iPad Pro M5 - Display Pulse Smoothing?

[Sheepish-Lord]

Pretty sure there will always be some form of flicker with OLED tech, even tvs have a slight dip sometimes.

I was confused by the Notebookcheck review as the display on the iPads literally did not change. Additionally, dc dimming traditionally works when you lower the brightness not raise it hence the “dimming" so I'm always skeptical when I see it advertised in random brightness ranges and not consistent. Could be the reviewer did not test it properly or did not know how to interpret the results.

 

[MayaUser]

Pretty sure there will always be some form of flicker with OLED tech, even tvs have a slight dip sometimes.

I was confused by the Notebookcheck review as the display on the iPads literally did not change. Additionally, dc dimming traditionally works when you lower the brightness not raise it hence the “dimming" so I'm always skeptical when I see it advertised in random brightness ranges and not consistent. Could be the reviewer did not test it properly or did not know how to interpret the results.

mainstream oled tv are garbage in display quality compared to these ipads or samsung tablets ...in mobile space are the most investing and most profit

 

[daletorr]

I am so surprised to see there are LINES even at 100% brightness… Based on the review of Notebookcheck, PWM should not work at this point. Originally I plan to keep 100% brightness all the time and turn on white point at about 60-80% as well as turning on Night Mode…

I know! That was my plan exactly as well! I forgot to mention that I bought the nano-texture display as well sorry… since I wanted to keep the brightness at MAX trusting Notebookcheck’s PWM tests …

ohhhhhh well :/

 

[Clincero]

Just want to mention, even if a measurement shows no flicker at 100% brightness, this is only true for the pixels that display full white color. All darker screen content would still show flicker because those pixels are not at 100%. Ramping up the brightness setting might reduce the pain but it is no solution.

Personally, I looked at M5 iPad Pro in a store and my eyes started to hurt within seconds.

 

[daletorr]

Just want to mention, even if a measurement shows no flicker at 100% brightness, this is only true for the pixels that display full white color. All darker screen content would still show flicker because those pixels are not at 100%. Ramping up the brightness setting might reduce the pain but it is no solution.

Personally, I looked at M5 iPad Pro in a store and my eyes started to hurt within seconds.

I see.. thank you so much for validating my personal findings! Really appreciate it.

I am now fully committed to keeping my old iPads at least for another year! 🙏

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Just want to mention, even if a measurement shows no flicker at 100% brightness, this is only true for the pixels that display full white color. All darker screen content would still show flicker because those pixels are not at 100%. Ramping up the brightness setting might reduce the pain but it is no solution.

Personally, I looked at M5 iPad Pro in a store and my eyes started to hurt within seconds.

Unless I misreading, this isn’t accurate and quite the opposite. Only true black images have NO flicker because OLED panels would not have a need to reproduce a color. This is easily testable.

Anything other than true black would cause flickering because it requires light to be emitted.

 

[Clincero]

Only true black images have NO flicker

According to the Notebookcheck report, there is no flicker for full white pixels. Thus, no flicker for completely black and completely white pixels; any pixels in between, including all colors, will exhibit flicker.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

According to the Notebookcheck report, there is no flicker for full white pixels. Thus, no flicker for completely black and completely white pixels; any pixels in between, including all colors, will exhibit flicker.

Where is that in the article? PWM isn’t tested based on color so if “full white pixels” you mean max brightness then that’s the debate…I’m not sure if the article is accurate cause the display did not change from last year.

 

[liujiagem007]

I know! That was my plan exactly as well! I forgot to mention that I bought the nano-texture display as well sorry… since I wanted to keep the brightness at MAX trusting Notebookcheck’s PWM tests …

ohhhhhh well :/

Today I received my new M5 iPad Pro (1TB nano-texture, 13-inch, WLAN+cellular), but the result is quite disappointing — no matter how I adjust it, my eyes still feel noticeably uncomfortable. When I first turned it on, I noticed the system version was already iPadOS 26.0.1, and there was a PWM toggle in the settings. I set the brightness to 100% and used the Blackmagic Camera app on my iPhone with a 1/8000 shutter speed to record the screen, and there were indeed clear flickering lines. This makes me seriously doubt the accuracy of Notebookcheck’s review.

I also tested the screen at a very low brightness (around 10%) with the PWM toggle both on and off, but the number and width of the flickering lines did not change at all. I suspect Apple removed this toggle because it simply doesn’t do anything.

Later, the system prompted an update — although the version number remained the same, the PWM toggle disappeared after updating. Now I can only barely use it with brightness at 100%, white point set to 70%, and Night Mode turned on. I’m still considering whether I should return it.

 

[liujiagem007]

Today I received my new M5 iPad Pro (1TB nano-texture, 13-inch, WLAN+cellular), but the result is quite disappointing — no matter how I adjust it, my eyes still feel noticeably uncomfortable. When I first turned it on, I noticed the system version was already iPadOS 26.0.1, and there was a PWM toggle in the settings. I set the brightness to 100% and used the Blackmagic Camera app on my iPhone with a 1/8000 shutter speed to record the screen, and there were indeed clear flickering lines. This makes me seriously doubt the accuracy of Notebookcheck’s review.

I also tested the screen at a very low brightness (around 10%) with the PWM toggle both on and off, but the number and width of the flickering lines did not change at all. I suspect Apple removed this toggle because it simply doesn’t do anything.

Later, the system prompted an update — although the version number remained the same, the PWM toggle disappeared after updating. Now I can only barely use it with brightness at 100%, white point set to 70%, and Night Mode turned on. I’m still considering whether I should return it.

Just decided to return it, very severe eyestrain... Looks I have to keep my mini-LED 12.9-inch iPad Pro with M1.

 

[Momof9]

I am so disappointed to hear this.... I might have to purchase the M2 I have seen. PWM switch on the iPhone helped me....

 

[Momof9]

I did end up getting M5 11" 256 - probably need higher storage.....

So here is my settings - I just played Genshin Impact for about an hour with no problems....

brightness maybe 90%, True Tone off, night shift off, reduce white point 25%

 

[Momof9]

So, I found out that the 256gb was NOT enough storage. In one week and not adding a ton of apps I am about at 1/3 of the storage. That's without adding files to it.

So in the process of looking for any good deals on the higher storage iPP's, I came across a fantastic deal for a cellular M4 iPP, 2 TB.

While I was updating the software today, I noticed that the screen was bothering me on the M4. The settings were the same as my post above. After updating, I decided to have the same wallpaper etc as the M5. Then I noticed that I hadn't updated to iOS 26. As soon as it updated and restarted - no more eye issues for me....