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iPad Pro 2018 uneven back-light and shadows
- Thread starter GerAlex73
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I invite you all to look at my tests using a colorimeter to measure the brightness in 15 areas of an ipad's screen.
Here is an Ipad with "acceptable" uniform screen. Basically the only thing that matters is the AVERAGE % of each square. The closer the %s on the left side are to the right side, the more uniform the screen is. Pay attention to the left and right top corners. There's a difference in brightness of about 5%. Thats pretty good! My trained eye can barely see that. That would be a keeper except I had to send back due to a dark stain in the middle of the screen, which has nothing to do with BRIGHTNESS uniformity but rather a LCD defect.
Now this one is an Ipad with a crappy non uniform screen. You can visually see the right side is darker than the left and the numbers check. THERE'S A FREAKING 13% difference in brightness! Still, normal people usually cant see it but professionals who work with screens or even just people with more sensitivity will spot that easily.
There's no ipad with perfect screen but you just have to get one that exhibits LESS distortion to YOUR eye, so it becomes almost imperceptible to YOUR naked vision. It's a combination of personal experience and how unbalanced your actual unit is. Im on my 5th ipad and will keep doing this ridiculous return job until I get a screen worth the $1k im paying.
Here is an Ipad with "acceptable" uniform screen. Basically the only thing that matters is the AVERAGE % of each square. The closer the %s on the left side are to the right side, the more uniform the screen is. Pay attention to the left and right top corners. There's a difference in brightness of about 5%. Thats pretty good! My trained eye can barely see that. That would be a keeper except I had to send back due to a dark stain in the middle of the screen, which has nothing to do with BRIGHTNESS uniformity but rather a LCD defect.
Now this one is an Ipad with a crappy non uniform screen. You can visually see the right side is darker than the left and the numbers check. THERE'S A FREAKING 13% difference in brightness! Still, normal people usually cant see it but professionals who work with screens or even just people with more sensitivity will spot that easily.
There's no ipad with perfect screen but you just have to get one that exhibits LESS distortion to YOUR eye, so it becomes almost imperceptible to YOUR naked vision. It's a combination of personal experience and how unbalanced your actual unit is. Im on my 5th ipad and will keep doing this ridiculous return job until I get a screen worth the $1k im paying.
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You won’t find a perfectly lit LCD screen. There will always be spots that are brighter or darker.
Went to an Apple store here in the UK. All 15 or so 11 inch iPads on display had a dark right hand corner. Older ipads did not have this issue. Not sure why there's been a regression in display quality...
That may be the case in some new iPad Pro units. Mine does not have any dark shadowing on its display. The previous generation iPads had their own problems. I owned the first generation 12.9” iPad Pro. Its build quality was atrocious. Everything from a warm streak down the center of the display to terrible backlight bleeding. I was very happy to finally sell that first-gen iPad and get the new 3rd-gen iPad Pro.
Hi,
I have/had exactly the same issues on my ipad Pro 11". Darker Corners on the right side.
In my opinion this is a low quality display. Yes, the colors are crisp, but the brightness is uneven. And its the worst display of all my Apple devices.
I decided to keep my iPad Pro 10.5.
I have/had exactly the same issues on my ipad Pro 11". Darker Corners on the right side.
In my opinion this is a low quality display. Yes, the colors are crisp, but the brightness is uneven. And its the worst display of all my Apple devices.
I decided to keep my iPad Pro 10.5.
I have noticed similar issues with my 11" iPad Pro. The left side of the screen appears to have an ever-so-slight shadow. Looking straight at it you probably couldn't tell, but any other viewing angle it seems apparent to me. My wife claims that she can't see it, so maybe it's just the non-perfect backlight of the LCD screen... or I am imagining things lol.
You'll never find an iPad of any generation that has a perfectly even sheet-of-white-paper display. It's like chasing the rainbow — it doesn't exist in the current technology.
