Why is everyone so obsessed with an OLED Mac?

[Closingracer]

You only see blooming on the iPad in dark rooms with the lights off. And you shouldn't be watching movies in a dark room in the first place because it is bad for your eyes.

In a cinema or with OLED it's different because the brightness is low, unlike with an iPad that can blast 1600 nits to your eyes.

mini-LED is in the end far superior to OLED. If you take your device outside on a sunny day, you will need the extra brightness mini-LED can provide. And the best part is, it won't kill your display unlike with OLED.

It's not tho OLED > Mini-LED any day of the week. The only thing Mini LED is superior at is peak brightness and IMHO 1000 nits is overkill. Laptops recently are getting HDR peak brightness of 600 with OLED panels.

Even Apple thinks so going with OLED for their iPad's and Macbook's based off rumors.


Micro LED on the other hand I can't wait for that.

 

[Zest28]

It's not tho OLED > Mini-LED any day of the week. The only thing Mini LED is superior at is peak brightness and IMHO 1000 nits is overkill. Laptops recently are getting HDR peak brightness of 600 with OLED panels.

Even Apple thinks so going with OLED for their iPad's and Macbook's based off rumors.


Micro LED on the other hand I can't wait for that.

600 peak brightness is quite low. The 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro can do 1000 nits sustain brightness and peak around 1600 nits.

And you can't also have HDR with only 600 peak brightness really. Is it HDR 600 like what Dell claims for it's monitors, while it is not HDR at all?

There are also monitors that can claim to be HDR 400 (supposedly being HDR with only 400 nits), but it's not HDR too really.

 

[scaramoosh]

I do not notice any blooming in movies, the one thing I love over my LG C2 TV is like watching Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3, I can see so much more detail on the Mac that gets lost on the OLED TV. I could imagine having subtitles on in the black bars could be an issue? But I cannot deal with subtitled movies so I haven't tried. I just think the screens are 99 percent of the way there and I'd take them over OLED for the main application of use of a laptop.

However there is always room for improvement and that's why I think Apple should focus on that.

 

[bobcomer]

No PWM > PWM with high-frequency.

Of course. It must be easier to do PWM though. (or cheaper)

 

[MRMSFC]

My 2c:

Owner of a 14 inch MacBook Pro, I don’t notice screen tearing or after imaging like many reviews say, but I can’t tell the difference with ProMotion on or off.

Though I’ve heard that complaint mostly from people who have high-refresh, low latency gaming monitors, so it may be that I just don’t notice it.

As for display tech, I don’t think it matters what the display tech is. If Apple brought OLED instead of miniLED to the screen it’d probably be just as color accurate and bright as the other tech. IIRC they spend some time making sure it’s calibrated to be accurate and that’s what matters.

 

[bobcomer]

Please keep us posted, I'm eager to hear about how you evaluate the miniled screen vs. the OLED...!

After putting it through the paces, I still think OLED wins. The contrast is just not there like it is on a good OLED panel, and comparing it directly to my Samsung S7 tablet, it's just not quite as good. The contrast makes it way easier for me to see more detail. Maybe that has something to do with my vision, it isn't the greatest. I wont be using it outside, so there's no advantage for me there. I haven't watched any HDR content yet, that's few and far between with the things I watch.

It certainly is better than any LCD/LED I've ever seen though. Colors are bright. Yes, it has more bloom than an OLED, but it really doesn't bother me. I don't see any PWM. It's very workable and is very good for reading Manga. It's just big enough.

It might be a little slower and clipping frames on high movement in videos, but not enough to bother me. I'm not real sure on that, as it barely registers...

Generally, I think the Samsung is going to have better battery life, but it might be close. The IPP is HEAVY! As much as a laptop. Performance-wise, the IPP mops the floor with the Samsung. It's really not even a contest.

One big complaint about how it came -- the default brightness is about 1 out of 10. At that light level, it should get better battery life, but, and it's a big but, it has *no* contrast at that level. It's like looking at a very young child's water painting, and the default theme in no way helps that. I turned it up to 8 right away, and down to 7 in the dark, and it's MUCH better.

It does get warm when doing something strenuous and the Samsung doesn't, but I could probably use it as a laptop in a pinch a lot more than I could use my Samsung tablet to do real work.

