iPad Pro Grainy display on new iPad Pro M4?

[gusping]

Yeah well it’s not like we use 2000$ iPad Pros for watching Netflix or scrolling Reddit. This is a workhorse device for image manipulation. Any flaws in the screen are totally unacceptable. It is impossible to judge colors and sharpness properly with such defects. Or add grain effects to images or art.

Hence the m2 miniled is a better choice right now unless this fiasco is resolved.

It’s a disaster to release it in such state frankly.

It does surprise me in general how people think OLEDs are the perfect display technology.

They have some pretty significant flaws (some of which are less relevant to the iPad), such as burn-in, a grainy appearance, odd patterns in dark images (can look like a grid pattern), and flicker when used with VRR for gaming.

 

[th1nk]

It does surprise me in general how people think OLEDs are the perfect display technology.

They have some pretty significant flaws (some of which are less relevant to the iPad), such as burn-in, a grainy appearance, odd patterns in dark images (can look like a grid pattern), and flicker when used with VRR for gaming.

It‘s not perfect but as close to perfect as it‘s going to currently get. The display of the new iPad Pro is ****ing amazing if you get a non-defective screen. It‘s a huge upgrade in low light coming from the mini LCD and also in max brightness.

There is no perfect display technology at the moment but it is truly baffling to me how anyone can look at the new iPad Pro screen and think it is poor. just lmao.

You guys know where we are coming from with display quality? How incredibly poor displays have been 10-15 years ago? People complaing about this screen really need to get a grip.

If the grain is visible in regular use you got a defective unit, simple as that. Exchange it.
If you have to go and look for the grain with a magnifying glass and then complain about it then your brain is a defective unit lol. No one can help you with that, no exchange possible unfortunately!

 

[PaperMag]

Welcome to gray uniformity and fringing problems of new OLED iPads (and OLED displays technology in general). You will get confusing answers from people here or reddit.

The question is if/how much it bothers you.

But also two OLED displays may not be the same.

• You have Samsung vs LG panels which leads to panel variance
• And within the same manufacturer, you will have panel variance

So two people may not be seeing the same issue—but everybody here seems to think they are.

• Person 1: "It's mild. I can see it, but I have to be looking for it in dim light with 20% brightness."
• Person 2: "No, it's drastic. I can see it at any brightness in any room."
• Person 4: "OMG stop complaining, it's perfect."

We're already seeing people say that between two M4 panels tested at the Apple Store—one had it, one didn't.

 

[jonnyb098]

View attachment 2383919 Is this supposed to look like this? This is photo made with iPhone 15 pro macro of the YouTube comment section which has very dark gray, almost black background.

Are those white dots normal in oled?

I assume these pixels should be more uniform in generating grey?

The font is kind of blurry somehow too, tiresome for the eyes. You can see some illuminated neighbouring pixels around the letters which make it harder to read them.

Maybe stop holding it 2” from your face?

 

[DeepSix]

Yeah well it’s not like we use 2000$ iPad Pros for watching Netflix or scrolling Reddit. This is a workhorse device for image manipulation. Any flaws in the screen are totally unacceptable. It is impossible to judge colors and sharpness properly with such defects. Or add grain effects to images or art.

Hence the m2 miniled is a better choice right now unless this fiasco is resolved.

It’s a disaster to release it in such state frankly.

Well said. But Apple knows people will still buy the M4 and accept the defects as features so they accept it as is. The product should be recalled and pulled from all store shelves but we know Apple won’t do that. Instead they will fix all the issues on next years iPad with the M5 and quad OLED screens. So everyone will upgrade to the new one next year.

 

[Rafterman]

The product should be recalled and pulled from all store shelves but we know Apple won’t do that.

Complete nonsense. ALL OLEDs do that. Even your iPhone 15. So does your OLED TV. Its just more noticeable on an iPad because its bigger than an iPhone and closer to your face than a TV.

 

[eba]

Seems like half the posts here are folks enjoying their new devices. The other half are folks raining on their parade.

The former make sense. The latter are kinda weird.

 

[SatanGirl]

Maybe stop holding it 2” from your face?

I am not. 30 cm in civilised units. I am returning it by Monday but it’s annoying stuff. Who knows how many I will go through considering the issue is so widespread? I don’t have time for this, I have money not time and expected if I buy from apple from all of the brands to conserve my time.

I don’t have time for months long sifting through the models… sending receiving, sending receiving… unless I will order 10 at the same time actually and pick one…

Lots of hassle for a brand like this and I can’t focus on anything else until I resolve this… it’s exhausting

 

[jonnyb098]

It does surprise me in general how people think OLEDs are the perfect display technology.

