iFixit Shares iPad Mini 7 Teardown, Adds Mystery to 'Jelly Scrolling' Fix

Electronics repair website iFixit this weekend shared an iPad mini 7 teardown video, and it adds some mystery to the device's "jelly scrolling" improvements.

ipad mini 7 feature red and blue
"Jelly scrolling" refers to screen tearing, which can cause text or images on one side of the screen to appear to be tilted downwards because of a mismatch in refresh rates. It can cause one side of the display to look as if it is responding faster than the other side, resulting in a visual disturbance that is hard to ignore once noticed. Some customers noticed the effect on the iPad mini 6 when the device was used in portrait orientation, leading to complaints over the past three years, but not everyone noticed it or was bothered by the effect.

Despite an Apple spokesperson once stating that "jelly scrolling" was "normal" behavior for iPads with LCD displays, it appears the company still felt inclined to reduce the effect on the iPad mini 7. Many reviewers said that "jelly scrolling" was less noticeable or not noticeable at all on the latest iPad mini, and it seems that Apple vaguely told some of these reviewers that it made display-related changes to address the matter.

It was speculated that Apple might have rotated the display controller inside the iPad mini 7 to make "jelly scrolling" less visible in portrait orientation, but interestingly, iFixit said that the display controller's position has not changed compared to the iPad mini 6. The website concluded that Apple has done some unknown "trickery" to reduce "jelly scrolling," so it still remains unclear exactly what Apple has done to mitigate the issue.


The teardown video also revealed that the iPad mini 7's rear Apple logo can be removed, but otherwise the device's internal design is similar to the iPad mini 6.

Apple released the iPad mini 7 last week, with key features including the A17 Pro chip, Apple Intelligence support, Apple Pencil Pro support, and more.

Related Roundup: iPad mini
Buyer's Guide: iPad Mini (Buy Now)
Related Forum: iPad

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Top Rated Comments

goodcow Avatar
2 hours ago at 10:54 am
Is there a technical reason why the iPad mini 5 either has no jelly scroll, or it wasn't a big enough issue like the mini 6? And if the mini 5 didn't have this, what caused the regression moving forward with the mini 6 and 7?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
firstcitazen Avatar
2 hours ago at 11:27 am

I cannot believe we are discussing such minutia. I use my iPad mini 6 in the hospital almost every day, for 10-12 hours a day (for almost 2 years). This is not even on my mind.
Perhaps people should use it for real work, rather than just pure entertainment devices?
I use it for real work and notice the jelly scrolling. What is real work? I work at a hospital too....
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RodThePlod Avatar
1 hour ago at 12:02 pm

The website concluded that Apple has done some unknown "trickery" to reduce "jelly scrolling," so it still remains unclear exactly what Apple has done to mitigate the issue.
Apple:



Attachment Image
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kerplunknet Avatar
2 hours ago at 11:18 am
I have absolutely no trust in Apple when it comes to their displays.

They use PWM (pulse-width modulation) aka flickering in almost all of their products. They have zero credibility.

I'm sure their "fix" for this iPad mini 7 is not without some compromise. Hopefully not, but we'll see. I'm picking up one of these next week.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikethebigo Avatar
2 hours ago at 11:38 am

I find it curious that so many people used the iPhone before Promotion was ever uttered by Apple and it wasn’t the unusable device so many here and elsewhere want to claim devices to be now.
I find it curious that so many people used horses before cars were even uttered by Henry Ford and they weren't the unusable animals so many here and elsewhere want to claim horses to be now.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
1 hour ago at 11:48 am

I find it curious that so many people used the iPhone before Promotion was ever uttered by Apple and it wasn’t the unusable device so many here and elsewhere want to claim devices to be now.
While I personally don’t care about Promotion, your defense was basically framed as “what’s wrong with Apple releasing new products at Today’s prices but last decade’s tech inside?”
Media has changed, the way users consume media has changed, and lower refresh rates are glaringly apparent to many users especially on a seemingly premium device. While I don’t care about 60hz on a hundred and fifty dollar Kindle Fire 8 I darned well expect better on a 500 dollar iPad Mini.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)