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iPad Pro Grainy display on new iPad Pro M4?
- Thread starter richard371
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Unlikely, but dark room makes you notice it significantly more, that's for sure.
The biggest mindf*ck for me is seeing some photos with tiny noise effect somtimes - is it the screen or the picture...
No, the grain can only be seen in a dark room. This is what depends on light.
I checked in iSpot (an authorized Apple reseller in Poland) and it was the same on every iPad Pro with OLED display.
The text on my comparison image was added to the original photo as a label. It is not part of the source photo if that is what you mean. AppelGeenyus provided the original photos. I selected a common area from the centre of the two photos which was in focus.
Got this on my iPad Pro M1 too. So it’s not just the new M4.
Reddit isn't different, but I guess people are just finding out about the nature of some OLED panels as we speak. Lucky the ones who aren't sensitive to nuances of this nature. I would actually say it's the same caliber of an issue as fringing text on current gaming OLEDs. Many people don't see the problem, many do - but objectively speaking it's on 100% of devices.
It's just not helping when people claim their screen does not have that issue, then they share pictures showing it and they change the narration to "oh whatever, it doesn't affect me!".
I agree with the posts on here stating that this is more of an OLED quality than a screen lottery. I’m sure there is some variability, but every picture I see on this forum appears to have it. I’ve looked at both sizes of iPad Pro in both Best Buy and my local Apple Store and they all had it.
I’ve seen the same thing in my Apple Watch, Switch OLED, and TV. OLED has limits and low-lit dark colors are part of it. The iPad is just, unfortunately, the perfect mix of OLED + lower PPI + closely held + mass market to bubble this up.
Admittedly I was shocked with it - but after using my iPad normally for a few hours it just blends except for when I remember and look for it.
I’ve seen the same thing in my Apple Watch, Switch OLED, and TV. OLED has limits and low-lit dark colors are part of it. The iPad is just, unfortunately, the perfect mix of OLED + lower PPI + closely held + mass market to bubble this up.
Admittedly I was shocked with it - but after using my iPad normally for a few hours it just blends except for when I remember and look for it.
There is slightly different between iPads. I have replaced one which is slightly better.
From reddit
Welcome to Samsung's new OLED technology. S24 line has it, Pixel 8 line has it, Steam Deck OLED has it, Switch OLED has it, now the new iPad has it, and you can bet the iPhone 16 will have it. It's called the "mura" effect and it's a product of poor manufacturing practices. These screens are supposed to undergo a de-mura process before release.
Not all panels have this issue but some have it worse than others and some people are more sensitive to it than normal. So if you lose the screen lottery and better return the device.
It's a hardware problem, so it will always be there unless you replace the screen. But it can be remedied with a post processing filter. Like if the software knows a specific pixel is a little more blue than it's supposed to be, then it will subtract some blue from that pixel in a frame or image before it's rendered. It then does this for every pixel. This is something Nvidia Steam has done for the Steam Deck OLED. But the downside is that it crushes near-black colors and messes with color accuracy. There's no perfect solution beyond replacing the screen with a perfect one.
OLED technology is not new and this is an old problem that was solved many years ago. Like 2015 era OLED phones.
The issue is now mainstream again because OLED technology has evolved to make these displays more color accurate, more power efficient, and cheaper and easier to manufacture. And for the most part, all of those goals have been achieved, but it has also caused mura to become common again.
What is happening is that the OLED panel is struggling to distribute current evenly and consistently to every pixel, which leads to a noticeable lack of uniformity in luminous output across each array of red, green, and blue subpixels.
Think of it like this: if you set your phone to 10% brightness, some subpixels will be at 8%, some will be at 9%, some at 10%, some at 11%, some at 12%, etc. It's more noticeable on darker gray colors because those colors are supposed to have even amounts of red, green, and blue. But because of mura, some of the pixels are a little more red, some are little more green, and some are a little more blue. So when you zoom out, instead of solid gray, it looks like a grainy gray-ish color.
If LG is copying this OLED design from Samsung, then the problem will occur in their screens too.
Tbh the source of the issue is on the QA part of manufacturing these screens. It's not like the design is permanently flawed. There is a de-mura tuning process that they should be going through. We just don't know if they still are or if they're rushing through it.
