I don’t notice this while using the new mbp and iPad Pro but I also don’t go actively looking for problems. I have better things to do.
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.
Reports Suggest Mini-LED 'Blooming' Effect on New MacBook Pro Displays Not an Issue
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I agree, I got my 14” MacBook Pro last night and ran a bunch of test with HDR content. The display looks very good and while blooming is present it’s a non issue as it’s so minor. This is the best LCD display I’ve ever seen. I was concerned reading what other people have said that this was going to be a really noticeable issue but it’s really not.
The moon on a stick is going to have a lot of bloom around it.
Hey, Mr.
Hope you’re well.
Did you get one of the new MBPs? If so, what config did you get?
I’m contemplating getting one.
You have to be really careful even hearing colloquial reports of issues. Last night somebody on this forum complained that blooming on the new MBPs is dreadful. They posted this picture….
They’re the end credits of Blade Runner 2049, as seen in HDR.
Fortunately, I have one of the new MacBooks myself and couldn’t be happier with it. Any blooming is honestly barely noticeable. I couldn’t believe that the above picture was real, or at least not representative of what’s actually seen in person, so I checked…
As you can see, my photo almost looks like a screenshot. It’s not, it’s a picture taken with my iPhone. It’s absolutely representative of what I could see in person. That’s with the display brightness maxed out.
The person who posted the original picture either has a faulty unit or there’s something else going on altogether and, I suspect, something nefarious.
They’re the end credits of Blade Runner 2049, as seen in HDR.
Fortunately, I have one of the new MacBooks myself and couldn’t be happier with it. Any blooming is honestly barely noticeable. I couldn’t believe that the above picture was real, or at least not representative of what’s actually seen in person, so I checked…
As you can see, my photo almost looks like a screenshot. It’s not, it’s a picture taken with my iPhone. It’s absolutely representative of what I could see in person. That’s with the display brightness maxed out.
The person who posted the original picture either has a faulty unit or there’s something else going on altogether and, I suspect, something nefarious.
Wouldn’t preorders be biased towards positive reviews? I’ll wait until they are on display at Best Buy so I can hear from someone who has no intention of buying one.
Hey dude
Nope, and won’t be for a few years. Have a top spec 2019 16” that does everything I need, and it still works even after the M1 MBP launch
I love your style, budHey dude
Nope, and won’t be for a few years. Have a top spec 2019 16” that does everything I need, and it still works even after the M1 MBP launch
.You mention you have an M1 iPad Pro. Which iPad did you upgrade from?
I have my 11” 2020 iPP with Magic Keyboard. Does everything I want or need, thus I never “upgraded” for the same reasons as you with your MBP.
I upgraded from a 2017 iPad Pro 10.5”. Loved that device. I fancied trying the 12.9 so went to a local store to try the 2020 11 and 12.9 to determine size, weight etc. So happy with the 12.9. I bought the magic keyboard too on a deal.I love your style, bud
You mention you have an M1 iPad Pro. Which iPad did you upgrade from?
I have my 11” 2020 iPP with Magic Keyboard. Does everything I want or need, thus I never “upgraded” for the same reasons as you with your MBP.
Yes but that’s not relevant. I’ve already said the picture I took is the same as what I’m seeing with my own two eyes.
I had to return my 10.5” because it developed the bright spot issue, above the Home Button.
I quite like the 11” iPP. I like to use it in tablet mode as well as on the MKB, and feel the 12.9” would be a bit too big?
We had this discussion. The UHD (source) of Blade Runner 2049 features elevated black levels. Neither the iPad Pro nor the new MBP can handle this well. It appears the version you have does not feature this anomaly.
Nothing nefarious. Not everything is a conspiracy for goodness sake.
Why such raised black levels in Blade Runner 2049? - Post & the DI - Roger A. Deakins
I'm hoping to hear from Roger regarding his thoughts on this. I loved Blade Runner 2049, beautifully shot and lit, but I was disappointed that it seemed to fall into the current blockbuster trend of milky blacks. (images supplied with my slight adjustment made). It would seem like, in Blade Runner
www.rogerdeakins.com
Good to hear that displays are not having any issues. Expecting mini LED on Macbook Air and 11" iPad Pro
The first image looks like a very long exposure. Look how much light is leaking from the black areas. My 17 year old Apple Cinema Display looks like an OLED in comparison to that photo.
Thanks for explaining. People don't realize that cameras exaggerate any display effects, including blooming or IPS glow. No way the first picture is what reality looks like.
Macrumors said:
This is not correct. Traditional LCD displays have a single, uniform backlight, with the same brightness for every pixel. As a result, blacks are often not truly black, and contrast ratio is limited.
To address this, different technologies exist to dim the backlight. The simple version just dims the entire backlight, which works for dark vs bright scenes, but not for content where only parts of the picture are bright or dark.
For those scenes, it's necessary to dim the backlight only for parts of the screen. This is called "local dimming"; cheaper versions use "edge" technology, and better ones have "full-array local dimming", where there are many zones of backlight behind the panel that can be controlled individually.
For computer screens, due to distance from the screen and the type of content displayed, there need to be a lot of zones, so mini LED arrays are used, which dramatically increases the number of controllable zones compared to traditional methods, where standard-sized LEDs are used as zone backlights, which works really well for moving content, so does just fine on TVs.
There are still many fewer backlight zones than pixels, though, so for really small objects on screen that are just a few pixels across (think stars in the night's sky), a much larger area needs to have its backlight on, and that appears as a "bloom" around the little star, when the surrounding areas of the screen with just dark night's sky are not or just barely illuminated by their respective backlight zones.
Eventually, we'll get Micro-LED displays, where each pixel is a tiny, tiny self-illuminating LED rather than an LCD pixel that lets backlight through. Or maybe technologies that never made it to market, such as SED or FED displays, see a resurgence after all
In the meantime, there is OLED, where individual pixels are also self-illuminating, but because of life span issues, and in particular their tendency to suffer from burn-in (which would happen quickly on computer screens with static UI items such as the Dock or Menu Bar), these are not currently a viable option. They also have lower color space and maximum brightness than LCD screens.
I notice it sometimes in the Kindle app when I’m reading at night and the background is black. But I use pure black mode with the Twitter app (mostly using Twitter in split view mode) and don’t see any blooming at all.
Ironically I see it most often on the white UI controls the pop up when watching video, but then they go away and everything is awesome.