When Apple unveiled its latest iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch screen, it touted a bunch of new features for its display, including better colors, a new anti-reflective coating, and the ability to adapt to a room's type of lighting.
Those features may seem like fancy gimmicks to some, as they don't make the iPad's screen sharper. But screen sharpness isn't all that matters.
Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of the website dedicated to evaluating and calibrating displays called DisplayMate, recently tested the iPad Pro's 9.7-inch display and ranked it as "by far the best performing mobile LCD display that [he] has ever tested," adding that the iPad Pro breaks "many display performance records."
According to Dr. Soneira, Apple's claims that the new iPad Pro's display has the same color range as the digital cinema industry are actually legitimate. In fact, it's even more color-accurate than "any mobile display, monitor, TV, or UHD (ultra-high-definition) TV that you have... It is the most accurate display we have ever measured. It is visually indistinguishable from perfect."
So, it's good. Really good. On to the next thing.
Apple added a refreshed anti-reflective coating on the new iPad Pro, which prevents displays from turning into mirrors when you're in a very bright room or outside on a sunny day. DisplayMate tested it and concluded that the new iPad Pro's anti-reflective coating only reflected 1.7% of ambient light, and that it's "by far the lowest screen reflectance of any mobile display."
Then there's the new TrueTone feature that makes the iPad Pro's display "behave more like paper reflecting ambient light and taking on its color and brightness," as Dr. Soneira puts it. For example, if you're in room with bright white lighting, the iPad Pro's display will shine a cooler blue hue. But if you're in a cozy cabin with warm lighting, the iPad Pro display's hue will turn to a warmer yellow.
DisplayMate tested the feature, but found that it's entirely subjective and you should only use it if you feel comfortable with it. You can manually adjust the screen's "temperature" by turning on the new Night Shift feature in iOS 9.3 and sliding the slider left or right to make the screen cooler or warmer. Whatever's comfortable!
Mind you that you won't find these features on the original iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch screen. They only exist on the latest 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
It goes to show that there's more behind a screen than just sharpness. In an age where tablet screens are sharp enough already, Apple has begun to improve the finer details, like color and reflectivity, that make the big difference.