Welcome to Samsung's new OLED technology. S24 line has it, Pixel 8 line has it, Steam Deck OLED has it, Switch OLED has it, now the new iPad has it, and you can bet the iPhone 16 will have it. It's called the "mura" effect and it's a product of poor manufacturing practices. These screens are supposed to undergo a de-mura process before release.
Not all panels have this issue but some have it worse than others and some people are more sensitive to it than normal. So if you lose the screen lottery and better return the device.
It's a hardware problem, so it will always be there unless you replace the screen. But it can be remedied with a post processing filter. Like if the software knows a specific pixel is a little more blue than it's supposed to be, then it will subtract some blue from that pixel in a frame or image before it's rendered. It then does this for every pixel. This is something Nvidia Steam has done for the Steam Deck OLED. But the downside is that it crushes near-black colors and messes with color accuracy. There's no perfect solution beyond replacing the screen with a perfect one.
OLED technology is not new and this is an old problem that was solved many years ago. Like 2015 era OLED phones.
The issue is now mainstream again because OLED technology has evolved to make these displays more color accurate, more power efficient, and cheaper and easier to manufacture. And for the most part, all of those goals have been achieved, but it has also caused mura to become common again.
What is happening is that the OLED panel is struggling to distribute current evenly and consistently to every pixel, which leads to a noticeable lack of uniformity in luminous output across each array of red, green, and blue subpixels.
Think of it like this: if you set your phone to 10% brightness, some subpixels will be at 8%, some will be at 9%, some at 10%, some at 11%, some at 12%, etc. It's more noticeable on darker gray colors because those colors are supposed to have even amounts of red, green, and blue. But because of mura, some of the pixels are a little more red, some are little more green, and some are a little more blue. So when you zoom out, instead of solid gray, it looks like a grainy gray-ish color.
If LG is copying this OLED design from Samsung, then the problem will occur in their screens too.
Tbh the source of the issue is on the QA part of manufacturing these screens. It's not like the design is permanently flawed. There is a de-mura tuning process that they should be going through. We just don't know if they still are or if they're rushing through it.
I‘m wondering if this has a lot to do with variances in people’s vision / sensitivity, (rather like those who are sensitive to PWM). I can see no grain whatsoever on my M4 IPP, no matter how hard I look. I showed my iPad to my gf and she said that she can see some grain if she looks for it. 🤷🏻♂️
Damn this is some solid info! And to be quite blunt here, Apple should not be allowing any panel with mura through the assembly process ….not at these prices.….no frickin way! I do wonder if mura affects the long term quality of the screen ? Will it get worse in a couple years? Also, why is this such a problem on these new iPads? Is it due to the double OLED? The iPhones been on OLED for 4 generations now and none of these problems are reported….is it a pixel density thing?
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If I look at my iPhone 14 pro I see the same pattern… but it’s much harder to see and never bothered me (also the iPad didn’t bother me before reading this threads 🤣 it’s always not so noticeable in my case and i still don’t understand if it’s an issue.”).
I definitely think that this it a pixel density thing, that makes this more noticeable.
Yes, it's also visible on my 15 Pro, but less so 😂
But I noticed it after reading this thread 😜
That’s why I question if it’s a real issue or simply a characteristic of the technology …
Also in such case it could bother some, but we should not expect any fix and accept as trade off compared to other technologies. But maybe the truth it’s in the middle, It’s a characteristic, but some screen may be more prone than others… I doubt we’ll come to any conclusion soon
If it’s just a characteristic of the tech, will we ever get a clarifying statement from Apple on this matter? Honestly, that’s all that’s holding me back. If they came out and said “oh, that’s just oled, we might do some software tweaks to smooth things out,” I’d feel a lot more confident putting down $1K.
It makes no sense to clairfy a technology… it would be like admitting there is an issue that can’t be fixed.
They could simply ignore this and it would be up to the customer to evaluate if he likes it or not.
This is not possible to fix by software alone, because the software doesn’t know which pixels are unbalanced. You’d need to actually measure each of the 4+ million pixels from the outside and turn that into a mapping table for the software.
According to Apple every display is factory calibrated for incredibly accurate colour. In operation they monitor and adjust the brightness of each individual pixel.
support.apple.com
About the Ultra Retina XDR display on iPad Pro (M4) - Apple Support (UG)
Learn how to get the most out of the Ultra Retina XDR display on your iPad Pro (M4).