 

[balnazzar]

After putting it through the paces, I still think OLED wins.

I think this answers the original OP's question.

Anyway, very good comparative review, thanks!

 

[balnazzar]

OLED panel which I loved until I went outside with it. It looks like it has a window screen in front of the display.

I really don't know why only Apple treats its glossy screens with anti-reflective coating. That stands for laptops and tablets alike.

 

[balnazzar]

You only see blooming on the iPad in dark rooms with the lights off.

I beg to differ. In a room with your normal average illumination, at evening/night, it's very noticeable and annoying. Less so on the MBP, but still noticeable.

 

[balnazzar]

I don't suffer from eye fatigue problems in general, but I do feel "fresher" at the end of the day working on the Apple Studio Display, than if I was working on the 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro display directly.

Maybe size could also be a factor here. One thing is squinting all day to read tiny fonts, another thing is having 27" screen estate.

 

[balnazzar]

It's not tho OLED > Mini-LED any day of the week. The only thing Mini LED is superior at is peak brightness and IMHO 1000 nits is overkill. Laptops recently are getting HDR peak brightness of 600 with OLED panels.

The problem is that you still have to care about your oled panel. Particularly if you spend a lot of money on the device.
Apple philosophy is that you pay more than with other brands, but then you can afford not to care.

 

[cmChimera]

However I have a Macbook Pro M1 Max next to all these displays and the Macbook is 99 percent as good in the blacks, but it's MUCH brighter when opening a white window like Google.

This won't be the case by the time Apple adopts OLED into the Macbook Pros.

The things I noticed with all my OLED panels is they're great for blacks, but they're really bad in near black, they often just clip and you lose detail compared to even a standard backlight LCD. The other thing I notice is when displaying a single colour like white or especially grey, you see how the display isn't uniform. Often the display is a bit noisy, you really see this on grey and it is so distracting once you notice it.

This seems like a display quality thing, and not indicative of the technology.

But the number one issue (other than them being useless for displaying bright white over a full window), is how they have image retention and sometimes it goes away, sometimes it does not. Like on my iPhone right now I have the white bar and the info at the top permanently burned in.

Burn in is very rare, and is only becoming more rare.

 

[leifp]

You only see blooming on the iPad in dark rooms with the lights off. And you shouldn't be watching movies in a dark room in the first place because it is bad for your eyes.

In a cinema or with OLED it's different because the brightness is low, unlike with an iPad that can blast 1600 nits to your eyes.

mini-LED is in the end far superior to OLED. If you take your device outside on a sunny day, you will need the extra brightness mini-LED can provide. And the best part is, it won't kill your display unlike with OLED.

I see blooming on my 12.9” iPP during the day, with plenty of ambient light. If you’re not sensitive to it, you’re not sensitive to it. But I am, and I detest it.

 

[balnazzar]

I see blooming on my 12.9” iPP during the day, with plenty of ambient light.

Don't tell me. I had to return my M1 12.9 and then I bought the 11". The blooming was vastly superior to my worst expectations.
The 11" is a very good device with a very good screen, but it's kind of smallish for my tastes. I considered a 4th-gen 12.9 refurb, also. But the absence of the M-cpu, just 6gb ram, and the presence of PWM (albeit at 58 KHz) made me buy the 11".

 

[leifp]

Don't tell me. I had to return my M1 12.9 and then I bought the 11". The blooming was vastly superior to my worst expectations.
The 11" is a very good device with a very good screen, but it's kind of smallish for my tastes. I considered a 4th-gen 12.9 refurb, also. But the absence of the M-cpu, just 6gb ram, and the presence of PWM (albeit at 58 KHz) made me buy the 11".

I’ve gone to the other extreme and have both devices. It drives me a bit nuts. The 12.9” is superior, for me and my use cases, but that screen! Ugh. I’ll break down and sell the 11” (decision already made) but hope that Apple replaces their screen in the 12.9” with something superior soon, so I can replace this one and sell it to someone who loves it… then I just have to get Apple to stop trying to tell me how to use my devices: on the 11” (M1) I could, if I wanted, switch the behaviour of the volume buttons (I don’t want). On the 12.9” (M2) Apple has decided that they would change it for me and then remove the option to change it back… extra pleasant to have two nigh identical devices with different behaviours 🤬

 

[Lcgiv]

OLED laptop displays seem to decrease battery life by a sizable amount. Coupled that with potential burn in and lower brightness, I don't think I'd trade my minLED display in until OLED displays get drastically better.

