The Apple iPad Pro Review
by Ryan Smith, Joshua Ho & Brandon Chester on January 22, 2016 8:10 AM ESTDisplay
With the iPad Pro, one of the main points of interest is its display. Although there are other elements to the iPad Pro like the stylus and the keyboard, the display is really the centerpiece of this tablet, especially when neither the Apple Pencil nor the Smart Keyboard come included with the iPad Pro itself. I think it goes without saying that everyone wants to have a great display on a tablet, but what determines a great display is often in question.
While it’s obvious that less reflectance is better, as is higher contrast and maximum brightness, things like gamma and color reproduction are often subjective as the same color will often look different to different people. In order to try and deal with this issue, we focus on testing all mobile displays to the same color accuracy standards. For now, the industry standard gamut is the sRGB gamut, along with power 2.2 gamma. Although the sRGB gamut is relatively limited compared to something like DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020, it remains an industry standard when compared to what exists on the market today. In order to test how well a display meets these standards in addition to other criteria, we use an i1Pro2 spectrophotometer for accurate color measurements along with an i1Display Pro for accurate contrast measurements. In order to organize this data into a readable format we use SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 with a custom workflow.
In the case of the iPad Pro, it’s obvious that the architecture of the display is different from what we’ve seen in mobile devices before. Due to the sheer resolution, it seems that Apple is electing to use embedded Display Port (eDP) instead of the more traditional MIPI DSI interface used in smartphones. We’ve seen a number of smartphones and tablets this year ship with an 8 lane MIPI DSI configuration which allows for a theoretical maximum of 2715x1697 for about 4.6MP, but the 2732x2048 resolution of the iPad Pro means about 20% more pixels than what a 2 port MIPI DSI configuration can handle.
Source: design-reuse.com
By comparison, eDP has been able to support 4K at 60 Hz or higher for quite some time. This is self-evident by looking at the number of laptops launched with a 4K display. With the iPad Pro, Apple claims that they’ve implemented their own custom timing controller or TCON. Some digging through the system files seems to corroborate these claims as there are numerous references to an Apple Agile DP Display SAC Controller. That’s a mouthful, but Agile seems to be the internal name for this controller, and DP seems to be a reference to DisplayPort, while SAC is likely a reference to Slow Adaptive Clocking.
Slow Adaptive Clocking is something that there's very limited public information on at this time. My best guess here is that this is actually related to the variable refresh rate technology that Apple is implementing in their custom TCON. On the surface this technology seems to bear a lot of resemblance to G-Sync or FreeSync, but rather than varying refresh rate to fit the GPU’s rendering rate the refresh rate only has two distinct settings at 60 Hz and 30 Hz depending upon whether the content on the display would benefit from the higher refresh rate. It’s likely that at least part of the reason why this is possible is the use of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFTs which don’t leak current in the off state. This means that when there is a longer period of time between display refreshes, the liquid crystal retains its state rather than fading towards its original state of either completely open or closed to the backlight.
Source: semiconportal.com
In addition to this adaptive refresh rate, the TCON supports panel self-refresh which is hardly news, but given that we’ve seen phones and tablets in this year ship without panel self-refresh it’s worth mentioning.
The panel itself also appears to have dual domain pixels and a conventional RGB stripe. Viewing angles as a result are quite good. The cover glass also contains the AR coating first introduced with the iPad Air 2, which cuts reflectance roughly in half relative to a display that doesn’t have such a coating. This effectively doubles outdoor contrast, so it’s great for outdoor use.
In our standard test of brightness and contrast, it’s evident that Apple has moved to a new generation of display for the iPad Pro as the maximum brightness is mildly improved relative to the iPad Air 2. The real change here though is that contrast is dramatically improved over the iPad Air 2.
