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Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
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.

Yep, if you look at any 4K TV (not just OLED) up close, like 6 inches, it looks horrible. But it looks great when used as intended, from 10+ feet away.
 

kristof461

macrumors regular
Oct 4, 2023
205
66
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.
Right from the beginning I was saying that we should wait because OLED technology could be nit that great. And here we are.
 

PaperMag

Suspended
May 13, 2023
220
383
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.
How many M4 iPad Pro panels have you looked at before coming to terms with that conclusion?

I’m reading comments from other people here and seemingly some are worse than others, and some have no grain at all (at normal viewing distance), so perhaps an exchange is worth it, or at least a trip to the Apple Store to look at the display models (if you haven’t already).
 

IT Troll

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2012
315
230
Edinburgh
How many M4 iPad Pro panels have you looked at before coming to terms with that conclusion?
Well I’ve not seen a single photo that doesn’t show the grain. Hence concluding that this is just how it is. I don’t believe mine is any better or worse than the average. People who say that don’t see it or don’t have the issue must be only viewing in optimal conditions.

Yep, if you look at any 4K TV (not just OLED) up close, like 6 inches, it looks horrible.
That is the difference, people do use their iPads like that and it wasn’t problem to do so with LCD. The issue will only go away once iPads have phone-like PPI OLED displays.
 

eba

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2007
270
47
Well I’ve not seen a single photo that doesn’t show the grain. Hence concluding that this is just how it is. I don’t believe mine is any better or worse than the average. People who say that don’t see it or don’t have the issue must be only viewing in optimal conditions.
I haven’t found any condition where I see a grainy display. Light room, dark room. Normal eye distance, eyes two inches from screen. None.
 

Onimusha370

macrumors 65816
Aug 25, 2010
1,039
1,506
I saw a few reddit posts over the weekend with people taking pics of their iPad Pros. Both showed the screen as well as bezels and the room behind. Amazingly, the grain pattern all over the screen was all over the bezels and background also! I really think it'd help when taking pictures to include bezels/background, as all the ones I've seen show the noise across the whole picture...
 

eba

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2007
270
47
I saw a few reddit posts over the weekend with people taking pics of their iPad Pros. Both showed the screen as well as bezels and the room behind. Amazingly, the grain pattern all over the screen was all over the bezels and background also! I really think it'd help when taking pictures to include bezels/background, as all the ones I've seen show the noise across the whole picture...
That’s because the problem is the picture not the subject. If I take a picture of anything and then blow it up, it will show grain.
 

Onimusha370

macrumors 65816
Aug 25, 2010
1,039
1,506
That’s because the problem is the picture not the subject. If I take a picture of anything and then blow it up, it will show grain.
Yes - sorry my post was probably too sarcastic in hindsight haha. I really think the vast majority of "grain" photos are just noise from high ISO shots (vast majority are taken in the dark, with the screen on low brightness).
 
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eba

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2007
270
47
Yes - sorry my post was probably too sarcastic in hindsight haha. I really think the vast majority of "grain" photos are just noise from high ISO shots (vast majority are taken in the dark, with the screen on low brightness).
I was agreeing with you. This same thing shows up on a Reddit sub for OLED gaming - photos can’t accurately capture what the eye actually sees on the screen.
 

PaperMag

Suspended
May 13, 2023
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383
Well I’ve not seen a single photo that doesn’t show the grain. Hence concluding that this is just how it is. I don’t believe mine is any better or worse than the average. People who say that don’t see it or don’t have the issue must be only viewing in optimal conditions.
I’d say people with inoffensive displays aren’t taking photos. And aren’t on Macrumors. I’d say 99% of commenters here haven’t offered photo evidence either way. This is where we need investigative reporters to put resource behind data and evidence so we can have wider context and clarity. I checked, and all the usual Mac “journalists” and influencers are asleep on the issue (per usual).

To be clear I’m not implying there’s no “pixel grain” difference between OLED and LCD, I’m implying we lack data to know what is mild, medium or extreme grain, and we have no comment from Apple yet, which a journalist/blog could probe for.
 
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richard371

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
3,738
1,921
Funny how I created this thread because I thought I saw it in the store but didn't see it at all on my 11 I returned nor on the 13 I have now lol.
 
