Joe Rossignol
The first reviews of the iPad mini 7 were published today, and many of them say that the “jelly scrolling” effect on the device's display is either less noticeable or not noticeable at all. One prominent tech site, however, disagrees.
The major exception is The Verge.
“The 'jelly scrolling' effect from the latest model is still very noticeable,” opined The Verge's David Pearce.
In a follow-up comment posted to Threads, Pearce said, “I'm sitting here scrolling on both a 2021 and 2024 Mini, and if you forced me to pick which one is better, I'd say the 2024 wiggles LESS. But it still wiggles.”
Many other reviews have said that jelly scrolling appears to be fixed, with Apple making changes to the display-related hardware to minimize the effect.
Jason Snell, writing for Six Colors:
From what I understand, the new model's display layout is different from the old model, and I couldn't detect any jelly scrolling while using it. That's not to say it's gone away, and I'm eager for eagle-eyed jelly scrolling experts to report their findings, but I definitely couldn't see it, even when I recorded myself scrolling at a high frame rate and played it back frame by frame.
Craig Grannell, writing for Stuff:
Apple believes it has optimized the display, but doesn't provide any details on how. In my opinion, jelly scrolling doesn't look as bad as I remember last time, but keep two things in mind. First, I don't have an old iPad mini to compare it to. Second, I wasn't too worried about it last time.
Nathan Ingram, writing for Engadget:
One piece of good news about the display is that it appears Apple has fixed the “jelly scrolling” issue that plagued the previous iPad mini. Jelly scrolling occurs when one side of the screen doesn’t refresh at the same rate as the other, and the effect was noticeable in portrait mode on the older iPad mini. It’s not something I ever noticed when using the new iPad mini. I’m curious to know if the issue has been completely resolved or if my eyes just didn’t notice it, but I’ll continue to use the iPad mini in the coming weeks to see if I notice any display issues.
Brenda Stoliar, writing for WIRED:
But I can’t talk about the iPad Mini’s display without mentioning the 2021 model’s infamous “jelly scrolling.” iPad Mini owners have complained that one side of the screen refreshes more slowly than the other when scrolling up and down on the display. I didn’t encounter this on my Mini, but Apple did make an effort to optimize the LCD in the latest model to alleviate the issue. Apple didn’t disclose what exactly it changed, but either way, I again saw no issues on my test unit.
Tony Polanco, writing for Tom’s Guide:
Finally, I didn’t notice the infamous “jelly scrolling” screen tearing that plagued the iPad mini 6 during my testing. I can’t say whether Apple fixed the issue or whether I just didn’t notice it. But if that changes, I'll update this review.
Federico Viticci, writing in MacStories:
And while the display technology remains the same — it's an IPS display with a 60Hz refresh rate — the so-called “jelly scrolling” issue has been eliminated thanks to an optimized display controller.
“Jelly scrolling” refers to screen tearing, which can cause text or images on one side of the screen to appear slanted downwards due to a mismatch in refresh rates. This can cause one side of the display to appear as if it's responding faster than the other, resulting in a visual distortion that's hard to ignore once it's noticed.
Jelly Scrolling on the iPad mini 6
The effect is noticeable on the iPad mini 6 when the device is used in portrait orientation, leading to complaints from customers for the past three years.
Shortly after the iPad mini 6 launched, an Apple spokesperson told Ars Technica in a background interview that “jelly scrolling” is “normal” behavior for iPads with LCD displays. Given that LCD displays refresh line by line, there's a slight delay between when the rows at the top and the rows at the bottom are updated. The effect is especially noticeable on the iPad mini 6, as it can be seen in portrait orientation rather than landscape.
The new iPad mini goes on sale this Wednesday, October 23.
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