They have some pretty significant flaws (some of which are less relevant to the iPad), such as burn-in, a grainy appearance, odd patterns in dark images (can look like a grid pattern), and flicker when used with VRR for gaming.

Micro LED is really the way to go but the tech isn’t there yet. Mini LED seems decent enough but everyone cranks their brightness to 100 and then complains about blooming….and none of that’ll matter in 20 years when half the population is legally blind from burning their retinas while scrolling social media

 

[geoelectric]

But also two OLED displays may not be the same.

• You have Samsung vs LG panels which leads to panel variance
• And within the same manufacturer, you will have panel variance

So two people may not be seeing the same issue—but everybody here seems to think they are.

• Person 1: "It's mild. I can see it, but I have to be looking for it in dim light with 20% brightness."
• Person 2: "No, it's drastic. I can see it at any brightness in any room."
• Person 4: "OMG stop complaining, it's perfect."

We're already seeing people say that between two M4 panels tested at the Apple Store—one had it, one didn't.

I think it’s more the other way around re persons 1 and 2.

Someone speaks up with what’s probably legitimately a drastic arms length variance issue, and the post gets others looking for it. Once they find something they can only see from inches away or with the implicit iPhone macro sharpness filter Person 2 posts that asking if theirs is awful too.

Then persons 3+ think that’s what *everyone* is complaining about and discounts the whole thing.

 

[gusping]

Micro LED is really the way to go but the tech isn’t there yet. Mini LED seems decent enough but everyone cranks their brightness to 100 and then complains about blooming….and none of that’ll matter in 20 years when half the population is legally blind from burning their retinas while scrolling social media

Yep, i've been hearing Micro LED displays are 5 years or so away for about 5 years. It's definitely a long way off the mainstream. I follow gaming monitors closely, and there have been some half-decent mini LED monitors, but now all manufactures have switched to OLED. I use my setup for working from home as well as gaming so OLED is a non-starter. Either way, i think there are some exciting things coming down the line in terms of display technology.

 

[PaperMag]

I think it’s more the other way around re persons 1 and 2.

Someone speaks up with what’s probably legitimately a drastic arms length variance issue, and the post gets others looking for it. Once they find something they can only see from inches away or with the implicit iPhone macro sharpness filter Person 2 posts that asking if theirs is awful too.

Then persons 3+ think that’s what *everyone* is complaining about and discounts the whole thing.

You're right and I observe that too. Person 3 is confusing the mild cases with the drastic cases.

 

[Rafterman]

Seems like half the posts here are folks enjoying their new devices. The other half are folks raining on their parade.

The former make sense. The latter are kinda weird.

Every d@mn time somethign new comes out. Mini 6 had jelly. iPhone 15 got hot. iPad 12.9 bloomed. OLED has grain. Grain. In the dark. Low brightness. Two inches fron your face. With a blanket over your head nd a magnifying glass, lol. I mean, come on now.

Some are just never happy.

 

[Rafterman]

I am not. 30 cm in civilised units. I am returning it by Monday but it’s annoying stuff. Who knows how many I will go through considering the issue is so widespread? I don’t have time for this, I have money not time and expected if I buy from apple from all of the brands to conserve my time.

I don’t have time for months long sifting through the models… sending receiving, sending receiving… unless I will order 10 at the same time actually and pick one…

Lots of hassle for a brand like this and I can’t focus on anything else until I resolve this… it’s exhausting

Nothing is "widespread." Its the nature of OLED. iPad never had OLED, so many people didn't realize OlED did that until now.

 

[Rafterman]

But also two OLED displays may not be the same.

• You have Samsung vs LG panels which leads to panel variance
• And within the same manufacturer, you will have panel variance

So two people may not be seeing the same issue—but everybody here seems to think they are.

• Person 1: "It's mild. I can see it, but I have to be looking for it in dim light with 20% brightness."
• Person 2: "No, it's drastic. I can see it at any brightness in any room."
• Person 4: "OMG stop complaining, it's perfect."

We're already seeing people say that between two M4 panels tested at the Apple Store—one had it, one didn't.

It's true all OLED panels exhibit this, but its also true that there are variances between panels. Some will alway be better or worse than others. But the overall variance shouldn't be that much.

 

[PaperMag]

But the overall variance shouldn't be that much.

Well...if Apple sold 5,000,000 M4 iPad Pros during launch—which is a realistic figure—easily 250,000 could have exceedingly grainy displays way outside the standard deviation range of normal distribution.