This is likely due to the use of photoalignment for the liquid crystals, which helps the liquid crystal to have a more consistent orientation. For those that aren’t really familiar with the particulars of how light polarization and polarizers work, part of the problem is that when a voltage is applied to change the structure of the liquid crystals parts of the liquid crystals won’t necessarily change in structure appropriately. In order to assist with this process a film is applied which gains a particular orientation when exposed to UV light in a specific way. This helps to get the liquid crystals to all align in the same direction, which improves contrast as a result. Of course, contrast isn’t the dark, inky blacks that you'll get with AMOLED but it'll still be quite impressive for normal use.
Source: eetimes.com
Moving on to our grayscale test, the iPad Pro does impressively well overall with well-controlled gamma but tending slightly towards a colder color balance. I’m not sure whether this is because of backlight efficiency concerns due to the use of blue LED with yellow phosphor in the backlight or because people seem to prefer colder white balances in general, but it’s there nonetheless. The cold color balance might affect some particularly color critical work but even for medical use I suspect it shouldn’t be a serious problem.
In saturations, the iPad Pro is basically perfect. There is some mild undersaturation of red, but I basically see no reason to try and find some method of personally calibrating the display.
In the Gretag MacBeth ColorChecker test, color error is once again basically nonexistent. Anything with red appears to be mildly undersaturated but the error is going to be almost impossible to notice.
Overall, the iPad Pro display is probably one of the best available on the market today. The Galaxy Tab S2 display is comparable in overall accuracy and has superior contrast, but the iPad Pro has noticeably higher brightness for all content above 50% APL and in any scenario with a lot of ambient background light the AR coating will help a lot with improving effective contrast and general readability. Although pixel density is equivalent to the iPad Air 2, the sheer size of the display means that the viewing distance is increased and therefore the perceived resolution. The display looks great in person, and unless your single point of consideration for display performance is contrast I think it’ll be hard to be disappointed with the iPad Pro display.
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tim851 - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
"Pro" is just a marketing moniker. There are smartphones that carry it.Apple wants iOS to succeed. People wonder if OSX will come to the iPad, I think Apple would rather consider bringing iOS to Macs. They are fanatical about simplicity and an iPad with iOS got that in spades.
And that's why they are taking the opposite approach of Microsoft.
Microsoft is trying to make their desktop OS touch-friendly enough. Apple is trying to make their touch OS productive enough.
Windows devs are by and large ignoring Metro, the tough UI, and just deploy desktop apps. Apple wants to force devs to find ways to bring professional grade software to iOS.
I'm quite happy that the two companies are exploring different avenues instead of racing into the same direction.
ddriver - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
"I'm quite happy"People should really have higher standards of expectations, because otherwise, the industry will take its sweet time milking them and barely making any increments in the value and capabilities of their products. They won't make it better until people demand better, the industry is currently in a sweet spot where it gets to dictate demand, by lowering people's expectations to the point they don't know and can't even imagine any better than what the industry makes.
People should stop following the trends dictated by the industry, and really should look beyond that, which the industry is willing to do at this point, towards what is now possible to do and has been for a while really. Because otherwise, no matter how much technology progresses, this will not be reflected by the capabilities of people, if it is up to the industry, it will keep putting that into almost useless shiny toys rather than the productivity tools they could be.
exanimo - Monday, January 25, 2016 - link
ddriver, I want to start out by commending you on your writing and ideas. Top notch, really.I also really enjoy your idealist approach to saying that people should be dictating the industry, rather than vice versa (seriously). My only question is how can one do that as a consumer? Is seems to me that we have little or no choice but to follow trends because Google, Apple, and Microsoft are becoming too big to fail.
A perfect anecdote would be BlackBerry's OS10. They came late to the show (after they realized you can be too big to fail when you become stagnant) and released a technically superior mobile OS that had the consistency and reliability of iOS, with the control and versatility of Android. On top of that was the use of gestures and an amalgamated hub for messages. I wish I had a choice to use this operating system, but the writing on the wall says that it will collapse within the next 2 years. This is because they're still losing market shares and people are not supporting applications.
