Bright spot on iPad Air 3 Screen

This complaint, in context of bright spots appearing on the screen of an iPad, has been known to appear here with some regularity. This problem was often noted with the iPad Pro 10.5 - upon which the iPad Air3 is closely related. This is not to say that the problem is itself common, merely that the complaint appears to be common to these models of iPad.

Of complaints that have appeared within this community forum, the issue seems to focus upon bright patches (of varying intensity between affected devices) typically occurring in a region 1-2” above the Home button (as viewed with the iPad in the “Portrait” orientation - with the Home button at the bottom of the screen).

In context of physical construction, the iPad Pro 10.5 differed from other iPad models in that its main logic board runs along the central spine of the device - flanked by two equal sized Li-Ion batteries (a physical layout now inherited by the iPad Air 3). By contrast, most (if not all) preceding iPad models have their main logic board positioned along the right-hand side of the iPad, with a much larger battery/batteries occupying the majority of the remaining chassis.

The bright patches appearing on the iPad Pro 10.5 / Air3 screen, where apparent, directly correlate to an area of the underlying logic board that incorporates the electrical connectors for the display - and the touchscreen controller. As such, as other iPads have a different internal layout, this is perhaps why we don’t see this observation occurring in other models. 

Anecdotal comments (from reports appearing within this Support Community) suggest that when “inspected” by technicians, displays exhibiting this phenomena are generally considered to be fault-free - until such time as an inspection relates to a possible trade-in, at which point an affected screen has reportedly been described as having been damaged or defective, significantly reducing or eliminating any residual trade-in value.

The potential issue and its cause have never been publicly acknowledged by Apple.

I hope this is in some way helpful to you - if only in confirming what is known about this issue.

Speaking from experience, having myself seen this issue on one more heavily used iPad Pro 10.5, the problem can worsen over time. The area of increased screen brightness can spread - generally being confined to a 1” band through the central long-axis of the display panel.

The described issue appears to be related to heat generated by some electronic components of the main logic board; for the iPad Pro 10.5/Air3, the logic board runs along the centre spine of the screen.

At higher screen brightness and sustained CPU load, the components located beneath the brighter areas of the screen run much warmer for longer periods. Analysis (including use of thermal imaging) suggests this is causing localised heating issues, ultimately [and permanently] affecting the screen backlight diffuser; the diffuser is a one of the laminated components of the display.