New devices, new teardowns. That’s what we can expect from the crew over at iFixit, and, sure enough, the trend continues. Today, the teardown experts have taken apart Apple’s newest and smallest tablet. Along the way, they even describe what some are calling a “major issue.”
Sometimes, iFixit publishes a teardown via a video first, and that’s the case this time around. This teardown video offers up plenty of looks at what’s present under the hood in one of Apple’s newest tablets. And, of course, shows how it all comes apart, too.
But, perhaps mostly, it’s about jelly scrolling. It’s not the biggest issue in the world, at least not for some, and it’s present in the iPad mini 6. For those unfamiliar, jelly scrolling itself is when the screen tears, with a mismatch in refresh rates. So it leads to one side of the screen not moving with the rest of the screen.
Now, while some iPad mini 6 users won’t notice this behavior at all, others will. And, according to iFixit, the jelly scrolling is pretty apparent on the 8.3-inch display. The repair crew says the screen refreshes from one side to another, in a wave-like pattern.
The iPad mini 6’s controller board is located in a vertical position on the left-hand side of the screen. And iFixit believes the jelly scrolling is because of the placement of the controller board, which drives the iPad mini 6’s display. This appears to be why the latest iPad mini model has the jelly scrolling effect while the tablet is in portrait mode and it doesn’t crop up in landscape mode.
Another possibility brought up by the teardown crew is that Apple is simply using a less expensive display panel in the iPad mini 6.
Apple has responded to the issue, but it’s probably not the response some owners were expecting. The company says the jelly scrolling effect on the iPad mini 6 is the result of “normal LCD display behavior.” And that’s about it! Which suggests that the company won’t be offering up replacements for the issue as part standard warranty coverage (or AppleCare+ for that matter). But, even if it did, it sounds like the construction of the tablet itself is why the jelly scrolling effect happens, which means a replacement wouldn’t matter anyway.
If you have a new iPad mini, have you experienced this issue?