iPad Pro Has the new iPad Pro OLED screen messed with your eyes?

[OSXphoto]

Do your symptoms pop up within the 14 day return period? I am asking because I am considering the M4 iPad Pro.

I'm 55 and I have used iPhone 4s, 5s, 6s+, 8+, 11 and now 14pm, which has OLED.
I am usually in the "sensitive" group of users, but my 14PM doesn't bother me.
I have had prescription reading glasses for about 10 years now.

Thank you very much.

 

[tivoboy]

Is there any way to really fix this or control it better? I tried the M4 iPads and within hours/days I could tell the different in my eyes and soreness, dryness compared to my 2018 IPP.. which has worked fine for ~ 5 years now.

I really wanted to keep the new M4 ipad, but just couldn’t jusify it as it is my daily driver and I couldn’t imagine using it daily with the discomfort that it caused.

I wear some light readers, with blue light filter. .75 magnification whatever. I’m willing to WEAR something to correct for this issue with most likely PWM on the OLED screens.

Other than turning up brightness to near full - which was WAY too bright for me anyways, are there other realistic fixes? Possibly Some screen protector that filters is somewhat?

 

[gusping]

what drives me bonkers about this situation is i can switch between my iphone (oled), macbook pro (mini led) and ipad (oled) and only the ipad gives me this blurry hazy viewing discomfort. and it's immediate and goes away the moment i go back to a different screen. i know people have been going on about pwm for a while, and since i had no issues with my iphone, i assumed it did not affect me. but whatever is going on with me and this ipad is absolutely miserable.

I had the same. Immediately returned it and went back to my 2018 iPP. Much better and i've saved £1,300, lol.

 

[gusping]

Is there any way to really fix this or control it better? I tried the M4 iPads and within hours/days I could tell the different in my eyes and soreness, dryness compared to my 2018 IPP.. which has worked fine for ~ 5 years now.

I really wanted to keep the new M4 ipad, but just couldn’t jusify it as it is my daily driver and I couldn’t imagine using it daily with the discomfort that it caused.

I wear some light readers, with blue light filter. .75 magnification whatever. I’m willing to WEAR something to correct for this issue with most likely PWM on the OLED screens.

Other than turning up brightness to near full - which was WAY too bright for me anyways, are there other realistic fixes? Possibly Some screen protector that filters is somewhat?

Not that i'm aware of unfortunately....

 

[Technerd108]

My eyes seem to have become blurry, and the only thing I can think of is the screen of my new, larger iPad?

If you’ve also noticed this, I‘d appreciate any feedback.

Wishing you all well.

I think this can be an issue with larger LED screens and I personally attribute it to the white balance. I have laptop with a large AMOLED screen and after a few months the white balance never looking actually white really started to bother me. Streaming content is fine but anything else it bothers me. So I can see why on TV's it is not an issue even thought they have much larger screens.

I would return it and buy the latest iPad Pro with mini led and see if you get the same results. Also PWM is a huge issue and sub pixel layout all can mess with your eyes and the only way to know is to use it and see what happens unfortunately.

I am considering selling the OLED laptop and just using my M2 MBA instead and I will not be buying any devices with a large OLED screen. I have an 11" OLED tablet and I don't have any problems but anything larger seems to be an issue and again the tablet is mainly used for streaming.

 

[stevemiller]

I think this can be an issue with larger LED screens and I personally attribute it to the white balance. I have laptop with a large AMOLED screen and after a few months the white balance never looking actually white really started to bother me. Streaming content is fine but anything else it bothers me. So I can see why on TV's it is not an issue even thought they have much larger screens.

I would return it and buy the latest iPad Pro with mini led and see if you get the same results. Also PWM is a huge issue and sub pixel layout all can mess with your eyes and the only way to know is to use it and see what happens unfortunately.

I am considering selling the OLED laptop and just using my M2 MBA instead and I will not be buying any devices with a large OLED screen. I have an 11" OLED tablet and I don't have any problems but anything larger seems to be an issue and again the tablet is mainly used for streaming.

yeah, the prospect of the macbook pros going oled worries me now. i vastly prefer my mini-led m1 max over the ipad pro at this point. it still has bright hdr, nice nice inky blacks, and arguably a better pixel density once you factor in the oled sub pixel stuff. i can count one hand the number of times i've noticed any mini led blooming in practice, and likewise the pixel response doesn't personally bug me (i know that can be a dealbreaker for some though). but whenever i pick up the ipad pro, something feels off. every. single. time.

