Folks, I’m surprised no one has posted this earlier (although passing mention of it was made in an earlier post).
In January, Marco Arment reviewed the 30” Pro Display XDR on the Accidental Tech Podcast (episode 413) and beginning at 52:50, he explained how and why the same effect / issue appears on that display.
He describes it as “the really big downside” that he’s “slowly getting used to” and laments that almost no other reviewers mentioned it… He points to “Apple’s marketing page” as the source for his explanation (which I can’t quite do justice to — but I couldn’t find anything more about it on the Pro XDR page on apple.com…)
The “light fall off” in the 14 points at all edges on the Pro display, he explains, has to do with the fact that the screen tech here involves “overlapping adjacent cells” and at the edges of the display, the cells have no adjacent cells to overlap with, hence the drop-off of light. “There is no ability to team-light [those] areas.”
Check it out if you’re curious. But I post this here to say to other buyers: this is a feature of the XDR iPad that is not unique to the model in your hands (or the one on its way to you). There is no better model waiting for you if you go back and return yours. And it won’t be solved by a software update.
In a certain way, this is disappointing — so much hype around this display, the extra cost, etc (all points Marco also makes about the Pro display, by the way). But it’s somewhat relieving in the sense that it’s highly unlikely that in 2 months, you’ll feel burned by new models appearing that don’t have the shadow effect on the edges.
If the Pro had this 6 months ago and it’s still a part of Apple’s XDR display tech, it’s likely to remain a part of it until at least the next gen…
(Thanks to the poster who pointed me to the Accidental Tech episode!)
In January, Marco Arment reviewed the 30” Pro Display XDR on the Accidental Tech Podcast (episode 413) and beginning at 52:50, he explained how and why the same effect / issue appears on that display.
He describes it as “the really big downside” that he’s “slowly getting used to” and laments that almost no other reviewers mentioned it… He points to “Apple’s marketing page” as the source for his explanation (which I can’t quite do justice to — but I couldn’t find anything more about it on the Pro XDR page on apple.com…)
The “light fall off” in the 14 points at all edges on the Pro display, he explains, has to do with the fact that the screen tech here involves “overlapping adjacent cells” and at the edges of the display, the cells have no adjacent cells to overlap with, hence the drop-off of light. “There is no ability to team-light [those] areas.”
Check it out if you’re curious. But I post this here to say to other buyers: this is a feature of the XDR iPad that is not unique to the model in your hands (or the one on its way to you). There is no better model waiting for you if you go back and return yours. And it won’t be solved by a software update.
In a certain way, this is disappointing — so much hype around this display, the extra cost, etc (all points Marco also makes about the Pro display, by the way). But it’s somewhat relieving in the sense that it’s highly unlikely that in 2 months, you’ll feel burned by new models appearing that don’t have the shadow effect on the edges.
If the Pro had this 6 months ago and it’s still a part of Apple’s XDR display tech, it’s likely to remain a part of it until at least the next gen…
(Thanks to the poster who pointed me to the Accidental Tech episode!)
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