From a psychological point of view, I can't understand how the nano display can be a "no compromise" solution. Isn't the entire idea that the nano etching is supposed to reduce glare by having this etching in the glass that disperses the light evenly across the display?
This is the same idea as matte displays; it's just fancier as it's being done directly within the glass itself, not using a plastic film on top of the display. This will indeed feel much nicer when touching the display, essential on a touch device like an iPad.
But in the end, dispersing the light will obviously elevate the display's black levels. This will feel more noticeable on OLED, as you have perfect 0 nits blacks on a per-pixel level. On IPS displays, you have nowhere close to 0 nits blacks, which makes dispersing light across the display not that impactful as the black levels aren't true black to begin with, and the contrast of the display primarily relies on brightness and colour, not black levels.
The Tandem OLED offers immense brightness, more so than you commonly see on OLEDs. Elevating the black levels should ensure contrast isn't as limited as it normally is on an OLED. But you will notice when your normally 0 nits black levels suddenly are far from being 0 nits due to the dispersing of the light that the nano etching results in.
The big question is how noticeable this dispersing of light is. How much ambient light is needed for the black levels to feel noticeably elevated? There is a trade-off to be made her. In scenarios where the non-nano display would be next to useless because of glare, you are much better off by nano etching dispearsing the glare as you are better off with elevated black levels than a screen you could barely use. The question is, what will happen in your normal day-to-day ambient light condition? Will the natural ambient light in your living room be enough to elevate the black levels to feel noticeably limited? That is the million-dollar question.
If you have reasonable control over ambient light in your normal day-to-day conditions, the nano should be a no-brainer, as you shouldn't have any trouble with the dispersing effect causing you any trouble. It's not going to be noticeable in dark conditions. And in terrible lightning conditions, like being outside in the sun, it will be preferrable as the glossy display will hardly work due to the glare. So you are much better of with elevated black levels when compared to a screen you can hardly see at all.
This is when we consider the effect the nano will have on the picture quality. Of course, we have questions regarding smearing and cleaning. If the nano etching proves to me much more complicated to keep clean, this might be a dealbreaker for a touch device for many users.
I changed the order on my wife iPad Pro 13-inch from nano to non-nano. In our living conditions, I can't see how the nano display won't affect the picture quality in my wife's day-to-day use of the iPad Pro. If reviews point to something different, I'll return it and order one with the nano display.
(I mean reading a website).. then again I remember the struggle back then when the Pro Display XDR came out. I went to the store four times before I could decide.. in the end I got glossy - but during all those visits I met my future office co owner. Nice huh?😉