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Star-fire

macrumors 6502
Jul 4, 2007
319
129
I picked up a 13 pro on Friday and been using it all weekend. It’s a fantastic device now just limited by OS but anyways I’ve looked for grain and just can’t see it. The screen is beautiful and quite an improvement over my 12.9 3rd gen.
 

IT Troll

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2012
315
230
Edinburgh
I haven’t found any condition where I see a grainy display. Light room, dark room. Normal eye distance, eyes two inches from screen. None.
Care to share a photo? Something containing a lot a grey at 20% brightness. I think you have the 11" and I've not seen a photo of one of those without grain. The 13" has two panel manufacturers and so I suspect there is more variance there.

Edit: Apologies. I got that backwards, it is the 11” which has two manufacturers.
 
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IT Troll

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2012
315
230
Edinburgh
To be clear I’m not implying there’s no “pixel grain” difference between OLED and LCD
Well we do have the side-by-side comparison. Taken by the same person under the same conditions.

Perhaps there are some perfect displays. Or perhaps some people just have imperfect eyes. :cool:
 
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Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
Well we do have the side-by-side comparison. Taken by the same person under the same conditions.

Perhaps there are some perfect displays. Or perhaps some people just have imperfect eyes. :cool:

Or too many with OCD.
 

G5isAlive

Contributor
Aug 28, 2003
2,854
4,907
It's not as bad on my OLED TV. I mean it's not great, but the pictures of the iPad Pro screen look worse.

apples to oranges. Are you comparing a close up picture of your OLED TV with the close up pictures of the iPad Pro screen? At home I assume you are not sitting with your nose pressed to the screen. Are you confident from 6 feet away you would see this on your tv even if it was an issue?

I am a pragmatist. I don't go looking for problems under artificial conditions, I never zoom in on my iPad screen like these pictures, the question to me is how does something look at the design distance? I love my 77 inch OLED LG TV screen, and I do enjoy my iPad Pro OLED screen. In actual use I have not been distracted by grain gate, but do marvel at the blacks and color range. Is it that much better than previous generation? It's not like going from a regular screen to a high resolution screen, but I do like the colors a tad more in my sunset pictures.

Sorry, I am in the camp that think this has been blow way out of proportion for the majority of users. I have no doubt there have been a few screens with legitimate issues outside of spec that needed to be returned, there always is for all products, but that does not mean its a widespread issue as some would suggest. If you don't like it, return it. Seems simple to me.
 
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PaperMag

Suspended
May 13, 2023
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Well we do have the side-by-side comparison. Taken by the same person under the same conditions.

We need side-by-side comparisons of two M4 iPad Pros—baseline, perhaps undetectable grain vs exceedingly visible grain—done by the same photographer under the same photographic conditions. The photos on Macrumors are all over the place—done at different ISO with different cameras at different zoom levels. It's a mess.

Perhaps there are some perfect displays. Or perhaps some people just have imperfect eyes. :cool:

True, people's visual processing is different. For example: some see blooming on Apple's mini LED displays, while others claim they don't at all.
 

eba

macrumors 6502
Mar 14, 2007
270
47
Care to share a photo? Something containing a lot a grey at 20% brightness. I think you have the 11" and I've not seen a photo of one of those without grain. The 13" has two panel manufacturers and so I suspect there is more variance there.
I actually took a photo while I was tying my response the other day. It’s attached. It’s at normal viewing distance, but the result in the same at eyeball-to-screen level. I supoose you can see some irregularity if you zoom the photo to the max - but that’s an artifact of the photo, not the screen itself. There is no “grain” on the screen.
 

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geoelectric

macrumors 6502
May 19, 2008
376
66
Care to share a photo? Something containing a lot a grey at 20% brightness. I think you have the 11" and I've not seen a photo of one of those without grain. The 13" has two panel manufacturers and so I suspect there is more variance there.
Without having a source in front of me, but going off what I’ve read in posts many times, you have that backwards. LG does all the 13”, but 11” is split between LG and Samsung.

Going theory when this issue first came to light is it’s the Samsung panels on the far side of variance (there was a recent Samsung device with the same issue) but I don’t know that it’s been at all substantiated.
 

Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
7,267
8,809
I actually took a photo while I was tying my response the other day. It’s attached. It’s at normal viewing distance, but the result in the same at eyeball-to-screen level. I supoose you can see some irregularity if you zoom the photo to the max - but that’s an artifact of the photo, not the screen itself. There is no “grain” on the screen.

Yeah, you got some camera moire going on there.
 
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