Retina iPad Mini's Display Criticized Over Poor Color Gamut and Accuracy

[SmileyDude]

Stupid stupid apple, there was no need for this dense a screen on the already dense screen iPad mini other than to appease the people who think they can see a difference (or are holding the iPad mini to close to their faces).

Or possibly Apple just wanted to be able to get rid of the non-retina iPad configurations at some point to simplify what they and developers are having to build for. Sure the iPad 2 and non-retina iPad mini still exist, but I would be willing to bet money that the new retina mini will get at least one more major iOS revision than either of those two older devices. If they would've kept the mini on a non-retina display for another generation, they would've had to keep non-retina support in the OS and apps for another generation as well.

As a developer, I'm looking forward to eventually dropping non-retina support as well. Of course by then, Apple may have thrown another curveball with yet another display size to support. But at least, in theory, I won't have to include 1x and 2x versions of every image.

 

[bassfingers]

I had to buy a Nexus 7 for class and I can say without a doubt that the display is useless. Once you squeeze the browser UI on that awfully narrow aspect ratio, it's not much bigger than the iPhone. Such a shame that I spent money on a tablet for debugging android apps, and I have no reason to keep it once the class is over

 

[wigby]

If it was the other way around would you not be praising Apple for it's innovative new screen and how it doesn't sacrifice quality for profit?

i think the commenters point is that people need to complain about something so they go for the lowest hanging fruit. that might not always be an apple's fault but this report makes it look like the difference is so discernible that display mate just had to publish a report to get to the bottom of it.

the truth is that they would have published this report no matter what and were tickled pink to see apple's numbers not aligning with previous numbers for once. meanwhile no one notices the display's color performance until they see this report.

 

[SirHaakon]

It's like any perceived deficiency - those who don't own the product will affirm the problem more vigorously, as part of confirmation bias to justify non-purchase.

I'll be happy to show you my receipt.

 

[Rogifan]

The great thing is that Apple offers a ridiculously generous return policy. If the screen is too under-specced or the color gamut is too poor, take it back. You aren't being forced to buy or keep any Apple device.

What a great thing that consumers have choice. The best thing for people to do is speak with their wallet.

 

[deputy_doofy]

I'm really down with Apple, using inferior displays. My retina MBP screen is horrible, my iPhone screens are always yellow. I can honestly say that the screens, for me, have always been the weakest point. I simply don't know why they have display issues with every product I buy.

Bryan

I can see why you'd be upset if Apple is using sub-par displays, but my retina MBP screen is awesome. I am comparing it to every MacBook Pro I've had before it, the previous one still in use (came with a bright, "hi-def" display). I'm disappointed every time I go back to it for even a moment.

 

[macfacts]

Damn you people are so ANNOYING!!! Shut up already and stop your whining. The RiPad Mini is fine. People are way too picky!!!

It would be annoying if people were speaking their opinions, but with that colour graph, there is no denying the facts (ipad mini 2 is not as good as the ipad air/nexus 7/kindle hdx)

 

[SirHaakon]

Which option would you have picked ?

I would gladly give up an hour of battery life for wider color gamut.

 

[furi0usbee]

I can see why you'd be upset if Apple is using sub-par displays, but my retina MBP screen is awesome. I am comparing it to every MacBook Pro I've had before it, the previous one still in use (came with a bright, "hi-def" display). I'm disappointed every time I go back to it for even a moment.

Oh, please don't get me wrong. My original display was great, it was a Samsung. But I had a repair and they replaced the entire top shell. And now, even though I have a Samsung display (by checking via the Terminal), my screen is now very yellow and the colors no longer pop like they did. It was like night/day the first time I turned it on.

I only buy Apple products, so I can't compare displays of other manufacturers, but I'm just a bit upset that it seems that every product I get, the display is always the weakest link.

I just don't know what they can do. Are they choosing to use inferior displays? At some point, someone has to see a yellow screen and just say, yeah, it's good enough. Not for $2k+ computers it's not!

 

[AdonisSMU]

I'm really down with Apple, using inferior displays. My retina MBP screen is horrible, my iPhone screens are always yellow. I can honestly say that the screens, for me, have always been the weakest point. I simply don't know why they have display issues with every product I buy.