View attachment 2230507

Battery Power Online | OLED Display’s Impact on Battery Life for Consumer Tech Devices

www.batterypoweronline.com

If you view white content all day, if you like dark mode or have black on screen it’s more efficient since it powers off the pixels

 

[Lcgiv]

I’ve gone to the other extreme and have both devices. It drives me a bit nuts. The 12.9” is superior, for me and my use cases, but that screen! Ugh. I’ll break down and sell the 11” (decision already made) but hope that Apple replaces their screen in the 12.9” with something superior soon, so I can replace this one and sell it to someone who loves it… then I just have to get Apple to stop trying to tell me how to use my devices: on the 11” (M1) I could, if I wanted, switch the behaviour of the volume buttons (I don’t want). On the 12.9” (M2) Apple has decided that they would change it for me and then remove the option to change it back… extra pleasant to have two nigh identical devices with different behaviours 🤬

Once you see blooming it’s forever there, especially if you like sci-fi movies or space documentaries and the stars are all janky

 

[balnazzar]

The thing is, they should have sold the miniLED display as a CTO option. You need a super bright display? You can have it. But for the rest of us, a good DC-dimmed IPS would have done.

 

[falainber]

The problem is that you still have to care about your oled panel. Particularly if you spend a lot of money on the device.
Apple philosophy is that you pay more than with other brands, but then you can afford not to care.

If that was Apple philosophy they would not sell AppleCare. The reality is that Apple devices are probably the only consumer devices for which people buy the insurance.

 

[Wokis]

Aside from professional woes, or related to, I really don't like how the characteristics of an OLED changes over time. Even LCDs tend to drift but OLED does it so much that they have manufacturer-scheduled compensation schemes put in so "that you won't notice", but those are just guessing its degradation so in the end you notice anyway. Things don't look the same as when it was new.

I'm really happy that Apple in general is committed to color accuracy and I would bet that is why they went down the mini-LED route in the first place. I feel if they could just keep working on making more zones and eventually go micro-LED, most downsides would go away and we would/will arrive at something more satisfying than OLED.

 

[dmccloud]

My 2c:

Owner of a 14 inch MacBook Pro, I don’t notice screen tearing or after imaging like many reviews say, but I can’t tell the difference with ProMotion on or off.

Though I’ve heard that complaint mostly from people who have high-refresh, low latency gaming monitors, so it may be that I just don’t notice it.

As for display tech, I don’t think it matters what the display tech is. If Apple brought OLED instead of miniLED to the screen it’d probably be just as color accurate and bright as the other tech. IIRC they spend some time making sure it’s calibrated to be accurate and that’s what matters.

I haven't noticed any screen tearing or image latency on the 14" Pro myself, and my gaming desktop is running two 165Hz gaming displays. In my experience, OLED laptop displays look much better on the store shelf (where they're usually running some sort of demo designed to draw in the customer) than they do in real-world usage.

Aside from professional woes, or related to, I really don't like how the characteristics of an OLED changes over time. Even LCDs tend to drift but OLED does it so much that they have manufacturer-scheduled compensation schemes put in so "that you won't notice", but those are just guessing its degradation so in the end you notice anyway. Things don't look the same as when it was new.

I'm really happy that Apple in general is committed to color accuracy and I would bet that is why they went down the mini-LED route in the first place. I feel if they could just keep working on making more zones and eventually go micro-LED, most downsides would go away and we would/will arrive at something more satisfying than OLED.

The drift is the single biggest obstacle to Apple adopting OLED for its displays. Given that Apple still places emphasis on color accuracy and range for its products, adopting a display technology that deliberately deviates from accuracy over time would be counterproductive, especially for creative professionals using their products for photo/video editing, web design, and graphic design.

 

[staypuftforums]

For me it’s about the response times. Apple LCD/MiniLED displays have such bad response times on all their devices it’s kind of odd.

It took me months to get used to that on my iMac. Videos looked so weird, but I’ve adjusted and don’t notice anymore.