Apple could improve the uniformity of it's back lighting if they stopped making their devices so thin.
GerAlex73 - I've had to return two 11"-inch 2018 iPad Pro units, for the exact same reasons: uneven backlighting. I too am in Europe (Scotland). I appreciate that there's no such thing as an absolutely perfect backlight, but I do not expect the backlight to be a distraction from the primary use of my hardware. In my instance, it was a massive distraction from reading text in the Books app, and in general web-surfing. I eventually opted for a refund, deciding to give another purchase a bash in the new year. I'm about to go ahead and try again, and will let you know how I get on
Both my devices closely echo the issues you are facing. At £1,450 (for the model I want), this is clearly unnaceptable
Cheers,
everygrainofsand
PS Your English is fine; and a d*mned sight better than my German :0)
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Dude, have a wee bit civility? There is another human being on the other side, receiving your messages. It's thoroughly depressing when things get ugly and personal. Have a good day :0)
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This is a very, very interesting post. Cheers for uploading - much food for thought!
- everygrainofsand -
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Sneak3, I'm about to have a third try at the lucky dip that is the iPad screens! Could you point me in the direction of that most excellent software you're using here? It'd be greatly appreciated! Your tables are really interesting, and of real practicable value
Thank you in anticipation!
Lee
-everygrainofsand-
EDIT: I'm thinking of holding-off until March, to see what the entry level iPad update brings. Might be more appropriate for me, given I only really need a device for eBooks, web-surfing, and video streaming. Any thoughts would be appreciated?!
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You’ll need a colorimeter as well, not just the software. It’s a separate device!
“You'll never find an iPad of any generation that has a perfectly even sheet-of-white-paper display. It's like chasing the rainbow — it doesn't exist in the current technology.“
Thanks, but I never said so!
Thanks, but I never said so!
You'll never be happy. Like you, I had a problem with the 1st generation 12.9 inch iPad pro's display. I did multiple exchanges because they ALL had some imperfection. I finally settled on the best one I got. The 3rd Generation 12.9 inch iPad Pro isn't perfect either, but is much better than the 1st Generation displays.
I'm on my 3rd iPad, 2 2017s and now I'm on a 2018. If you heavily use the battery it will expand and cause discoloration on the screen where a wide cable connects to it. This also causes the touchscreen to work intermittently. I destroyed 2 iPad pros from playing pubg mobile where it takes 3 hours to charge and only 45 minutes to drain, really beats up on the battery and causes the iPad to destroy itself.
Keep it. As more people have said, all screens have uneven backlight to some extent. Mostly only visible on a very light background. Focus on colorfull content and lower your standards/expectations a bit, you’ll actually enjoy using the fantastic iPad pro 3d gen. A lot!
Hey man! Good luck with your next attempts, hope you get one thats decent enough for your needs.
I use an i1display colorimeter with a software called displaycal. you just get the ipad with a flat white background, put the colorimeter on top of it and it will measure the exact brightness of that particular area. You do that for the whole screen and you end up with a map showing beyond doubt which areas are darker. Its pretty good. Helped me confirm how near perfect my old 10.5 was.
And then within two years it slowly but certainly becomes a little yellow around the edges. Better check for that every time you turn that thing on
nothing to be done about that actually, i just accept thats the current state of apple crap :/
Same here! I am a monitor, and display aficionados! My iPad Pro 11” panel is absolutely perfect! I wonder how it is possible.. No smearing, even light, no light bleed, no distortion around the edges anywhere!
Just an incredible display.
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Displays are hit or miss. There is no such thing as a perfect display technology. They have gotten pretty good with making smaller panels just about perfect.
Go look at a IPS G-Sync monitor, your gonna spend anywhere from $600-$2,000 on a nice 1440P to 4K high refresh rate display. And you will have extreme backlight bleeding and ips glow. It is all about luck, they all have it some more some less.
Welcome to the world of displays! All the cash in your bank account cannot buy a perfect one, because it does not exist.