Oliver Haslam on May 25, 2021, 8:07 pm

Some 12.9-Inch M1 iPad Pro Users Report Blooming Effect In mini-LED Display

Apple’s new M1 iPad Pro is now available to buy and while the M1 chip is one of the biggest draws for new users, the addition of a new mini-LED screen is also a big upgrade.

The so-called XDR Display makes for better and darker blacks as well as improved contrast, but reports suggest that blooming might be a problem despite Apple’s claims that it has worked to minimize the issue.

Apple’s own support document says that Apple has worked to try and avoid blooming – white areas of light around objects on a back background – but that doesn’t appear to be enough.

The Liquid Retina XDR display improves upon the trade-offs of typical local dimming systems, where the extreme brightness of LEDs might cause a slight blooming effect because the LED zones are larger than the LCD pixel size. This display is designed to deliver crisp front-of-screen performance with its incredibly small custom mini-LED design, industry leading mini-LED density, large number of individually controlled local dimming zones, and custom optical films that shape the light while maintaining image fidelity and extreme brightness and contrast.

Early adopters have been taking to social media to show the issues they’re experiencing, with some looking pretty bad.

Some have even suggested that mini-LED is likely to be a stopgap while Apple works out how to bring OLED to the iPad in the long run.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro has 2,500 local dimming zones in an attempt to make sure blooming doesn’t happen. Maybe it could have done with a few more.