• 68% of buyers will have bought tolerable or "normal" displays because variation is within a standard deviation
• 27% will have visible grain (although that doesn't mean most customers will notice or care)
• 5% will have incredibly visible grain

Apple has no means to test panels for this distribution of quality. They ship as-is, and what Apple does is rely on return and repair data to then tweak manufacturing where they can. So the first few months of a new design is always very bad for a display lottery.

So we're going to see some people come into MacRumors with a wave of complaints, but then a second wave of people come in saying, "maybe theres a little grain, I see it if I look hard, but its not that bad." And then another group going, "What are you talking about? It's fine!"

Each perspective is distributed differently. Unfortunately a majority of people will minimize the pain of the other until there's proof of an issue. An example of this phenomenon was the butterfly keyboard issue. The people in the 5% camp were told to stop eating Cheetos and toasted bagels, and arguments ensued for over a year that it wasn't a valid complaint because "they use their keyboard all day and its fine."

 

[AppelGeenyus]

Well...if Apple sold 5,000,000 M4 iPad Pros during launch—which is a realistic figure—easily 250,000 could have exceedingly grainy displays way outside the standard deviation range of normal distribution.

• 68% of buyers will have bought tolerable or "normal" displays because variation is within a standard deviation
• 27% will have visible grain (although that doesn't mean most customers will notice or care)
• 5% will have incredibly visible grain

Apple has no means to test panels for this distribution of quality. They ship as-is, and what Apple does is rely on return and repair data to then tweak manufacturing where they can. So the first few months of a new design is always very bad for a display lottery.

So we're going to see some people come into MacRumors with a wave of complaints, but then a second wave of people come in saying, "maybe theres a little grain, I see it if I look hard, but its not that bad." And then another group going, "What are you talking about? It's fine!"

Each perspective is distributed differently. Unfortunately a majority of people will minimize the pain of the other until there's proof of an issue. An example of this phenomenon was the butterfly keyboard issue. The people in the 5% camp were told to stop eating Cheetos and toasted bagels, and arguments ensued for over a year that it wasn't a valid complaint because "they use their keyboard all day and its fine."

62% of all statistics are made up.

 

[ipaddaro]

My iPad Pro M4 11” flickers a lot during movies (especially looking at the solid colors backgrounds), but it stops when i pause it… so i think it’s something related to image managinag and not a panel defect. Also iPhone 14 pro shows something similar, but not the old iPad with LCD display. It’s something related to the technology?

is this an issue? anyone experiencing this? it’s not related to defective pixels because if i pause the flickering pauses and i reduce/enlarge the image the effects moves accordingly

 

[PaperMag]

62% of all statistics are made up.

Actually only 28.7% of all statistics are made up.

EDIT: depending on if you reference 2007 study or 2012 study

 

[Zest28]

Nothing is "widespread." Its the nature of OLED. iPad never had OLED, so many people didn't realize OlED did that until now.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Watch Ultra 2 looks fine?

If the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this grain, this forum would blow up.

 

[NauticalDan]

If the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this grain, this forum would blow up.

it blows up like this on 1-2 ”issues” every product update.

iPhone 15 Pro - grainy screen

Hi everyone, I just got my 2nd iPhone 15 Pro which has the same "issue" as the first one. At this point I don't know if I'm being picky, but has anyone noticed an effect like "film grain" on the display of the 15 Pro? It's like having a matte screen protector installed all the time... let me...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[mikethebigo]

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Watch Ultra 2 looks fine?

If the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this grain, this forum would blow up.

iPhone 15 Pro Max has much higher pixel density, and a different sub-pixel layout. So it is much harder to see.

 

[PaperMag]

is this an issue? anyone experiencing this? it’s not related to defective pixels because if i pause the flickering pauses and i reduce/enlarge the image the effects moves accordingly

Is a section of the screen flickering, or is it judder during panning shots?

 

[Rafterman]

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Watch Ultra 2 looks fine?

If the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this grain, this forum would blow up.

iPhone does have a slight grain. Didn't look at the watch. It would probably be undetectable on the watch.

 

[IT Troll]

Its the nature of OLED. iPad never had OLED, so many people didn't realize OlED did that until now.

I guess I'm in that category. I love my OLED TV but that is a 10' device. I love my OLED phone but that has a much higher PPI. I use both of those in the dark with no issues. I guess I just believed the Apple hype and expected jaw-dropping reference quality. I have now come to terms with the fact that £1K does not buy you a crisp clear display at all brightness levels.