Facepalm: Apple's recently unveiled tiny tablet, the iPhone mini 6, has received very positive reviews, but some owners have found an annoying problem. Reports are arriving of the display showing a jelly effect when scrolling, caused by one side of the screen moving at a different speed to the other side.
Many have praised the new iPad mini. It features a larger, 8.3-inch display packed into a smaller form-factor, an A15 Bionic SoC, USB-C charging, and 5G. But some units appear to have a problem.
Dieter Bohn of The Verge (via 9to5Mac) tweeted a video of the issue. He notes how it's more apparent in portrait mode when there's a lot of text on the screen, with one side moving faster than the other while scrolling.
Here is is slow-mo video of scrolling on the iPad Min i slowed down EVEN MORE in a frame-by-frame step through. Notice how the right moves up faster than the left.
--- Dieter Bohn (@backlon) September 22, 2021
In normal usage you barely see it, but every now and then it become noticeable. In landscape it goes away entirely pic.twitter.com/iq9LGJzsDI
It's certainly not the most noticeable issue; Bohn said you could hardly see it during normal usage, and he had to slow the video down to show what was happening. Nevertheless, it's not something you would expect in a brand new, $500 device.
We don't know if this is a hardware issue related to the LCD panel or display controller or if this is a software/firmware problem addressable with an update. Apple will doubtlessly be hoping for the latter, given that it is already facing class-action lawsuits over reports of cracks appearing in the screens of its M1-powered MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops.
Exactly how many iPad Mini 6 units are suffering from the jelly effect is unclear, and it could be that some owners simply haven't noticed, despite feeling nauseous while browsing the web.
Earlier today, we heard that replacing the screen on an iPhone 13 renders Face ID unusable if Apple doesn't carry out the work.