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ofarlig

macrumors 6502a
Jun 23, 2015
931
1,148
Sweden
Your eyes cause the blooming, not the OLED display.
This new iPad has blooming on the display.
Perhaps the blooming on the iPad is subtle enough that the blooming caused by your eyes is more significant than the blooming on the device itself.
(edit: just saw the post before this one that clarifies this)

Yeah you saw what I was meaning. The point is to me as a user the difference doesn’t matter, both have the same result while watching when cranking the brightness up and no problems when not.
 

DRDR

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2008
210
195
I unboxed the iPad and saw the shadows on the setup screen. Then I googled to find out if this is "normal". You will definitely see the shadows. And there are no shadows on the 2018 model. So for me this thing gives me mixed feelings. I agree, that some of the influencers should have pointed this out in their videos. They must have seen it, just like I have, especially as their focus was on the new screen.
 

LFC2020

macrumors P6
Apr 4, 2020
16,874
38,037
I unboxed the iPad and saw the shadows on the setup screen. Then I googled to find out if this is "normal". You will definitely see the shadows. And there are no shadows on the 2018 model. So for me this thing gives me mixed feelings. I agree, that some of the influencers should have pointed this out in their videos. They must have seen it, just like I have, especially as their focus was on the new screen.
Never trust anything these maggot youtubers say, they don’t want to upset apple then they’ll stop getting review units, honestly haven’t noticed the shadow since the first time I saw, it’s out of sight for me, not like I sit there and stare at the edge of the display all day, it’s that thin it’s barely noticeable.

If it bothers you that much, return it.
 
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Macintosh101

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2017
677
1,158
So I got my new iPad Pro 12.9 on Friday. I’ve really enjoyed using it up until tonight when I though I’d do some work in bed and stream some shows on Disney +.

The blooming is extrmely noticeable and distracting, at medium brightness, at low brightness, any brIghtness. Intrestingly its very apparent around the trackpad cursor too, when I move the cursor around a large block of light surrounds the cursor and moves around with it. Anyway I’ve attached some photos if anyone is interested. These do actually represent what I’m seeing, only slightly exaggerated. I’m on 14.5.1.
9102BB56-57FF-445C-9C16-684AAAF1B742.jpeg
43DD72E9-9DC1-4E98-888E-B38198F81723.jpeg
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,673
52,522
In a van down by the river
So I got my new iPad Pro 12.9 on Friday. I’ve really enjoyed using it up until tonight when I though I’d do some work in bed and stream some shows on Disney +.

The blooming is extrmely noticeable and distracting, at medium brightness, at low brightness, any brIghtness. Intrestingly its very apparent around the trackpad cursor too, when I move the cursor around a large block of light surrounds the cursor and moves around with it. Anyway I’ve attached some photos if anyone is interested. These do actually represent what I’m seeing, only slightly exaggerated. I’m on 14.5.1. View attachment 1779777 View attachment 1779778
To me, that is unacceptable.
 
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Chaser919

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2021
12
8
After a couple hours using my 12.9 M1 iPad Pro, lemme address the shadow stuff. It’s really not a problem to me… and I’m someone who tends to obsess over display quality, uniformity, etc. (I exchanged three or four 12.9-inch 2018 iPad Pros over this stuff.)

It’s not really a “line” around the border so much as a very thin, barely noticeable gradient. It’s there if you specifically hunt for it in settings, on a white Safari page, etc. But as was mentioned earlier, the uniformity of it — that it goes all the way around the screen — basically makes your eyes completely ignore it.

Also, nothing about this display seems lower beneath the glass than my 2018 unit did. I’m not noticing any increased gap, so I’m not sure where that perspective is coming from.

Enjoy the iPad, people. It’s an amazing device.
I completely agree. Everyone is looking for something on launch to throw a fit over. Its certainly there…there is no denying it, but its nothing to cry over.
 

Chaser919

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2021
12
8
So I got my new iPad Pro 12.9 on Friday. I’ve really enjoyed using it up until tonight when I though I’d do some work in bed and stream some shows on Disney +.

