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Jittery scrolling on new 2017 9.7" iPad

I just purchased a 2017 9.7" iPad (128 GB) and noticed that there is occasional (and somewhat annoying) jitter when scrolling in Safari and Photos. This machine replaced an iPad Air which doesn't have this problem -- its scrolling is buttery smooth despite having a much older CPU/GPU. I appreciate that the A9 CPU performance should be about 1.8 times as fast as the chip in the Air, but I haven't seen any real-world benchmarks about the video performance. Is it really that bad?


For what it is worth, I played around with a number of similar iPads in the local Apple store and they all had the same jittery scrolling. The comparisons were done using Safari and looking at the same website -- both my old Air and a 9.7" Pro had much smoother scrolling.


Any ideas what is happening?


Thanks.


Warren Nagourney

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Apr 1, 2017 10:45 PM

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Posted on Apr 12, 2017 4:34 AM

I noticed the same issue with the new iPad. Many webpages scroll badly as a good example take official Apple iPad website that jitters a lot, especially when scrolling up. No other iPad (Air 2, Pro, mini) have this issue so I decided to get a refund.

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May 8, 2017 8:15 AM in response to MichelPM

I have this issue as well. Bought it 1-2 days after its launch. It was scroll jitter/lag for websites and I instantly asked for a replacement. I chat with the customer support and finally someone called and he remote view my Ipad. Here is where it gets interesting. The lag seems so be gone? I was dumbfounded to why it became sorta smooth again but it's a brand new Ipad so I asked a replacement just to be sure. So today I've just received a brand new replacement and honestly I need more time to review back but the scrolling issue seems to be fixed. But a game I bought this ipad for is still lagging. Scrolling inside the game was still lagging but it's an improvement. Still not a 60fps all the way though. I have an Ipad Air 2 for reference and I know the game can run it. The only difference now is the old ipad (air 2) is running on IOS 9 and not IOS 10.3.1.

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May 8, 2017 12:02 PM in response to Dzahir

As the original poster, I think I should be more precise about the time scale of the jitter which I found objectionable. All iPads display some form of jitter when you scroll -- this is due to the page refreshes and usually occurs so quickly that it manifests itself as a blurring of the image as it scrolls. It is almost as noticable on an iPad Pro as it is on an Air or Air 2. The update frequency is probably greater than 10 frames per second.


The jitter which I found annoying has a much lower frequency -- around 5 "jitters" per second. I would consider the scrolling to still be smooth with the faster jitters but the slower updates are very unpleasant to experience (and remind one of a much earlier vintage computer when GPUs were more primitive). Since I don't play action games on my iPad, I have no idea how this affects games.

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May 9, 2017 4:22 AM in response to Dzahir

Hey Dzahir.


So glad you brought the point up about scrolling/lag going when being viewed remotely by APPLE support.This was my experience,the iPad was much smoother whilst they were doing this process.I mentioned this to guy on the phone,but i don't think he took my observation seriously.And i don't blame him as this is very odd.


Something very strange is going on here.


Also,when i accessed gamecentre within a game & bought up the white gamecentre dialog box,i could see that movement/scrolling had returned to normal,perfectly smooth,as i know it should be.As soon as i close the gamecentre the stuttering/stutter returns.

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May 9, 2017 5:25 AM in response to boony3035

What game are you playing that uses game center? I can try it on my end. This might be a bug with overlay in IOS 10. I'm considering a refund now if no promises of fix is made any time soon. 2nd day of using and the lag in games are starting to make me unhappy. I'm not ready to update my old ipad to IOS 10 considering there's NO ROLLBACK in the os (seriously though why are they doing this). Even if this is what causes it. No words from the devs so I won't risk the better ipad even though it's 3 years old but performs WAY WAY better

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May 9, 2017 9:05 AM in response to Dzahir

Hi.


The best way to see the gamecentre effect is to download 'drawtopia' (there's a free version).


On the menu at the bottom of the screen there is a 'sparkle effect'.This should be perfectly smooth.On my iPad 2017,this effect stuttered every 5 seconds or so.Now,if you press on the 'achievements' button to bring up the gamecentre dialog box,this 'sparkle effect' becomes smooth,as it should be.


Obviously you can't play a game with a big white dialog box in the middle of the screen,but it shows that gamecentre seems to 'fix' this problem.Albeit not much of a 'fix'.


