I have the iPad Pro and I watch movies and shows on it. When the screen goes black or the scene in the show/ movie is dark I sometimes see dark spots. They only appear when the room that I am in is dark as well. I took a picture of it and brightened the image so it’s easier to see the spots. The picture is blurry so don’t mind that.
The 2021 iPad Pro uses an entirely different screen backlight technology - known as miniLED. miniLED is an advanced LCD backlight technology - that replaces traditional LED “edge” backlighting and diffuser with a dimmable zoned-array of individual LEDs that are distributed across the back of the LCD panel.
LCD screen technology fundamentally differs from OLED. Each pixel of an OLED screen is a light source - and therefore does not require a screen backlight.
All LCD screen technologies have their strengths and weaknesses - each having a trade-off of some kind. For miniLED, a phenomenon known as “blooming” can sometimes be seen when viewing high brightness/contrast images in a dark room - and your description would suggest that this is what you are seeing; the dark areas of the screen have their LED backlights completely extinguished, while some neighbouring LEDs are operating at relatively high brightness.
What you likely see is light from the illuminated LEDs “bleeding through to be seen in areas where the LEDs are otherwise fully extinguished. This is not a fault - but a limitation of the miniLED backlight technology. LCD screens that use a traditional diffuser-based backlight do not control the backlight in the same way. Instead, dark areas cannot fully darken (as some light will manage to penetrate a “dark” - i.e., black - pixel), but is perceived as reduced contrast; in a darkened room, the screen will actually appear to be a very dark grey. OLED screens found on some iPhone models (and many TVs) are another completely different screen technology - devoid of a screen backlight - as each pixel is actually a light source. For OLED, you have true black pixels - as they are individually completely extinguished.
I hope this brief explanation aids understanding of the principal differences between the three broad screen technologies.
The 2021 iPad Pro uses an entirely different screen backlight technology - known as miniLED. miniLED is an advanced LCD backlight technology - that replaces traditional LED “edge” backlighting and diffuser with a dimmable zoned-array of individual LEDs that are distributed across the back of the LCD panel.
LCD screen technology fundamentally differs from OLED. Each pixel of an OLED screen is a light source - and therefore does not require a screen backlight.
All LCD screen technologies have their strengths and weaknesses - each having a trade-off of some kind. For miniLED, a phenomenon known as “blooming” can sometimes be seen when viewing high brightness/contrast images in a dark room - and your description would suggest that this is what you are seeing; the dark areas of the screen have their LED backlights completely extinguished, while some neighbouring LEDs are operating at relatively high brightness.
What you likely see is light from the illuminated LEDs “bleeding through to be seen in areas where the LEDs are otherwise fully extinguished. This is not a fault - but a limitation of the miniLED backlight technology. LCD screens that use a traditional diffuser-based backlight do not control the backlight in the same way. Instead, dark areas cannot fully darken (as some light will manage to penetrate a “dark” - i.e., black - pixel), but is perceived as reduced contrast; in a darkened room, the screen will actually appear to be a very dark grey. OLED screens found on some iPhone models (and many TVs) are another completely different screen technology - devoid of a screen backlight - as each pixel is actually a light source. For OLED, you have true black pixels - as they are individually completely extinguished.
I hope this brief explanation aids understanding of the principal differences between the three broad screen technologies.
It's really not possible for any of us to diagnose whatever you see from our sofa's. If you think there's an issue with the screen on your iPad, schedule an appointment at your Apple Store Genius Bar for evaluation.
Thank you in advance
iPad Pro 12.9 2021 dark spots