 

[OSXphoto]

A question for you guys: do I need to turn brightness down to experience PWM? And then how low? 50%? 30%? And do I need to be in a low lit room?

So the way PWM works is to lower the refresh rate to dim the display. Is that correct?
I went to a store in the NL where the M4 iPP is on display, took a two hour test drive and found that I have no symptoms whatsoever. Then I checked the brightness setting and it was 100%, as bright as possible.

Does this mean that my test drive was wasted? Should I redo it with brightness turned down to even have a chance to experience PWM effects?

Thanks!

 

[DeepSix]

A friend of mine recently got laser eye surgery done. He was going to buy a new iPad but said he doesn't want it to diminish his healing and eye sight improvement from the surgery. He is fully aware of the side effects that many M4 owners have unfortunately been suffering from.

 

[Macalway]

No way to know, and no way to find out. Come here and ask if anyone else is bothered by it? Yeah, that's definitive. My goodness.

But we all do it. Then we leave convinced because another person 'claimed?' they experienced it. Hard science.

I had to turn down the brightness on my MBP the other night, briefly. First time in my life a screen was too bright. Must be the mini-LED is unhealthy.

 

[OSXphoto]

So I ordered a new 11" iPad Pro M4 1TB two weeks ago. Amazing display quality when watching movies. Black is true black.
Had to return, sadly, because I got eye strain and light headaches. Not as bad as some other users, but it's there so there is no point in trying further.
I immediately ordered a new iPad Air M2 1TB to replace it. No more headaches or sore eyes. That is the good news.

But what a shame - I now have the two devices side by side and the movie image quality is so much less on the Air. Blacks are back to dark grey like on my 9 year old iPad Air 2.

Anyway I will keep the M2 Air and return the M4 Pro.

 

[stevemiller]

So I ordered a new 11" iPad Pro M4 1TB two weeks ago. Amazing display quality when watching movies. Black is true black.
Had to return, sadly, because I got eye strain and light headaches. Not as bad as some other users, but it's there so there is no point in trying further.
I immediately ordered a new iPad Air M2 1TB to replace it. No more headaches or sore eyes. That is the good news.

But what a shame - I now have the two devices side by side and the movie image quality is so much less on the Air. Blacks are back to dark grey like on my 9 year old iPad Air 2.

Anyway I will keep the M2 Air and return the M4 Pro.

it honestly is a shame. i can't argue with the nice black levels and responsive screen. i'm lucky (or cursed) in that it doesn't hurt my eyes enough that i was able to decisively say "well this is unusable for me" but it sits in this miserable grey area where it always feels... not great, and kinda undermines the nice qualities of the display.

 

[HouseLannister]

Maybe a little blurry at 0% brightness in a dark room, but even a little brightness makes everything look great again.

 

[Oliwatts]

Yes - I had to stop using mine and switched to an M1 Air which fixed everything. Trying to sell the M4 as its now outside its return window!

 

[OSXphoto]

Thanks for your replies. Honestly after testing both at home I come to the conclusion that I will rethink my use cases. Having experienced the brilliant OLED display quality I can’t go back to the M2 LED for movies, which was the #1 selling point for getting a top tier model.

The M2 display is okay for everything non-graphic, such as Mail, safari and the like. But the base iPad has the same display and may serve me just as well. So:
- for movies I will turn to my MacBook Pro with XDR display. It’s less comfortable holding on my lap and on the go, but so be it
- for Lightroom work I’ll use the MBP as well
- for high end audio I will use the MBP at home and get a portable player for on the go.
This switch will also negate the need for 1TB storage so there is no need to go beyond the base iPad with 256GB storage.
So I will return the M2 as well and order a base model.

Just FTR I am not feeling sorry for myself, this is a first world problem surely. I am hoping to help others who are considering a purchase.

