Which Apple display should I trust?

[mrelsewhere]

I enjoy editing photos on my wife's 21.5 inch, late-2012 iMac. The screen is large, and images look bright, vibrant, and contrasty.

Here's the thing: these same photos look drab by comparison on my 2013 iPad mini and my 15-inch, mid-2015 Macbook Pro Retina.

Which display should I trust?

 

[Ysarex]

You should trust the one that you calibrate. Monitor calibration and profiling requires hardware: https://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-CMUNS...F8&qid=1467585731&sr=8-1&keywords=xrite+smile

Joe

 

[weepete]

Yup. Trust the calibrated one.

 

[KmH]

It also depends on what type of display each device has, and on the color temperature and brightness of whatever ambient light is falling on each display.

Whenever the ambient light falling on a calibrated display changes, and to account for the display ageing, it has to be re-calibrated .
Professional image editors using expensive displays re-calibrate their display at least monthly to adjust for display ageing and ensure that ambient light falling on their display is always the same color temperature and brightness.