Bryan

Apple hates you...lmao! Or maybe they just need better quality control. Check the device before leaving the store.

 

[NextGenApple]

Find it amusing that people were saying they wouldn't be purchasing an iPad air as it was (1 too big (2 cheaper to buy rMini etc. Now this news and those said people are flocking to the Apple store to exchange the rMini for the same Air that was "too big and too expensive'

Are people really using their tablets or is it just for show in starbucks.

 

[TMay]

Nothing to be called out on. It was a design decision to reduce heating / power consumption. To put in a full gamut display, Apple could have either

1) Reduced the display size to the Kindle / Nexus but people would have complained.

2) Made the mini 2 bigger / heavier for a larger battery but people would have complained.

3) Reduced the time the mini 2 runs on it's battery but people would have complained.

Apple decided to have a lower gamut on it's mini 2 display rather than the above three options. The display does look very nice and it's only when you put it side by side with the Air that you notice the difference in gamut.

Which option would you have picked ?



Likewise, which of the above options would you have picked ?

Germaine to the argument is whether the iPad Mini has a IGZO screen; I don't believe that it does for reasons of production constraints. I have the iPad Air 64GB LTE so I don't have any complaints anyway (in hindsight, I should have gone with 128GB!).

Apple has a lot of supply chain advantages, but the one negative is that it needs huge volumes of specific parts; something that most of the competition does not.

The tradeoff might have been gamut vs power efficiency for lack of IGZO capacity. All said, I'm quite happy that Apple is going IGZO generally as it does open up possibilities of cost effective 4K screens next year.

 

[nostaticatall]

Production faults such as the persistence issue can be forgiven as historically Apple does sort this kind of thing out but the inferior display choice is unforgivable and is probably representative of the post Steve Jobs Apple. He wouldn't have signed off that engineering choice as the detail meant everything to him and his company. Tim Cook continues the mantra of Apple's goal "to make the best products and not the cheapest" - it sounds kind of hollow in the light of this. Fit a cheaper screen with an inferior performance, drop the price and go aggressive in the marketplace - all of that would be acceptable as a 'new post Jobs Apple' but kidding us that their values haven't changed whilst cutting corners is simply not on. OK, the average customer might not notice but it's a slippery slope when you start dropping standards. Let's hope it's just a blip and not representative of future slip shod decisions.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

Just another example of the top dog being held to a higher standard than the rest. I'm sure the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire have a litany of other problems (huge chunk of cheap plastic?) that go unmentioned because no one really cares about those products to begin with.

Color gamut aside, outline the pros and cons of owning an iPad Mini Retina vs those other 2 tablets and the Mini wins in a landslide. And I don't even own one btw.

 

[NextGenApple]

Find it amusing that people were saying they wouldn't be purchasing an iPad air as it was (1 too big (2 cheaper to buy rMini etc. Now this news and those said people are flocking to the Apple store to exchange the rMini for the same Air that was "too big and too expensive' based on these reports.

What happened to rMini is lighter, way more portable and cheaper. Air is too big etc

Are people really using their tablets or is it just for show in starbucks.

 

[Jinzen]

Germaine to the argument is whether the iPad Mini has a IGZO screen; I don't believe that it does for reasons of production constraints. I have the iPad Air 64GB LTE so I don't have any complaints anyway (in hindsight, I should have gone with 128GB!).

Apple has a lot of supply chain advantages, but the one negative is that it needs huge volumes of specific parts; something that most of the competition does not.

The tradeoff might have been gamut vs power efficiency for lack of IGZO capacity. All said, I'm quite happy that Apple is going IGZO generally as it does open up possibilities of cost effective 4K screens next year.

iPad Air is IGZO and there is no trade-off for power efficiency or color gamut. Both are present in the iPad Air.

Apple simply chose to do a lower gamut display for the mini.

