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Slightly unscientific testing of recording slow motion video from my iPhone:


This is the 2021 iPad Pro 11", it's the most responsive and smoothest feeling of all.

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This is the 2020 M1 MacBook Air. The ghosting is quite pronounced, but it's 60hz so it doesn't feel that bad.

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This is the 2021 16" MacBook Pro. Uh, it's quite bad....

View attachment 1879690

That said, I still think it's a very nice screen, and it doesn't bother me a huge amount or look anywhere as bad as this when you're looking at it at real speed and not slowed down to 240 fps, but it's definitely disappointing compared to the iPad Pro.
Hmm. I wonder if the display is under-driven to save energy. Can you try increasing the brightness or high power mode?
 
did someone try setting it to a fixed refresh rate? perhaps there is just a pro motion bug?
 
did someone try setting it to a fixed refresh rate? perhaps there is just a pro motion bug?
This is not Mac only issue, it's the screen itself and you can't do anything with software. Lower/higher frame rate would mean choppier or smoother movement. When there's ghosting framerate doesn't really matter, it's just more noticeable on higher refresh rate monitors.

I have a great monitor to 'test' these things out and I am now typing on fixed 60Hz mode, it looks somewhat choppy but there's no ghosting. Same with iPhone 13 Pro, those are great screens with very low response times.
 
did someone try setting it to a fixed refresh rate? perhaps there is just a pro motion bug?
I do think pro motion is kinda buggy tbh. I turned it off and chrome was still seeing vsync at 120hz, and then when I turned it back on it was only hitting 60. I think also a lot of people's issues with it are because of occasional frame drops and stutters that are quite pronounced.

I hope it's something that can be fixed in software, even though that won't fix the ghosting.

Changing to full brightness doesn't seem to make the ghosting less bad either.

I think to sum it up, this is the best HDR content watching screen I've ever seen, but it's complete garbage for gaming.
 
Watching the attached video review again, man, I don’t know how anyone could put up with that. It looks horrible and I find it hard to believe anyone would just get used to it.

Might be a 2022 upgrade for me.
 
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I do think pro motion is kinda buggy tbh. I turned it off and chrome was still seeing vsync at 120hz, and then when I turned it back on it was only hitting 60. I think also a lot of people's issues with it are because of occasional frame drops and stutters that are quite pronounced.

I hope it's something that can be fixed in software, even though that won't fix the ghosting.

Changing to full brightness doesn't seem to make the ghosting less bad either.

I think to sum it up, this is the best HDR content watching screen I've ever seen, but it's complete garbage for gaming.
I'll be getting mine later today and I'll test this out. I genuinely hope the issue isn't that bad.
 
Mine is gonna get here any minute and I keep seeing more and more disappointment pop up in regards to the ghosting issue. I like to use my computer very VERY quickly, I like to scroll through pages fast and skim to find what info I need -- this issue might make that practice very irritating for me.

I'm genuinely starting to believe I may end up returning the laptop until they fix this issue with the next model. I doubt it but we'll see.
 
So I've gotten some time in with mine, and while there certainly is ghosting where it seems to smear during fast action, it's not the kind that I find objectionable, and it's pretty similar to what I've seen on previous panels. It's double-image persistence that drives me up a wall more than smearing (if I have to be stuck with one or the other). Something I've seen often with film content on OLEDs due to persistence of vision effects of 24fps content mixed with the fast response times.

But this is something that varies from person to person. Try it, do what you need to do afterwards.
 
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Mine is gonna get here any minute and I keep seeing more and more disappointment pop up in regards to the ghosting issue. I like to use my computer very VERY quickly, I like to scroll through pages fast and skim to find what info I need -- this issue might make that practice very irritating for me.

I'm genuinely starting to believe I may end up returning the laptop until they fix this issue with the next model. I doubt it but we'll see.
Yeah if it's as bad as it looks, I'll be returning mine, no doubt.
 
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I'm wondering how it compares to the M1 MBA panel, which i find completely fine. I hope it's not as pronounced as the intel 16" (50-60ms grey-to-grey ?)

if it sucks that bad, I'll just stick with my MBA
 
When I heard the screen was 120 hz I was so excited. This is quite the disappointment. This issue is no small notch either. It's important.
 
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the screen is really bad imo. i have a 2019 16" pro for work and side by side the 2019 looks much better at comparable brightness. crisper and with less ghosting/blurring. i'm returning the pro and sticking with my m1 air
 
Got my panel. I don’t see it. I’m testing it against my LG ultra wide and I just don’t see it. I’m not sensitive to this kind of stuff, but in confirming with a number of other people, they don’t see it either.

I’d potentially ask for a replacement panel or unit if the issue is that bad.
 
Hey guys just tried my 16 incher really quick on morning break. It 100% has ghosting BUT the short 10 min I tested it feels better than the old 2019 16 inch. Going to do more testing at home. Hope this will be a keeper.
Sidenote is I feel the keyboard feels a bit cheap. No way near "mechanical" keyboards.
 
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It's starting to look like we're getting a panel lottery again... Fingers firmly crossed I'll get a good one where it hardly shows up. And anyway, I currently hardly have workflows where it really matters. I assume that Apple assumes both panels are equal, otherwise they wouldn't send a dud to Anandtech, of all people.

As for the keyboard - looks like the same one as in the 2019 16" to me. Flat laptop keyboards are never mechanical in feel.
 
It's starting to look like we're getting a panel lottery again... Fingers firmly crossed I'll get a good one where it hardly shows up. And anyway, I currently hardly have workflows where it really matters. I assume that Apple assumes both panels are equal, otherwise they wouldn't send a dud to Anandtech, of all people.

As for the keyboard - looks like the same one as in the 2019 16" to me. Flat laptop keyboards are never mechanical in feel.

Out of curiosity, can you please let me know if you realise that the Anandtech video is in slow-mo?
I think they should have made this point prominently in the description.
I am asking because, frankly, any screen videoed in slow-mo WILL show some ghosting.

My 2015 MBP certainly does. Perhaps not as much, but it does.
In normal use though I don’t notice anything.
 
The display seems poor.
far worse than the displays from 10 years ago...surface laptop studio is far far better...no ghosting, no blooming, no performance issues no interest in it
That display is rich, and this display seem poor...it should work more hours to get richer
 
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Out of curiosity, can you please let me know if you realise that the Anandtech video is in slow-mo?
I think they should have made this point prominently in the description.
I am asking because, frankly, any screen videoed in slow-mo WILL show some ghosting.
Because it just looks very slomo, as also illustrated by the gentle co-poster below. If it would be as bad as the Anandtech guy's video, it would take me back to the CRT I was using with my 486 back in 1991.

This video makes it look terrible somehow, in real life it is not that noticeable, here is a quick capture I did moving around a terminal window:
 
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