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iPad Pro 12.9" 2021 iPad mini-LED Weird Temporary Screen Indentation

O

Omicron Theta

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2012
14
12
I get this weird screen indentation that appears after browsing MacRumors site for more than 5 minutes. When I browse MacRumors on my iPhone the back of my phone gets extremely hot. The back of my iPad is warm when this issue appears so I think it may be due to heat. MacRumors is the only site that causes my iPhone and iPad to heat up. The issue goes away after 5 minutes when I stop browsing MacRumors, LOL. I'm just glad it's not permanent.

Anyone else have this issue?
 

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Omicron Theta said:
I get this weird screen indentation that appears after browsing MacRumors site for more than 5 minutes. When I browse MacRumors on my iPhone the back of my phone gets extremely hot. The back of my iPad is warm when this issue appears so I think it may be due to heat. MacRumors is the only site that causes my iPhone and iPad to heat up. The issue goes away after 5 minutes when I stop browsing MacRumors, LOL. I'm just glad it's not permanent.

Anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...
No, it doesn't occur on my iPhone.
 
Thanks for the responses. Screen brightness is around 40%. Maybe I’ll see if I can get it exchanged at the Apple store.
 
Can you circle what area you're referring to? I see something slightly to the left center but not sure if it's what you're referring to or just from the angle. LEDs can get very warm and cause expansion resulting in possible screen distortion. What if you lower the brightness or switch to dark mode does the issue become less or go away?

As far as your devices getting warm from browsing MR that's not normal. Try adblocker app or adblocking DNS servers to see it goes away.

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html
 
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Omicron Theta said:
I get this weird screen indentation that appears after browsing MacRumors site for more than 5 minutes. When I browse MacRumors on my iPhone the back of my phone gets extremely hot. The back of my iPad is warm when this issue appears so I think it may be due to heat. MacRumors is the only site that causes my iPhone and iPad to heat up. The issue goes away after 5 minutes when I stop browsing MacRumors, LOL. I'm just glad it's not permanent.

Anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...
I have the same problem, it happens to me with the iPad 2021 and with the iPhone, but not with the iPad Pro 2018. It only happens to me when I navigate by Macrumors.
 
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mi7chy said:
Can you circle what area you're referring to? I see something slightly to the left center but not sure if it's what you're referring to or just from the angle. LEDs can get very warm and cause expansion resulting in possible screen distortion. What if you lower the brightness or switch to dark mode does the issue become less or go away?

As far as your devices getting warm from browsing MR that's not normal. Try adblocker app or adblocking DNS servers to see it goes away.

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html
Click to expand...

Yes, it is the indentation slightly to the left center that I'm referring to. There's another one slightly to the right center but it's not that noticeable. Lowering brightness or switching to dark mode doesn't help. It must be the heat causing expansion as you said.

Anyway, I resolved the issue by just using Chrome instead of Safari. Chrome doesn't make my iPad get warm when browsing MacRumors so the issue doesn't appear, but thanks for your suggestions.

Extre said:
I have the same problem, it happens to me with the iPad 2021 and with the iPhone, but not with the iPad Pro 2018. It only happens to me when I navigate by Macrumors.
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming I'm not the only one with the issue.
 

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Omicron Theta said:
I get this weird screen indentation that appears after browsing MacRumors site for more than 5 minutes. When I browse MacRumors on my iPhone the back of my phone gets extremely hot. The back of my iPad is warm when this issue appears so I think it may be due to heat. MacRumors is the only site that causes my iPhone and iPad to heat up. The issue goes away after 5 minutes when I stop browsing MacRumors, LOL. I'm just glad it's not permanent.

Anyone else have this issue?
Click to expand...
I have this exact issue and my "indentation" appears in the same area. It's not an indentation, so much as it's a dimming in that particular area. When I allow my iPad to cool down, the issue remits. I'm a little concerned. I also notice that the iPad Pro gets pretty warm. My old iPads have never gotten warm from regular use.
 
Funny thing, I was just trying to figure out if I have a screen smudge and it turns out it’s the same exact screen indentation. I can see it ripple very obviously if I run my finger across the screen with light pressure or if I tap around the indented area. Seems like the diffuser or whatever is rippling. Probably exchanging mine
 
I noticed this evening my 2021 12.9 was getting quite warm. I was reading email and on macr umors ar swell. I have the ripples as well. What did you all do about it ?
 
We might have the same issue, but I experienced an issue that looks like that too, but it also had ripples.

When I pushed on the glass, the indentation and ripples disappear. Sometimes it reappears. And I’m wondering if the panel underneath isn’t fully pressed against the glass. Lol

luckily it was the M1 iPad Pro that I was returning. I haven’t noticed it on the model I currently have.
 
Wow.. that’s scary. did the heat and excessive processor usage come from some ads here? I have 1Blocker installed and havent experienced the excessive heat when I’m browsing MacRumors…
 
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Yeah, I think the excessive heat may be due to ads. However, it only happens on Safari. The indentation and ripples don’t appear when I use Chrome. So now I just browse MacRumors on Chrome to avoid the issue, and I use Safari for everything else.
 