The blooming is extrmely noticeable and distracting, at medium brightness, at low brightness, any brIghtness. Intrestingly its very apparent around the trackpad cursor too, when I move the cursor around a large block of light surrounds the cursor and moves around with it. Anyway I’ve attached some photos if anyone is interested. These do actually represent what I’m seeing, only slightly exaggerated. I’m on 14.5.1. View attachment 1779777 View attachment 1779778
Mine looks nothing like this. I think you got a defective unit.
To me, that is unacceptable
 

Jensend

macrumors 65816
Dec 19, 2008
1,454
1,666
While I do not dispute that some form of blooming/dimming area-bleed is visible in certain scenarios - your attached photo shows the standard pencil tool bar in Apple Notes? With the default color palette? I refer to this:

View attachment 1779354

Even if I assume that brightness was turned to 100% when you took your photo in darkness - what kind of exposure time where you using? The tools and color palette are white in your photo! Yours is like using a really long exposure when taking a photo of the moon… I can accept that everyone posting photos does this with best intentions, but for sure this is one of this occasions where the camera, or more precise, exposure time creates something dramatic. I mean, everything in your picture is just white:

View attachment 1779359


EDIT: why does nobody who post this kind of photos includes the EXIF meta data? As others pointed out, one can create this easily with OLED or whatever else light emitter… this looks like as if at the bottom of the box in which the M1 12.9” is delivered, there is a coupon from ray-ban™ included which everyone has overlooked so far ?
The blooming is the brightness of “pure black” on any other iPad LCD, so of course you have to exaggerate the brightness to show the effect on a standard LCD. That doesn’t mean it isn’t also visible in real life. And although “one can create this easily with OLED or whatever else light emitter” that clearly isn’t the issue here, because the bloom is sharply cut off by the bezel of the display (Except on the thin white application switcher bar)
 
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Macintosh101

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2017
677
1,158
I‘ve got two new iPad Pro’s in the household and both are showing the identical issue. Might be the specific apps I was using as I do notice it’s more prominent in some than others..
 

someone33

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2014
92
87
You guys keep running around in circles because you fail to understand how local dimming works. Notice how in that picture of the stream with blooming that Macintosh101 posted it is only around the menu overlay that it is blooming. That is because the local dimming is not applied to menu overlays/status displays. The actual video content is fine as the local dimming is being engaged. So unless you somehow watch your content with the status overlay constantly up, it is a complete non-issue.
 
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fwmireault

macrumors 68020
Jul 4, 2019
2,288
9,705
Montréal, Canada
For the people that doesn’t have the new iPad Pro for now, please note that all the pictures that you’ve seen on this thread or on MR are largely exaggerating the blooming effect, because of the low light condition of these pictures. I have the iPad myself since yesterday and yes, there is some blooming, that is clear (and a known limitation of mini-LED displays). I see it especially when reading white text on dark font. But in the day to day usage, do I see it frequently? Nope. Does it bother me when I see it? A little bit, but nothing that I can’t live with. I prefer to use a screen with a little bit of blooming that I see sometimes than an LCD panel with grey-ish blacks that I see everyday.

Some users suggest to wait for a gen 2 mini-LED display. Apple can continue to improve the screen and add more dimming zones, but it’s sure that until micro-LED is here, there will always be some blooming. Apple can only control the intensity of it with time. Waiting for 3000, 4000 or even 5000 dimming zone won’t delete the blooming, just reduce it. And let’s give some credit here: Apple delivers 2500 dimming zones on a 12,9 screen for its first gen mini-LED tablet. This is way better than what we’ve seen from monitors, tablets and TV manufacturers.

For me, the screen is still a huge improvement on LCD panels of the previous iPads Pro. I think that it doesn’t suit well the dark mode on iPadOS (and I’m the kind of people that put dark mode everywhere), I definitely prefer dark mode on my OLED iPhone. But I prefer overall the experience on mini-LED, knowing all the issues with OLED screens. I do hope that Apple will give us in a near future a micro-LED tablet with unnoticeable blooming. But for now, I’m pretty happy with this technology!
 

symphony

macrumors 68020
Aug 25, 2016
2,232
2,641
For the people that doesn’t have the new iPad Pro for now, please note that all the pictures that you’ve seen on this thread or on MR are largely exaggerating the blooming effect, because of the low light condition of these pictures. I have the iPad myself since yesterday and yes, there is some blooming, that is clear (and a known limitation of mini-LED displays). I see it especially when reading white text on dark font. But in the day to day usage, do I see it frequently? Nope. Does it bother me when I see it? A little bit, but nothing that I can’t live with. I prefer to use a screen with a little bit of blooming that I see sometimes than an LCD panel with grey-ish blacks that I see everyday.

Some users suggest to wait for a gen 2 mini-LED display. Apple can continue to improve the screen and add more dimming zones, but it’s sure that until micro-LED is here, there will always be some blooming. Apple can only control the intensity of it with time. Waiting for 3000, 4000 or even 5000 dimming zone won’t delete the blooming, just reduce it. And let’s give some credit here: Apple delivers 2500 dimming zones on a 12,9 screen for its first gen mini-LED tablet. This is way better than what we’ve seen from monitors, tablets and TV manufacturers.