There is innovation, but it's stomped out by these huge companies and THE PEOPLE that dictate which OS to develop for.
The Hardcard - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
What software do you use that came out in 1981 when the PC launched. Probably none. Virtually guaranteed none. It is surprising the lack of forward vision sometimes. In five years there will be plenty of professional software on iOS, to run on the significantly more powerful iPad Pro Whatever. The writing is on the wall.ddriver - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
There were barely any software development tools back then, and barely any software developers for that matter. Today there is plenty of software development tools, and plenty of software developers, plus mobile devices have been around for a while. Yet none of those seems to produce any professional software, despite all the time and the fact the hardware is good enough. As I said earlier, this is entirely due to the philosophy, advocated for mobile devices - those should not be tools for consumers to use, but tools through which the consumers are being used. This market was inventing for milking people, not for making them more capable and productive.andrewaggb - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
I think it really goes back to what a person needs to be productive. For some people that is just a web browser (eg chromebook). I have no doubt that the iPad pro may be productive for some people/uses and be everything they need in a computing device.In my case, as a windows/linux/web software developer I need a windows machine (or vm), with visual studio, sql server, eclipse, postgres, ms office, and various supporting apps. For me a chromebook or ipad is not a pro device or really even useful. I have various co-workers with SP3/4's + dock that drive dual screens and peripherals and get by ok. I like to run vm's and various other things that cause 16gb of ram to not be enough, so I'm stuck in desktop/premium laptop territory. I really don't mind that.
Personally - I barely use my ipad air and ended up installing crouton (ubuntu) on the chromebook. I'm sure other people are different.
Different devices for different kinds of professionals.
lilmoe - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
Your point?$1000 laptops (even from Apple) are MUCH more powerful already, and they will get even more powerful. Same can be said about $1000 Windows 10 tablets. Technology will always progress, this isn't restricted to iPads.
Why is everyone trying to make iOS for professional productivity a thing? Why torture ourselves? Do you guys really believe it's only about computing power, which by the way isn't nearly close to being adequate? Good luck moving that 200GB RAW 4K video clip on that thing, let alone edit it. Good luck using it for 3D modelling and engineering. Good luck writing and compiling software...
As pointless as the new Macbook was, it sure as heck is a lot better than this thing for what it's advertised for...
This is an accessory, NOT a pro product. "The writing is on the wall"...................
ddriver - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
"Why is everyone trying to make iOS for professional productivity a thing?"You ENTIRELY miss the point, which is "why is NOBODY doing it". It is a computer, REDUCED to an accessory, which COULD be THAT MUCH MORE USEFUL.
Actually, using OpenCL even mobile hardware can process high resolution video faster than a good video workstation was capable not 5 years ago. The hardware is perfectly capable of audio, video editing, 3d modelling, graphics, engineering, software development and whatnot. It is not as fast as the fastest desktop workstation, but it is fast enough to do the job, while still being very portable. All it lacks is the software to do it.
lilmoe - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
Cool story, nice mood swings, you're amazing. lolBut still. Why torture yourself with iOS running on crippled "hardware", when there are devices that do iPad stuff better than iPads, run desktop class OSs and already have the software you need for the engineering and productivity stuff.
Because buying multiple devices to accomplish one task is a better thing to do?
ddriver - Friday, January 22, 2016 - link
What a touching attempt at condescending cynicism. Alas, as always you get things the wrongest way possible. Those capitalized words were not the product of mood, but motivated by your poor cognitive abilities, a last resort attempt at making the painfully obvious a tad more obvious, so that hopefully, you could finally get it. Unfortunately, you seem to be entirely hopeless."Because buying multiple devices to accomplish one task is a better thing to do?"
It is you who advocates such things. My point is exactly that - given the proper software, an ipad would be all that is needed, no need to buy an ipad AND a laptop to get your work done.
And that would be the last set of keystrokes I waste on you. Seriously dude, invest some time in improving yourself.