The 9.7" iPad Pro Review
by Brandon Chester on June 1, 2016 9:00 AM ESTDisplay Uniformity
With Apple billing the 9.7" iPad Pro as a professional device with individually calibrated displays, I felt it was relevant to bring our uniformity test over to mobile. While we usually just measure errors at the center of a display, there are also errors across the panel itself due to inconsistencies in the panel and the backlighting array. This means that a display can be accurate at the center, but the edges can have significant luminance dropoff or gain that makes the display unsuitable for any sort of image work due to the fact that there are visible color differences across the display itself. For this test we use an array of 25 points on the display and measure the accuracy of colors in the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker test, as well as the uniformity of the white and black levels at each spot.
While I don't have any other mobile devices for reference, if I were evaluating the 9.7" iPad Pro as a professional monitor I would say that the white uniformity is decent, but not amazing in any regard. The central area of the display is fairly uniform, but there's noticeable dropoff on the left, right, and bottom edges. This is something I see on a number of phones and tablets, and maintaining uniformity probably hasn't been a concern for vendors until this point, but I'm hoping that a larger focus on it will make companies put more focus on it as a selling point for professional devices.
Black uniformity on the 9.7" iPad Pro isn't great. If you divide the display along its diagonal from the top right to bottom left corners you see that the in general the bottom section has higher black levels, while the top has lower black levels. In general, the black level isn't as dark at the edges as it is in the center. Black levels and contrast are the areas where Apple's LCDs really can't compete with Samsung's AMOLEDs, and with the 9.7" iPad Pro falling pretty far behind its bigger brother with black levels Apple should put more focus on at least keeping their blacks consistent across the display.
While the black uniformity isn't great on the 9.7" iPad Pro, and the white uniformity is just okay, the uniformity for colors is outstanding. There are a few hot spots on the edges, but in general the error relative to the center is well under two, and often near or even below one. I'm surprised that Apple has such uniform color rendition, as an uneven luminance level will usually throw off colors much more severely. Whatever the case may be, you can at least depend on even color rendering across the 9.7" iPad Pro's display.
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bernstein - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
today's world is one of really shitty choices :- ipad pro : the pen feeling/responsiveness i want
- macbook : the os i want
- surface book : the hardware i want (tablet/laptop combo/size/weight)
but hey, after a decade of being let down by tablet pc's all pieces are finally available...
in another decade i may actually get what i wanted back then...
just not sure if i will still want it by the time it arrives...
Manch - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Surface Pro Hacintosh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64UQ7el-FrMsamer1970 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
MacOS does not support touch and pen , so a hackintosh is garbage tabletBlark64 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Mac OS does support touch and pen, as demonstrated by the video link in the comment you responded to... Might want to follow the link next time...Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I'm still sort of surprised it was Microsoft that gave us the first really successful full PC in a tablet...although in another way I'm not, given Microsoft's actually been trying to do that for like a decade prior to the Surface line.I'm so annoyed by Apple/Apple fan's claims that Windows 10 "isn't good at either!" Nonsense. I've been using Windows 8/10 on a desktop for years, and I still prefer it to OS X, and I've been using it with touch for years, and it works well there too.
My iPads are fancy eReaders...not to knock fancy eReaders! But I wouldn't buy one for "productivity", like ever.
BillBear - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Until there is a much better selection of touch first software for Windows, the Surface is not a "tablet". It's more like an ultrabook with a detachable keyboard that you can't really detach because you constantly need the touchpad to drive the legacy software you are forced to use.jlabelle2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Just out of interest, what are the type of "touch first software" do you need to use on your tablet that are missing on the Surface ? I often see this claim but seems more like a legend perpetuated than real assessment of the current situation in 2016.KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
It's not the OS as much as it is the apps. Too many Windows developers are too lazy to actually write touch/tablet-optimized apps. iOS forces developers to do so. Microsoft is actually one of the better developers of iOS apps. I like using Word and PowerPoint on my iPad Pro.Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Windows 10 and pretty much any app you care to use is fine on a 10-12" touch screen.Spunjji - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I really hope other vendors pick up on True Tone. That sort of tech should be trivial to implement now, and it looks like one of those genuinely useful features that rolls around every once in a while.