For me, the screen is still a huge improvement on LCD panels of the previous iPads Pro. I think that it doesn’t suit well the dark mode on iPadOS (and I’m the kind of people that put dark mode everywhere), I definitely prefer dark mode on my OLED iPhone. But I prefer overall the experience on mini-LED, knowing all the issues with OLED screens. I do hope that Apple will give us in a near future a micro-LED tablet with unnoticeable blooming. But for now, I’m pretty happy with this technology!
It’s pretty bad so,times, just as bad as the photos. People should try it for themselves really. It’s not a dealbreaker for me tho.I love HDR
 

iPad Bro

macrumors 6502
May 2, 2021
393
290
I don’t know what to make of this whole screen shadow and blooming thing. It’s really took the hype completely out of me. I get my iPad Pro on Tuesday and I hope that I don’t have an issue with it like a lot of you seemingly do. I just want to enjoy my iPad Pro. :(
 

DRDR

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2008
210
195
Regarding the dimmed edges: it’s an issue with every MiniLED display, including the Pro Display XDR. It was discussed on ATP:

Thank you and very interesting that no influencer talked about this as well.

"non of the marketing materials talk about this"
"you assume that the way it was announced, it should be perfect"

For me the problem is, that I would like to have known about it beforehand. Of course you can return the iPad, but is it that hard to tell people about the edgy details of the screen beforehand, especially if the screen is all you are talking about?
 

LFC2020

macrumors P6
Apr 4, 2020
16,874
38,037
Do people actually notice this shadow 24/7? haven’t gone looking for it again since I heard about it here, neither does it come into my field of view when I’m using my iPad, the shadow/line, whatever you want to call it is that thin it’s barely noticeable, makes it a total non issue in my opinion.

If it bothers you that much, return it or don’t go looking for it and enjoy your mini led M1 beast of a machine.
 

Celebion

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2015
82
61
I’m extremely picky with displays but this screen shadow nonsense is pretty ridiculous. It is barely noticeable even when you’re looking for it, let alone just using the device like normal.
Then you really can’t call yourself “extremely picky with displays”.

It is very obvious on uniform backgrounds like books, magazines, websites…
 
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MrGimper

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
9,029
12,942
Andover, UK
Do people actually notice this shadow 24/7? haven’t gone looking for it again since I heard about it here, neither does it come into my field of view when I’m using my iPad, the shadow/line, whatever you want to call it is that thin it’s barely noticeable, makes it a total non issue in my opinion.

If it bothers you that much, return it or don’t go looking for it and enjoy your mini led M1 beast of a machine.
Doesn’t bother me. Used to it now. Think it was more “is this faulty”, which of course we now know it isn’t.
 
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MrGimper

macrumors G3
Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
9,029
12,942
Andover, UK
Then you really can’t call yourself “extremely picky with displays”.

It is very obvious on uniform backgrounds like books, magazines, websites…
I’m extremely picky with screens, and I’m over the shadow. I think most people have calmed down and dealt with it now that it’s a “feature” rather than a fault, and that every device has it.

Bit different to a panel that’s shift from blue tint, to green, to yellow or purple, in the space of 7 inches.
 

vermilion_sky

macrumors newbie
May 23, 2021
20
31
I'm a first time apple user, I don't own any product before. The iPad 12.9 2021 512 GB is my first apple device, so I'm clearly not a fangirl.
Here are just my two cents:

Use case: Taking notes and edit pictures in Lightroom, Photoshop and Affinity Photo (I'm a semi-professional with occasional "money earning").
Before the iPad, I've got the Surface Pro 6 and I've got a calibrated Eizo monitor as well.
Colors: Very accurate, absolutely fantastic.
Shadowing at the frame: Yes, it's there but it doesn't bother me at all. Looks like a design element or something like this ?
Blooming: I definitely can't understand and believe all those pictures and videos showing it. Keep in mind a smartphone camera isn't able to capture the blooming as it is. It's always exaggerated...
When watching Netflix in a totally dark room, it's perfectly fine, nothing to worry about. When editing pictures or taking notes: Absolutely fine as well. Again: I can't see anything to worry about.
I did notice some kind of blooming in the settings menu though but it looks more like a software glitch with the dimming zones and I think, it's because the dark mode is just a dark mode and not a pitch black mode and so the dimming zones are kind of "confused". Hit again: This is only noticeable at 50% brightness and above and in a completely dark room.

My conclusion (and I tested all your complaints): Definitely the best display at a mobile device which is capable of serious editing features (therefore I don't own any Android tablets because of the lacking software...).

Just go for it.
 
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