The iPad mini (2021) was a big upgrade from Apple, sporting a new design for the range. But it wasn’t without issues, including reports of ‘jelly scrolling.’ Apple could fix that for the iPad mini (2022) though, by upping the refresh rate to 120Hz.
That’s according to a user posting on Clien (a South Korean social media site), who claims that Samsung Display has shipped an 8.3-inch 120Hz display sample to Apple.
The source adds that this next iPad mini may be called the iPad mini Pro, but that aside from the refresh rate it will do little to justify the name, with 4GB of RAM just like its predecessor and the same A15 Bionic chipset - albeit with a slightly higher clock speed of 3.23GHz.
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One other upgrade though will apparently be a starting size of 128GB, rather than the 64GB of the iPad mini (2021). That would be nice to see, as 64GB simply isn’t enough in this day and age.
Finally, the source says that the iPad mini 2022 will cost slightly more than the iPad mini (2021), which for reference starts at $499 / £479 / AU$749.
We would however take all of this with a huge helping of salt. This is a new source so they don’t have a track record yet, and we’d think it would be early to be hearing about new iPad mini rumors – we’ve referred to this as the iPad mini (2022) since that’s probably when it would be landing if Apple is already getting screen samples, but the company doesn’t normally refresh the range that quickly.
Analysis: jelly scrolling begone
We’d also think it’s unlikely Apple would bring a 120Hz screen to the iPad mini anytime soon – though perhaps if it did launch an iPad mini Pro it could justify one there.
That said, the move could make sense if it really fixes the jelly scrolling issue. Jelly scrolling refers to an issue where lines of text appear to tilt or wobble when you’re scrolling through them, such as when reading a web page.
This is only visible in portrait orientation, and Apple claims it’s normal behavior for LCD screens, caused by the fact that the screen refreshes line by line, leading to a delay which can make the text look wobbly – like jelly.
It’s not super noticeable to most people, but a move to a 120Hz refresh rate could feasibly fix it, as while it wouldn’t remove the problem entirely, it would mean the screen could refresh twice as fast, making the jelly effect far less visible.
So there’s some logic to this rumor, but we’d remain skeptical for now.
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Via PocketNow and @FrontTron
