Lazy scrolling on the iPad mini 6’s screen, also known as “jelly scrolling,” is normal behavior for Apple, which recalled yesterday that this effect occurs on all LCD screens. But oddly enough, while no one noticed this sluggish scrolling until now, it’s with the new smaller tablet that’s getting the most attention — though, not by all.

In my video teardown of the iPad mini, I fix it puts forward two hypotheses. The first is quickly vacated as it is impossible to confirm at this time, Apple could very well have used a slab of less good quality for this model. The second is more interesting. The tablet’s screen controller is held vertically to the left when holding the iPad mini in portrait.

When using the tablet in portrait format, scrolling the screen gives the impression that the text on the left “moves” faster than on the right. The screen refreshes in a wave-like motion, from edge to edge. The effect is rarely visible when using the iPad mini in landscape format, in which case the refreshing is done line by line, parallel to the controller.

On the iPad Air in portrait, the controller is positioned at the top of the screen, which makes scrolling less jarring in this format (but also less visible when using the iPad Air in landscape). On the iPad Pro, where the controller is also held vertically, like the iPad mini, it’s the ProMotion screen at 120Hz to compensate for the lack of scrolling.

I fix it Gave a repairability rating of 3 out of 10 for this new small tablet, due to the use of glued components (including the battery) and adhesives that limit or prevent repair operations.