOS 26 did something related to temporal dithering, which basically flashes colors quicker than the eye can see to simulate a 10 bit display when the display is only 8-bits.
In a very contrived example, instead of a bright purple being made by a red pixel and a blue pixel running at 100% brightness, Apple can have one pixel flicker between red and white, and another pixel flicker between blue and white, both at 50% brightness. The result is 50% less power, or 2x the brightness, depending on how Apple wants to optimize.
It's not PWM, but it's in the same general realm of LCD-eye-strain concerns. It's been known to cause headaches, eye fatigue, etc...
Could that be the issue?
In a very contrived example, instead of a bright purple being made by a red pixel and a blue pixel running at 100% brightness, Apple can have one pixel flicker between red and white, and another pixel flicker between blue and white, both at 50% brightness. The result is 50% less power, or 2x the brightness, depending on how Apple wants to optimize.
It's not PWM, but it's in the same general realm of LCD-eye-strain concerns. It's been known to cause headaches, eye fatigue, etc...
Could that be the issue?
Could it be a bad unit? I tried out an M2 Mini LED iPad Pro that really made my eyes water to the point that I had to return it. Felt like the thing was searing my eyeballs for some reason.
I have an M1 Pro 14" MBP, a 16" M3 MBP and an 11" M5 iPad Pro and they're all quite comfortable for my eyes.
I have an M1 Pro 14" MBP, a 16" M3 MBP and an 11" M5 iPad Pro and they're all quite comfortable for my eyes.
throAU
macrumors G4
AshX
macrumors regular
Hard to tell since the iPad Pro is the latest model. PWM is a possibility since the tandem OLED is much lower than the 14” M4 MBP.
The panel lottery aka variance between screen manufacturers is definitely a real variable for these sorts of issues. Were you using the 12.9” iPad Pro M2? I had one that was fine on iPadOS 16 but as soon as I upgraded to 17 it became unusable.
OP should try turning night shift on and lowering the brightness on the iPad to maybe 60% to see if that improves anything. I’m very sensitive to the MacBook screens but I actually found the iPad Pro had much more text clarity, at least the 13” one.