iPad Pro Will the iPad's new OLED screen be as long-lasting as conventional LCDs?

[John981]

Hi there,

I'd like to buy a new iPad Pro model to upgrade from my old 2017 10,5" iPad Pro. I've decided to go for a Pro again since I want to retain the 120 Hz screen. Drawing features and performance aren't important factors to me since I mainly use my iPad for note-taking. Now, because I plan on using the new tablet for at least the next five years, I would like to buy a somewhat recent model though.

That leaves me with two options that I'm considering: The new M4 iPad Pro plus Apple Pencil Pro or the previous gen M2 iPad Pro with the 2nd generation Pencil.

M4 iPad Pro plus Pro Pencil: 1348€
M2 iPad Pro plus 2nd Gen Pencil: 911€

The new one is a whole 400€+ more expensive than the old one, and moreover, I'm not sure that my main use case of note-taking (on a screen that will mostly be displaying a white background) will be ideal for the new OLED screen. What do you guys think, maybe one of you has used a different OLED tablet in the same way and can speak for the longevity in a use case like that?

I'm currently leaning towards the old one since the old LCD screens always looked great to me and I just don't see the point in spending another entry-level iPad's worth to then worry about burn-in on a fragile-looking new iPad.

 

[th1nk]

I see you own an iPhone 13 Pro which is also OLED. There is nothing to worry about, Apple screens are not prone to burn-in and the Tandem OLED is even less likely to burn in. The screen on the 11 inch M4 will be much nicer than on the M2. It‘s just about how much you want to pay for it.

 

[John981]

I see you own an iPhone 13 Pro which is also OLED. There is nothing to worry about, Apple screens are not prone to burn-in and the Tandem OLED is even less likely to burn in. The screen on the 11 inch M4 will be much nicer than on the M2. It‘s just about how much you want to pay for it.

I'm with you in general in that I think Apple has OLED pretty well under control. There's a difference in how I use an iPhone vs. how I use an iPad, though. On my iPhone I barely have any white background on and I usually keep my iPhones around three years.

An iPad is something I'd have lying next to me while reading something and taking notes for example, meaning the screen would stay on for a while displaying a white background. I'd also keep this for at least five years, maybe even longer than that.

The main reason I'm asking is because my 2017 iPad Pro has had an annoying white spot on its display for the last few years (appears to be a common defect) and I'd like to avoid buying another device whose display quality will be affected after just a few years.

 

[c14nhl]

This is absolutely something I’m thinking about.

I spend a lot of my day with OneNote open, taking notes from meetings. The iPad is set to not sleep. I may have to consider a new approach.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The main reason I'm asking is because my 2017 iPad Pro has had an annoying white spot on its display for the last few years (appears to be a common defect) and I'd like to avoid buying another device whose display quality will be affected after just a few years.

I think you just answered your own question.
The LCD in your 2017 developed an issue, it’s very possible the LCD in your M2 could develop the same issue in time.
My suggestion,!buy what you want, because any mass produced product can be defective, especially one with years of usage.
If you buy the M2 and it develops a screen issue, you’re going to feel quite silly for not going M4.
On the other hand if you go M4 and it develops an issue, you’re going to wish you went M2.
Really no point trying to buy a product based on one possible flaw that would exist no matter which one you go with.
Just get what you think works best.

 

[gusping]

I see you own an iPhone 13 Pro which is also OLED. There is nothing to worry about, Apple screens are not prone to burn-in and the Tandem OLED is even less likely to burn in. The screen on the 11 inch M4 will be much nicer than on the M2. It‘s just about how much you want to pay for it.

I think it is more than you never have static info on your iPhone for very long, like you do on an OLED monitor, for example. I don't think it's anything to worry about for these iPads too much, unless you know you will be using one app for hours and hours every day.

 

[John981]

I think you just answered your own question.
The LCD in your 2017 developed an issue, it’s very possible the LCD in your M2 could develop the same issue in time.
My suggestion,!buy what you want, because any mass produced product can be defective, especially one with years of usage.
If you buy the M2 and it develops a screen issue, you’re going to feel quite silly for not going M4.
On the other hand if you go M4 and it develops an issue, you’re going to wish you went M2.
Really no point trying to buy a product based on one possible flaw that would exist no matter which one you go with.
Just get what you think works best.

I agree to some extent (of course every product can be faulty and there's a warranty to mitigate issues that arise early on), but the M2 iPad Pro's screen has been out for a lot longer of course, and issues with the LCD panel are probably less likely given that they've had LCD panels on iPads for the last ten or so years. I'd wager that the first generation of any new product type is statistically much more likely to have problems.

This is absolutely something I’m thinking about.

I spend a lot of my day with OneNote open, taking notes from meetings. The iPad is set to not sleep. I may have to consider a new approach.

That's pretty much my use case, except that I do have it set to lock after fifteen or so minutes. I'm guessing that this won't be an issue for the first year or two of use (essentially during the warranty period), but I could see it causing problems in the mid to long-term, say, after 2 and a bit years of use.

 

[jonnyb098]

Blows my mind it’s still 264 PPI when the iPhone is 460. I think the M4 GPU could handle at least 326 ppi🤣

 

[klasma]

Blows my mind it’s still 264 PPI when the iPhone is 460. I think the M4 GPU could handle at least 326 ppi🤣

Panel yield decreases with pixel count, so quadratically with PPI, and the 13” already has 57% more pixels than the Pro Max.

 

[ZombiePete]

This is absolutely something I’m thinking about.

I spend a lot of my day with OneNote open, taking notes from meetings. The iPad is set to not sleep. I may have to consider a new approach.

I do too, but I have OneNote set to have a dark background and white ink. Have you tried it? It’s almost impossible to go back to a white background for me now.