Apple has begun shipping iPad Pro tablets with the 2021 M1, and the larger 12.9-inch version is getting special praise for its beautiful mini LED display. We praised the iPad Pro 2021 (12.9") in our review for its brightness and great image quality, but some owners are now reporting a distracting bloom effect on the screen when viewing the tablet in a dark room.

In particular, 2021 iPad Pro users like Josh Teder and Teoh Yi Chie have posted images on Twitter on Twitter. [As MacRumors points out, Apple's support documentation for the new iPad Pro states that the Liquid Retina XDR display on the larger iPad Pro handles local dimming better than typical LED LCD displays, minimizing bloom This is because it is clearly stated that it is designed to handle local dimming better than a typical LED LCD display.

Local dimming is a trick used in modern LED LCD displays to match the high contrast ratio of OLED displays, allowing individual pixels to be turned on and off. In contrast, LED LCD displays are backlit by LEDs and cannot illuminate specific pixels without emitting extra light.

The 12.9-inch version of Apple's 2021 iPad Pro has a special mini LED display, and the addition of mini LEDs is significant. This is because the Pro's mini-LED diodes are one-fifth the size of regular LED diodes and have more dense lighting zones that can be individually brightened or dimmed.

"These mini LEDs are grouped into an array of over 2,500 individually controlled local dimming zones. This produces amazingly deep blacks right next to bright image areas, with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1," Apple's support documentation states.

"Transient characteristics of the local dimming zone, such as slight blurring or color changes when scrolling on a black background, are normal behavior.

Some users have now posted images of the 12.9" iPad Pro in total darkness where a noticeable light bloom can be seen around the bright areas of the screen, even when not scrolling. Many users are quick to point out that this is a very subtle effect and hardly noticeable unless you are using the iPad in a dark room, but even then, Apple's new mini-LED display, like the one on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, is a high-quality OLED is a striking example of how it falls short of what can be achieved with a screen.

We also want to point out that while we found the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's display to be surprisingly sharp and bright during this review, we would need to view HDR content on this device to see the difference that the mini-LED display makes. Of course, this does not mean that non-HDR content will look worse. Not all iOS apps currently support HDR content (HBO Max does), so if you use those apps, you should know that you will not be able to take full advantage of the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro's display.