After months of rumors it finally happened earlier this week. Apple's new best iPad, the M4 iPad Pro went on sale recently, and buyers have been rushing to Apple Stores and stalking porches ever since. But some people are already starting to report issues.
Aside from the strange iPad Pro HDR bug that we revealed in our review, this issue relates to the way the tablet's display appears grainy to some people. Images floating around social media show displays that appear grainy in certain lights and with darker images displayed.
However, it isn't yet clear whether this is a bug or just the way these displays behave and we may need more examples before we can be sure.
OLED or fault?
MacRumors was the first to spot posts across Reddit that complain of what appears to be a grainy display, particularly on darker images. However, it's possible that rather than being an issue as such, the 'grain' could simply be a characteristic of the displays being used.
Interestingly, the 11-inch displays that have exhibited this issue could well be parts produced by Samsung Display and this wouldn't be the first time Samsung has been involved with displays that behave this way. Some high-end Samsung AMOLED displays used in its smartphones have historically provided similarly grainy images, albeit not actual grain at all. Instead, it's possibly all down to the way these displays handle power management.
If that is indeed the case there are a couple of potential outcomes here. The first is that there is nothing that can be done and this is just a characteristic of these displays that people will ultimately get used to. The other is that Apple may be able to roll out a software fix that tweaks power management settings at the display level, but it remains to be seen what's actually going on here and whether that's something Apple can actually do.
