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iPad mini I didn't realize that 60hz on the iPad mini was this bad

M

Mity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 1, 2014
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I just bought an iPad mini 7 from Amazon because of the early Black Friday sale. My plan was to use it while commuting and at work to read articles and take care of email on a larger but manageable screen. I don't know if I've been spoiled by 120hz displays (see Edit 2 below) but it's actually quite horrible to scroll (I don't think this is jelly scrolling). I even let it sit overnight to allow background processes to complete.

I have my iPhone 15PM next to the mini7 and just scrolling in Settings makes the text on the mini7 blurry and unreadable until I stop. Same behavior while browsing Wikipedia and NYT in Chrome. On the the 15PM, text is perfectly clear and scrolling is smooth. I do NOT experience this same blurry text phenomenon on my M4 MBA or when using my external 60hz monitors. Has anyone else noticed this?

In terms of sharpness and clarity, the screen is nice. OLED would be great but if this was 120hz and it had a faster processor and FaceID, then this could be my new favorite iPad. I could even use it as my phone since I always carry my AirPods Pro with me.

Edit: Someone has the same concern https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...so-much-worse-on-ipads-than-macbooks.2452466/

Edit 2: This issue is not likely due to the 60hz display itself but the issue is made more apparent because of the 60hz display. See this comment for more info: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-ipad-mini-was-this-bad.2472069/post-34309591
 
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I can’t stand 60hz now. I never noticed it when I had an iPhone pro max and iPad Air, they were totally different devices and the iPad just felt like an iPad. After I got the M4 Pro (now M5), I 100% got spoiled with 120hz. I tried to use an iPad mini because I love the form factor for couch browsing and reading, but it just felt so glitchy and stuttery and I couldn’t do it. 60hz in 2025 is a damn shame, needs at LEAST i0, if not 120
 
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While you might not notice jelly scroll, the problem you are noticing most likely lies with the underlying cause of it. On the Mini 7, in portrait mode, jelly scroll creates the issue where both halves of the screen refresh at different rates due to the display controller orientation. This cause 60hz to look even worse IMO.

You can try using it in landscape mode to see if it helps as this removes the refresh issue but yeah Apple didn’t do any favors switching the display controller around from the previous gen and keeping it 60hz. Btw, all displays do this cause that’s how tech works but with OLED response times and high refresh rates sometimes you can’t even tell.
 
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Sheepish-Lord said:
While you might not notice jelly scroll, the problem you are noticing most likely lies with the underlying cause of it. On the Mini 7, in portrait mode, jelly scroll creates the issue where both halves of the screen refresh at different rates due to the display controller orientation. This cause 60hz to look even worse IMO.

You can try using it in landscape mode to see if it helps as this removes the refresh issue but yeah Apple didn’t do any favors switching the display controller around from the previous gen and keeping it 60hz. Btw, all displays do this cause that’s how tech works but with OLED response times and high refresh rates sometimes you can’t even tell.
Click to expand...

I just tried in landscape and the same issue exists. But I bought the mini specifically to use in portrait mode - it feels more natural in this orientation, like a journal or book.

There is virtually no lag on the 15PM or even my 60hz M4 Macbook Air. This could be a software issue.
 
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I had the mini for awhile this year. Yeah it was "slightly" noticeable. I used it mostly for reading so that helped not dealing with the 60hz issue. That said, every time I came back to my 15 Pro Max (then) - it was kinda cool to get that - "Wow this is so much smoother" - same for my MBP. lol.
 
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I use a MacBook with a 120Hz screen, directly below a 6K 60Hz monitor. For the life of me, I can't tell any difference whatsoever. I don't play games, and my eyes are a few decades past my 20's, so maybe those are factors, but I put zero stock into the Hz rating.
 
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poorcody said:
I use a MacBook with a 120Hz screen, directly below a 6K 60Hz monitor. For the life of me, I can't tell any difference whatsoever. I don't play games, and my eyes are a few decades past my 20's, so maybe those are factors, but I put zero stock into the Hz rating.
Click to expand...
I will give you that the difference was hardly noticeable and after a few mins of using the device it was not even an issue. lol. Also in my 40s here!

Happy Turkey Day to you too :D
 
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poorcody said:
I use a MacBook with a 120Hz screen, directly below a 6K 60Hz monitor. For the life of me, I can't tell any difference whatsoever. I don't play games, and my eyes are a few decades past my 20's, so maybe those are factors, but I put zero stock into the Hz rating.
Click to expand...

There is no lag at all when I use my M4 Macbook Pro or M4 Macbook Air with my 60hz 4K LG Ultrafine displays. It IS very noticeable on the mini's display. Very noticeable. This is exactly what the other person noticed as well. How it can be that 60hz on my Macbook Air and on my external monitors look perfectly fine but not on the mini itself?
 
