“Blooming” is the term for when some areas of a screen’s display are dim, while others appear bright, resulting in a blooming or halo-like effect of the graphics. MacRumors first reported users were experiencing this effect on their brand-new iPads after many took to Twitter to complain. Despite many users having this problem, Apple’s support page promises the new iPad minimizes this blooming effect. “The Liquid Retina XDR display improves upon the trade-offs of typical local dimming systems, where the extreme brightness of LEDs might cause a slight blooming effect because the LED zones are larger than the LCD pixel size,” Apple says in its support document for the Liquid Retina XDR display. “This display is designed to deliver crisp front-of-screen performance with its incredibly small custom mini-LED design, industry leading mini-LED density, large number of individually controlled local dimming zones, and custom optical films that shape the light while maintaining image fidelity and extreme brightness and contrast.” The new iPad features 2,500 local dimming zones, thanks to the more energy-efficient mini-LED technology. The screen has over 10,000 LED chips as its backlight source and is cheaper to make than OLED screens. Apple hasn’t officially acknowledged the blooming issue in the iPad Pro, but Lifewire has reached out for comment. While the display may be disappointing for some, the new iPad Pro still has some impressive features, such as Apple’s homemade M1 chip, 5G support, an Ultra-Wide camera that keeps you in the frame, and more.
