iPad Mini 6 – Jelly Roll Blues
Along with the iPhone 13 on September 14, Apple (AAPL) also announced the latest version of the iPad Mini, the iPad Mini 6, an 8.3” tablet designed to be a handheld device a bit larger than a premium smartphone but less than a full size tablet. Apple made a number of improvements in the Mini 6, particularly with the chipsets, but along with those improvements came the inevitable bugs that are a part of almost any hardware upgrade, and it doesn’t take long for users/bloggers to dig them out once the device has been delivered (September 24).
The most prominent of the bugs is called ‘jelly scrolling’, aka ‘scan out skewing’. This phenomena occurs when a user is scrolling the screen in portrait mode, with one side of the display refreshing more slowly than the other, making images and text jiggle. It doesn’t happen as noticeably when the device is scrolled in portrait mode. This issue is actually one that occurs in many devices but is almost invisible, however due to a change Apple made in the internal design of the IPad Mini 6, it has become an issue. In a typical device, such as a smartphone or a monitor, the controller board is oriented in the same direction as the way the display is typically scrolled, meaning as you scroll down, the screen is being refreshed line-by-line vertically. This ‘hides’ much of the action of the repainting of the screen as you move the text or image. In the iPad Mini 6 however, Apple changed the orientation of the controller board, which causes the screen to be refreshed horizontally. When you scroll up or down in portrait mode the controller is repainting the screen horizontally, rather than following your scroll, and the text or image jiggles as you scroll.
Apple has responded to complaints by saying that this is a ‘normal’ function of how screens refresh, and to a degree they are right, as the iPad Pro also has the controller board mounted the same way, but the faster refresh rate of the higher cost iPad Pro makes the jelly scroll unnoticeable. Some have speculated that Apple might have used a less expensive, lower spec display, which might be exaggerating the issue, but that remains unconfirmed. Since a fix would seemingly require a redesign of the iPad Mini 6 internals, we expect there is little users or Apple can do about the problem, or than to use the Mini 6 in landscape mode whenever possible.
Within the last few days however, a new issue has popped up concerning the Mini 6. There have been reports that screen discoloration and distortion can occur when the user uses extra touch pressure, such as when you press and hold. When the user reporting the issue received a replacement, the same problem occurred, although Apple was willing to make that replacement for this problem, while not for the jelly scrolling issue. As this issue does not seem to be widespread, at least currently, we doubt Apple will make any changes to its display suppliers, but such potential defects do have an effect on Apple’s supply chain once they determine from where the problem occurs. If it is a touch issue or a display issue it could have an effect on Apple’s supplier choices going forward, but with only a few days of dealing with the problems, we expect Apple is trying to determine whether the new problem has a single component root and if so is it limited to a small number of units or the entire line.
https://youtu.be/WWKb_khoFzw - Jelly Scrolling - First 20 seconds (Ctl-Click)
The most prominent of the bugs is called ‘jelly scrolling’, aka ‘scan out skewing’. This phenomena occurs when a user is scrolling the screen in portrait mode, with one side of the display refreshing more slowly than the other, making images and text jiggle. It doesn’t happen as noticeably when the device is scrolled in portrait mode. This issue is actually one that occurs in many devices but is almost invisible, however due to a change Apple made in the internal design of the IPad Mini 6, it has become an issue. In a typical device, such as a smartphone or a monitor, the controller board is oriented in the same direction as the way the display is typically scrolled, meaning as you scroll down, the screen is being refreshed line-by-line vertically. This ‘hides’ much of the action of the repainting of the screen as you move the text or image. In the iPad Mini 6 however, Apple changed the orientation of the controller board, which causes the screen to be refreshed horizontally. When you scroll up or down in portrait mode the controller is repainting the screen horizontally, rather than following your scroll, and the text or image jiggles as you scroll.
Apple has responded to complaints by saying that this is a ‘normal’ function of how screens refresh, and to a degree they are right, as the iPad Pro also has the controller board mounted the same way, but the faster refresh rate of the higher cost iPad Pro makes the jelly scroll unnoticeable. Some have speculated that Apple might have used a less expensive, lower spec display, which might be exaggerating the issue, but that remains unconfirmed. Since a fix would seemingly require a redesign of the iPad Mini 6 internals, we expect there is little users or Apple can do about the problem, or than to use the Mini 6 in landscape mode whenever possible.
Within the last few days however, a new issue has popped up concerning the Mini 6. There have been reports that screen discoloration and distortion can occur when the user uses extra touch pressure, such as when you press and hold. When the user reporting the issue received a replacement, the same problem occurred, although Apple was willing to make that replacement for this problem, while not for the jelly scrolling issue. As this issue does not seem to be widespread, at least currently, we doubt Apple will make any changes to its display suppliers, but such potential defects do have an effect on Apple’s supply chain once they determine from where the problem occurs. If it is a touch issue or a display issue it could have an effect on Apple’s supplier choices going forward, but with only a few days of dealing with the problems, we expect Apple is trying to determine whether the new problem has a single component root and if so is it limited to a small number of units or the entire line.
https://youtu.be/WWKb_khoFzw - Jelly Scrolling - First 20 seconds (Ctl-Click)
iPad Mini 6 Discoloration issue - Source: 9 to 5 Mac
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