 

[Rogifan]

Production faults such as the persistence issue can be forgiven as historically Apple does sort this kind of thing out but the inferior display choice is unforgivable and is probably representative of the post Steve Jobs Apple. He wouldn't have signed off that engineering choice as the detail meant everything to him and his company. Tim Cook continues the mantra of Apple's goal "to make the best products and not the cheapest" - it sounds kind of hollow in the light of this. Fit a cheaper screen with an inferior performance, drop the price and go aggressive in the marketplace - all of that would be acceptable as a 'new post Jobs Apple' but kidding us that their values haven't changed whilst cutting corners is simply not on. OK, the average customer might not notice but it's a slippery slope when you start dropping standards. Let's hope it's just a blip and not representative of future slip shod decisions.

Yeah because Apple never had display or other hardware problems on Steve's watch and everything he shipped was perfect and defect free.

 

[furi0usbee]

Apple hates you...lmao! Or maybe they just need better quality control. Check the device before leaving the store.

Yeah, they hate me. I think you are the only one who thinks I'm whining... And yeah, I'll be sure to check the computer before it leaves the warehouse and is shipped to me via FedEx. Maybe Apple can include airfare for me with my next order.

I mean, if you don't have anything to contribute to the conversation, you can always post in the MR security leak thread. Need the URL?

 

[batotman]

I had to buy a Nexus 7 for class and I can say without a doubt that the display is useless. Once you squeeze the browser UI on that awfully narrow aspect ratio, it's not much bigger than the iPhone. Such a shame that I spent money on a tablet for debugging android apps, and I have no reason to keep it once the class is over

It already has 35% smaller screen space but they should subtract for that horrible thick black bar as well. I don't have much love for my N7 either.

 

[SirHaakon]

Just another example of the top dog being held to a higher standard than the rest. I'm sure the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire have a litany of other problems (huge chunk of cheap plastic?)...

Huge chunk of cheap plastic = $150 lower price point.

No one is saying the Kindle is the king of design, but when you're going to charge a significant premium like Apple does you should expect that they are going to (rightfully) be held to a higher standard than the rest.

 

[deputy_doofy]

Oh, please don't get me wrong. My original display was great, it was a Samsung. But I had a repair and they replaced the entire top shell. And now, even though I have a Samsung display (by checking via the Terminal), my screen is now very yellow and the colors no longer pop like they did. It was like night/day the first time I turned it on.

I only buy Apple products, so I can't compare displays of other manufacturers, but I'm just a bit upset that it seems that every product I get, the display is always the weakest link.

I just don't know what they can do. Are they choosing to use inferior displays? At some point, someone has to see a yellow screen and just say, yeah, it's good enough. Not for $2k+ computers it's not!

I will have to check to see what the display is. I have given Apple crap before for getting what I deemed a bad display (almost looked like pieces of letters were missing or there was a filter on the screen). Thankfully, this MBP and my previous one did not suffer such issues.

 

[Konrad9]

i think the commenters point is that people need to complain about something so they go for the lowest hanging fruit. that might not always be an apple's fault but this report makes it look like the difference is so discernible that display mate just had to publish a report to get to the bottom of it.

the truth is that they would have published this report no matter what and were tickled pink to see apple's numbers not aligning with previous numbers for once. meanwhile no one notices the display's color performance until they see this report.

A poor quality display is 'low hanging fruit'?

Would poor battery life be the same? Or low resolution? Or slow data speeds?

It doesn't matter who is at fault, if a competitor did the same thing you wouldn't excuse it because of a supplier.

Yay for double standards.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Sure. Someone always has it worse. Why care about anything then? Certainly not product quality. Let's just stop caring and accept worse and worse products!

worse? the gamut on the mini is unchanged from last year, but the resolution has doubled, despite the weight and thickness being nearly identical. the speed is 4x. in what bizarro, entitled universe is that "worse"?

 

[jclardy]

* iPad Air doesn't have speakers that fill the room with rich bass.

There is no tablet that does this...<1" speakers are just not capable of producing low frequencies.

 

[SirHaakon]

worse? the gamut on the mini is unchanged from last year, but the resolution has doubled, despite the weight and thickness being nearly identical. the speed is 4x. in what bizarro, entitled universe is that "worse"?

The price did go up from last year, all things are not equal.