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I upgraded to iOS 26 on the mini, thinking maybe the software update would provide a fix but that didn't work either.
 
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I wonder if you seeing some harmonics from your ambient light source and the screen refresh rate. do you see the same effects under led lights , cfl , and natural sunlight (could polarization be an issue). have fun (my Tandy 2000 with monochrome VGA doesn't seem to have issue but it's scrolling rate is very low - I think your expectations are a bit unrealistic)
 
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Abydos said:
I wonder if you seeing some harmonics from your ambient light source and the screen refresh rate. do you see the same effects under led lights , cfl , and natural sunlight (could polarization be an issue). have fun (my Tandy 2000 with monochrome VGA doesn't seem to have issue but it's scrolling rate is very low - I think your expectations are a bit unrealistic)
Click to expand...
I know I use my iPads in low light mostly. Maybe that helps / hurts the noticeability? Most people I know (my partner included) use their iPads in high light with brightness way up. Mine is usually 20% or less.
 
Abydos said:
I wonder if you seeing some harmonics from your ambient light source and the screen refresh rate. do you see the same effects under led lights , cfl , and natural sunlight (could polarization be an issue). have fun (my Tandy 2000 with monochrome VGA doesn't seem to have issue but it's scrolling rate is very low - I think your expectations are a bit unrealistic)
Click to expand...

I'm on the US East Coast and it's overcast now with filtered natural light. I still notice the lag. I setup the iPad last night when I had LED lights on and light from my monitor. I can't say if there's been a material change in the lag since I can't A-B test this but it's still there.

My external LG monitor looks great. No lag regardless of the lighting.
 
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As a Mini iPad/iPhone lover you may not want to hear this but the iPad Mini 6/7 are just bad panels regardless of advertised PPI or color specs. The last great iPad Mini display was the 5, you could tell the 5 display was sharper, less ghosting, and the colors were richer. Apple **** the bed with the new gens.
 
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Sheepish-Lord said:
As a Mini iPad/iPhone lover you may not want to hear this but the iPad Mini 6/7 are just bad panels regardless of advertised PPI or color specs. The last great iPad Mini display was the 5, you could tell the 5 display was sharper, less ghosting, and the colors were richer. Apple **** the bed with the new gens.
Click to expand...

I completely agree that the colors aren't as nice as my old 12.9" M2 with miniLED or the newer OLED's but the colors aren't the worst part IMO. Instead of treating it like an inferior model they should make it a mini-Pro iPad. It's twice the price of a regular iPad. They could at least give it OLED and more RAM. At this point, I would just like 120hz.
 
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Mity said:
I just tried in landscape and the same issue exists. But I bought the mini specifically to use in portrait mode - it feels more natural in this orientation, like a journal or book.

There is virtually no lag on the 15PM or even my 60hz M4 Macbook Air. This could be a software issue.
Click to expand...
This was already the case on the mini 6, much blurrier somehow than the mini 5. If it’s a software issue, it’s likely more on the firmware or display controller side. But it might also be an issue of the LCD panel having slow response times (how fast a physical pixel changes its color after its signal changes). For example, the recent Nintendo Switch 2 has the issue that while supporting a 120Hz refresh rate, the pixel response time of its panel is much slower than your average 60 Hz monitor.

In any case, what you are seeing is largely NOT due to the mini only being 60 Hz.
 
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klasma said:
This was already the case on the mini 6, much blurrier somehow than the mini 5. If it’s a software issue, it’s likely more on the firmware or display controller side. But it might also be an issue of the LCD panel having slow response times (how fast a physical pixel changes its color after its signal changes). For example, the recent Nintendo Switch 2 has the issue that while supporting a 120Hz refresh rate, the pixel response time of its panel is much slower than your average 60 Hz monitor.

In any case, what you are seeing is largely NOT due to the mini only being 60 Hz.
Click to expand...

This would explain it. I don't ever remember 60hz being this bad on my older iPhones. I went from an iPhone 5s to 6s to 11 Pro but then spent time in Android land. I remember my 11 Pro feeling slower than my OnePlus 7T but never choppy feeling like this new mini7. It can't be just the 60hz alone otherwise the Macbook Air and external monitors should have it too.
 
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TechRunner said:
It doesn't bother me on my Mini 7. Of course, I don't use my 16PM and/or M4 MBP at the same time as my Mini, so there's no comparison to spoil it for me.
Click to expand...

I didn't compare it to my other devices right when I got it. I compared it to them after I noticed that something was definitely wrong. And like @klasma said, it's likely not the 60hz that is the issue and I think that's true.
 
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