Also, I wonder if Apple is planning on bringing these OLED displays to the MacBook Pro lineup. If they do it could mean I’d need to start looking at other brands or run on external displays most of the time…

 

[gusping]

Apple is planning on bringing these OLED displays to the MacBook Pro lineup. If they do it could mean I’d need to start looking at other brands or run on external displays most of the time…

Yep.... Thankfully I use a Mac mini and so can choose which display I use. I have a QD-OLED 4k 240hz monitor for my gaming PC and that doesn't cause any issues (neither does an LG TV or iPhone), so it really is random.

 

[OSXphoto]

Update...
On the topic of watching movies on the M4 Pro vs the M2 Air iPads, I must confess I have been a bit too harsh on the iPad Air M2. My comparison test was in complete darkness. With lack of ambient light, the iPad Air M2's struggle to show dark tones was a bit unfair. I repeated the comparison in a low to medium lit room, which made the iPad Air M2 video quality much more agreeable to watch. I compared 5 displays:
- iPad Air M2 (2024)
- iPad Pro M4 (2024)
- iPad Air 2 (2015)
- MacBook Pro M1 Max (2021)
- MacBook Pro retina (Late 2013)
I found the blacks of the M4 iPad Pro and the 2021 MacBook Pro practically indistinguishable. This is a huge praise for the MacBook pro's XDR display with 1.000.000 : 1 contrast ratio.
The iPad Air M2 (2024) and iPad Air 2 (2015) were quite similar as far as dark tone quality: both so-so but quite doable with enough ambient light.
The MacBook Pro 2013 was the worst.

Just my €0.02 worth, hopefully someone can benefit from this.

pete

 

[Technerd108]

Thanks for your replies. Honestly after testing both at home I come to the conclusion that I will rethink my use cases. Having experienced the brilliant OLED display quality I can’t go back to the M2 LED for movies, which was the #1 selling point for getting a top tier model.

The M2 display is okay for everything non-graphic, such as Mail, safari and the like. But the base iPad has the same display and may serve me just as well. So:
- for movies I will turn to my MacBook Pro with XDR display. It’s less comfortable holding on my lap and on the go, but so be it
- for Lightroom work I’ll use the MBP as well
- for high end audio I will use the MBP at home and get a portable player for on the go.
This switch will also negate the need for 1TB storage so there is no need to go beyond the base iPad with 256GB storage.
So I will return the M2 as well and order a base model.

Just FTR I am not feeling sorry for myself, this is a first world problem surely. I am hoping to help others who are considering a purchase.

Also, I wonder if Apple is planning on bringing these OLED displays to the MacBook Pro lineup. If they do it could mean I’d need to start looking at other brands or run on external displays most of the time…

It looks like OLED will be coming in 2026 for the MBP. 2028 for the airs.

I will be buying one of the last MBP probably this year or next to avoid the OLED screens.

As I posted earlier I have two high end Windows laptops with 120hz 3k Amoled screens and I loved them at first and after a couple of months the screens started to bother me. I have since gone back to my M2 MBA and I enjoy the much lower tech screen over OLED.

I had a M1 MBP with Mini LED and if Apple would have developed micro led I think this would have been a superior screen tech than OLED and I thought that was what Apple was going to do. I really wish they went back to their own tech instead of using OLED.

 

[dan98]

Unfortunately while other manufacturers take this issue seriously, Apple doesn't give a monkeys.

If you start getting eyestrain/headaches/dizzyness, take it seriously because if you ignore it in the longterm, you can do major damage to yourself (just ask any vestibular specialist).

There's a way to detect PWM using a camera app on a different device (also see notebookcheck reviews), but different people are sensitive to different frequencies so it's hard to predict whether something will work for you or not.
The main thing is to make full use of the returns period especially with OLED screens as these are the worst offenders.

 

[OSXphoto]

So I returned the M4 OLED and intended to keep the M2 air. Guess what. The M2 Air is giving me headaches too. It’s easy on the eyes, but after half an hour or so I get an unmistakable headache that I don’t get when using my old 2015 iPad Air 2.

I don’t understand

 

[ctjack]

Yep this is what I noticed immediately too. for me the oled sub pixel layout makes everything feel slightly out of focus compared to led screens at the same ppi.

An observation ive made is that it seems to feel more pronounced in dark mode, which makes me wonder if it’s also a vision issue. which is still sad because I like to run my devices in dark mode - black levels is one of the main draws for oled.

Historically, pwm is the worst in dark mode and that is why I always use light.