Unfortunately,after the 2nd iPad 2017 with the same issue,i got a full refund.So can't be of much help.it terms of testing.

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May 9, 2017 11:29 AM in response to boony3035

Yeah I can see that on my ipad as well. It stutters every 3-5 sec or so. But since it's random and hard to focus on.. I'm afraid they can't see the difference. Is there any other games that is graphic intense or has overlays that is readily available at the beginning?


Edit 1 : Oh no I've just noticed you asked for a refund. I'm trying to make a video to show this to them. If it all fails I might have to refund it too 😟

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May 10, 2017 7:14 AM in response to warrennn

I have the same issue with my new iPad, it has constant jitter and it's amazing as to how nobody else notices it until they're told about it. I haven't seen a single one who checks after finding out and says that there is without a shadow of a doubt there is no jitter. All the iPad in the store has jitters, everyone in this forum who checked too says there are jitters. So is apple going to punish those who have the eye to notice it? This is definitely not an isolated problem, its a problem that casual users dont notice because they assume that iOS is the best there is and there is no need to pay attention to such small detail.


Its sad that in my country, people dont sell the Air2 as cheap as the current iPad, so I can't just return it and get an air2.

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May 10, 2017 7:18 AM in response to ravenyl

Completely agree. It seems to only be the people who are discerning enough and have a keen eye for detail who notice this. I have returned my iPad due to this issue as well as some others which do not make me feel confident about the device's performance. Even though this is the so called 'budget' iPad I still think it should be able to get the essentials right.

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May 10, 2017 7:48 AM in response to Dzahir

From memory these games show the problem clearly.


Star Thief (sadly not free) - Just start a level & let it scroll from left to right.Should be perfectly smooth (60fps),but on the iPad 2017 the stutter/hicupp kicks in every 5 seconds.


Hyper Breaker Turbo (free) - Goto level select,select a level & let the attract mode scroll the screen up & down - Again,stutters every 5 seconds.Also,ball movement in-game should be smooth....Again,very stuttery.


Geometry Dash (free version available) - This should be a solid 60fps....On the iPad 2017 the framerate is all over the place.At least it was for me.Making it almost unplayable.On the paid version,you can also bring up gamecentre on the main menu,not sure if you can on the free version.


To me,it looks like a process is kicking in every 5 seconds,creating a slight stutter.Then again,i'm no expert on the technical side of things.


Still can't believe reviews/tests didn't pick up on this.Because i noticed right away.And it did it in EVERY game i tried...Over 70 apps.


Very disappointing.

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May 11, 2017 11:00 AM in response to warrennn

Anyone here tried turning ON Reduced Motion AND/ Background App Refresh, in the Settings app, to see if this reduces or mitigates the jittery scrolling issue?

One of the posters here mentioned being queasy from it and got me thinking this jittery scrolling might be connected to all of the eye candy graphics animations/motions.

Some users over the years had to turn all of this motion graphics off because they felt "queasy" after using their iPads for awhile.

Wondering if turning ON Reduced Motion would help to attentuate the scroll jittering.

Anyone still with an iPad 5 give this a try a report back.

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May 11, 2017 11:37 AM in response to Dzahir

Bummer!

Still, no big droves in users reporting this issue in the forums.

So, still thinking it might be a scattered batch of iPad 5s with this issue.

A lot more users, who purchased an iPad 5 model, will have to post to these forums to cement the possibility of a product wide or large iPad 5 batch defect.

Still less than 18 users reporting this issue since the iPad 5 was introduced 6 weeks, ago!

Very insignificant number.

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May 11, 2017 11:49 AM in response to MichelPM

Where did you bought it from? And you have refunded it right? I just chatted with an apple support. Trying to push this out. Will ask again later before the refund period is over if not promises are made.


Also I don't think they would even know it's a problem. If this ipad is for my mom. No way she would notice that. She doesn't play games. Even if it's a kid playing 100 games. No guarantees that they would notice it. Only some people with the eyes would notice it. And even if they do. How many of them would comment on this particular thread? They don't have time to do so. Just like me before. I didn't research enough and thought the ipad is defective. So straight ask for replacement. But the numbers are growing daily. More feedback more cases open for this problem the better

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Jittery scrolling on new 2017 9.7" iPad

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