I just tried 3DMark Wild Life to heat up my 12.9" 2021 and boy does it get hot when stressed to its limit. Then I took a look at the screen from an angle and sure enough, it’s faint, but I see it and it goes away as the device cools down. Weird. Not sure if it’s the heat affecting the backlight LEDs or the pixels themselves.

As for MacRumors making the iPad run hot, I too had that issue at first and installed an ad blocker which seems to have solved the issue.
 
I swapped mine but I'm not gonna check for this again... better to not know lol
 
These reports about screen ripples made me seriously reconsider 12.9 order, it will suck if this miniLED tech is still in beta phase and not as durable as it should be.
I can get the screen edge shadowing, probably to avoid it or hide it Apple would have to make bezels thicker so parts of bezel would cover up parts of the screen where the shadow is visible.
Now, to large degree I can get the blooming situation which is not an issue for some and which is how the miniLED local dimming simply works, unless they make every single LED as dimming zone, but not in this generation of iPads obviously, given that LED's come soldered by the pack of four on each LED "board". That could make blooming far less apparent, but still present to some extent.
But this over-heating ripple effect makes me wonder how long this screen will last before another "white spot" issue will start to plague some owners iPads, that Apple will turn a blind eye to?
Also, if it overheats so much in some parts of the tablet, could it mean, with M1 being squeezed into smaller frame with even less thermal mass for the heat to spread out evenly, that in long-term 11" iPP could also develop some screen issues?
 
I just discovered it today and reported it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ding-in-middle-possibly-heat-related.2299609/

Here’s how mine looks like. Exactly the same phenomenon. I’m glad I’m not alone.

In this case, I’ll gladly keep my iPad and just enjoy it. This will be a “bargaining chip” for using AppleCare if I need to get it replaced one day because I accidentally scratched it ;)

Otherwise, the display is perfect. It is the most uniformed display I’ve ever seen from any panel.

1623098328273.jpeg
 
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just tried mine (ran 3d mark once) and it's the same, this is some sort of heat expansion when the CPU gets hot and i think pushes agents the screen causing the dark areas as when the iPad cools down it goes away.

this look like a design flaw and i don't know how anyone at apple did not spot this or they did and was to late to do anything about it. they have been making these for years and should know by now what problems could be caused.

what is going on with apple these days as it seems the last 3 or 4 years there always seem to be a basic quality problem. believe it or not i upgraded from a 10-year-old original iPad air which has had not one problem at all and still works fine without any design flaw problem, the only reason i upgraded was because it's had its day and is very very slow.

I don't know what to do as i really do think every 2021 iPad will have this flaw.

look at this video at timestamp 3:38 you can see the cpu is right in the middle where its happening

 
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meridiusuk said:
just tried mine (ran 3d mark once) and it's the same, this is some sort of heat expansion when the CPU gets hot and i think pushes agents the screen causing the dark areas as when the iPad cools down it goes away.

this look like a design flaw and i don't know how anyone at apple did not spot this or they did and was to late to do anything about it. they have been making these for years and should know by now what problems could be caused.

what is going on with apple these days as it seems the last 3 or 4 years there always seem to be a basic quality problem. believe it or not i upgraded from a 10-year-old original iPad air which has had not one problem at all and still works fine without any design flaw problem, the only reason i upgraded was because it's had its day and is very very slow.

I don't know what to do as i really do think every 2021 iPad will have this flaw.

look at this video at timestamp 3:38 you can see the cpu is right in the middle where its happening

Click to expand...
I concur.

I went to test another iPad Pro 12.9” M1 and it has the exact same mark when the CPU is running warm. After it cools, it goes away.

It’s safe to say that every iPad Pro 12.9” with Mini-LED exhibit this problem. Whether you see it or not is another thing. So it’s either 1) live with it, 2) wait for future batches to see if it has improved (doubtful) or 3) wait for next generation.
 
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I wonder if the smaller versions have the same problem since they use a different screen. Be good if somone can try it. I think the heat is pushing the backlight slightly and off aligning the leds making it look dark.

What I did notice is it’s harder to see when you directly look at the screen nearly notice but very noticeable when viewing from an angle side view.

the problem is I waited far to long for an upgrade and need a upgrade as the air does not cut it at all anymore.

Since it’s harder to see straight on and more noticeable on a white screen I wonder if playing a tasking game you would see it or video editing and going straight to say notes would show this problem.

It might not show at all when warm and only show when hot. Another question what happens if your video editing and the cpu is been tasked for hours could this cause damage to the screen or would it disappear straight away when cooled and be fine.

these are not cheap and I am the sort of person who needs to save up for these things and dont upgrade often and Apple need to do better as if I get stung by this device it will be the last Apple device I buy.
 
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