Shortly after the completely revamped iPad mini 6 was released last September, some users noticed that the LCD screen exhibited a so-called “jelly scrolling” display refresh quirk. As first reported by MacRumors and expanded on by Patently Apple, this lawsuit shows that some iPad mini 6 users aren’t satisfied with that explanation. The lawsuit has been filed by Christopher Bryan of Colorado, who alleges that this “defect” of the iPad mini means that the display “bends, warps, blurs and obscures text and images” to the point that it is “unusable.” In the lawsuit, the plaintiff notes that other devices that use LCD screens don’t suffer nearly as badly from the jelly scrolling defect, including Apple’s own iPad Air.
Lawsuit claims iPad mini 6 is defective because of ‘jelly scrolling’ issue
In the lawsuit, which was first spotted by MacRumors, the plaintiff also alleges that “users have reported motion sickness, nausea, vomiting, and migraines when using the Device due to the Defect.” Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Apple is aware of the defect but is still currently selling the iPad mini without taking steps to fix it or amend marketing materials to reflect it.
Is Jelly Scrolling on the iPad Mini Really Normal Behavior?
“I fired up last year’s iPad Mini, an Amazon Fire HD, and a Huawei Media Pad, and couldn’t find one that specifically bothered me with left-right refresh difference,” said Avi Greengart, a consumer tech analyst, in an email to Digital Trends. In the case of the new iPad Mini, while some users were OK with the jelly screen, many were upset because Apple showed no desire to fix the problem since it’s not a hardware or software issue. “The iPad Mini has a 60Hz refresh rate, meaning the lines of code are refreshed 60 times per second, fast enough where the average person typically will see it as a solid image without lag or flickering,” said David Lynch of Payette Forward, a website dedicated to diagnosing and solving issues with Apple products. The fact that they aren’t, and that lots of people are noticing a “jelly scroll” effect, is indicative of an issue.”
Apple rarely acknowledges defects, often only fixing the problem later down the line with an adjustment to a future model or expanding warranty service options. It’s far more subjective, and to some extent, it is a genuinely common occurrence, so it’ll be much harder to prove if it does end up in court as some customers are planning.
Many users admitted on social media and tech forums that they didn’t even realize the jelly scrolling effect was present before they read other users’ reports about it, including Digital Trends own mobile section editor, Ajay Kumar, who didn’t notice the problem on his own iPad Mini 6 until he was actively looking for it.
Apple says the iPad Mini’s jelly scrolling isn’t a problem that needs to be fixed
Apple tells Ars Technica that it thinks the “jelly scroll” effect some users have noticed on the new iPad Mini is normal LCD behavior that the company won’t have to fix. If you want to see how LCD screens refresh in shocking detail, The Slow Mo Guys on YouTube have done a video showing how it works with TVs and iPhones.
The reason it sticks out on the iPad Mini, though, is that it’s frequently used in alignments where the problem is most apparent — it’s not likely to be an issue on a landscape display where you’re scrolling vertically.
Does your new iPad mini have this weird ‘jelly scrolling’ display issue?
Apple’s brand new and redesigned iPad mini appears to be suffering from a strange display issue known as ‘jelly scrolling.’ While not everyone appears to notice it, the symptom should be fairly easy to reproduce — users report that one half of the tablet’s display scrolls more quickly than the other. The issue hasn’t been mentioned in any iPad mini reviews that I’ve seen, but it was first reported by The Verge’s Dieter Bohn on Twitter.
While most noticeable when scrolling text, the problem is still visible in apps with images and other assets, perhaps making this a bigger issue than it might otherwise seem. It’s caused by a noticeable lag on the left side of the screen that delays and distorts content in that area no matter what you’re using the device for, apps, web, videos, etc.
iFixit Explains iPad Mini ‘Jelly Scroll’ Issue in Teardown Video
iFixit today tore apart one of Apple’s new iPad mini models, and in the process of the teardown, the repair site gave a detailed overview of why the new tablets are displaying an issue that has been dubbed “jelly scrolling.” On the iPad mini, iFixit speculates that the direction the screen is scanning is related to the placement of the controller board that drives the iPad mini display, and that’s why there’s jelly scrolling when in portrait mode.
The iPad Air, which does not exhibit the same issue in portrait orientation, has a controller board located at the top of the tablet.
ProMotion technology could help fix jelly scrolling on future iPad mini models
Rumor has it that the next iPad mini could adopt ProMotion, Apple’s screen technology providing dynamic refresh rates up to 120Hz which could also help fix jelly scrolling. But Apple is reportedly now working on a future iPad mini model with twice the screen refresh rate, or up to 120Hz, according to a sketchy post on a Korean forum and shared on Twitter.
As such, ProMotion helps save battery life by not wasting resources on redrawing the display sixty times per second when a lower refresh rate could do just as well. The repair site believes jelly scrolling is caused by the placement of the controller board which is located in a vertical position on the left-hand side of the screen.
Newest iPad mini has a subtle scrolling problem [Updated]
Update, 9/28/2021: In response to our inquiry, Apple has told us that the “jelly scroll” issue on the 6th-generation iPad mini is normal behavior for LCD screens. There’s also a clear dividing line down the middle of the screen in portrait mode, as observed in our testing and in the video linked below—it’s not a problem isolated to the extreme edges of the display. Original story: Apple’s newest iPad mini was released to the general public on Friday, and over the weekend, users began to complain about a subtle scrolling problem when using the tablet in portrait mode (MacRumors has a good round-up post).
iPad mini teardown sheds new light on “jelly scrolling” controversy
A new teardown of Apple’s latest iPad mini by iFixit found a clue that may explain the “jelly scrolling” effect that some of the tablet’s users have complained about. In case you missed our past coverage on the subject, some iPad mini users noticed a subtle, stagger-like disconnect between the right and left sides of the screen when scrolling through content. While another video test showed that the jelly scrolling was still happening on that tablet in portrait mode just like the mini, the Pro’s 120Hz refresh rate all but masks it to most human eyes.
Recent online controversy about the iPad mini’s jelly scrolling aside, iFixit’s teardowns are usually focused on exploring how easily repairable devices are.
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