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13th iPad (for various reasons)... and still no good

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macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
Ok, so I'm on my 13th iPad. In fairness, one of those was because I decided I wanted a different color, and another one i decided i wanted to upgrade to one with 4G. 3 were returned right away in the store (scratches, dark blotches behind the screen). A couple were super yellow, one had over a dozen dead pixels, and one even had the bottom half of the screen turn baby blue! :eek:

I just got a new one from the genius bar tonight. Pretty bad backlight bleed, and the weirdest thing: there's a darker 'stripe' through the middle of the screen. Has anyone else seen this on their iPad? (Not to mention the pinkish areas)

UPDATE: I returned this iPad the next night. The Apple store employees saw the problem immediately and quickly went to swap it out. I talked with the store manager and opted for a full refund instead.

IMG_0481-smaller.jpg


Oh... and here's one of the other screens I had. This one looked good at first, but then gradually turned to this:
IMG_0486.jpg


And one more. This is a very light gray screen (the white balance on my phone didn't accurately show the shadows visible in real life on a white screen). This one had what I would best describe as a wrinkle in the display on the bottom left and some yellowing at the top left.

IMG_0351.jpg
 
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M

macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this. The genius bar employee told me that they would give me a full refund if this one still didn't live up to my expectations. I think I'm ready to take them up on that.
 
D

Dlanod

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,000
96
UK
I've seen various combinations. I'd give up if I were you. It's ridiculous that the customer becomes Apple's QC.
 
mcdj

mcdj

macrumors G3
Jul 10, 2007
8,964
4,214
NYC
I have seen the Stripe of Darkness on the left or right, but not in the center.

This pic is one of the best representations of the utterly awful quality some of these new iPad screens exhibit.

To be fair though, scratches, dust, blotches, etc. does not equate to "DOA". Dead on arrival means dead, as in does not power on, not cosmetically flawed. You're already fighting an uphill battle to be taken seriously by this crowd...don't be dramatic.
 
M

macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
mcdj said:
I have seen the Stripe of Darkness on the left or right, but not in the center.

This pic is one of the best representations of the utterly awful quality some of these new iPad screens exhibit.

To be fair though, scratches, dust, blotches, etc. does not equate to "DOA". Dead on arrival means dead, as in does not power on, not cosmetically flawed. You're already fighting an uphill battle to be taken seriously by this crowd...don't be dramatic.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I wasn't trying to be dramatic, DOA is just what the Apple employees wrote on their notes for the iPads.

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swingerofbirch said:
That's ridiculous that you have had to go through so many. I'm surprised they haven't tried capturing these. If the store has so many bad ones, you would think engineering would want to figure out what's going on.
Click to expand...

The thing is, the reason I've noticed they are so bad is because I work with a couple who have spectacular screens. It really is just luck of the draw I think. I don't have much luck.
 
mcdj

mcdj

macrumors G3
Jul 10, 2007
8,964
4,214
NYC
swingerofbirch said:
That's ridiculous that you have had to go through so many. I'm surprised they haven't tried capturing these. If the store has so many bad ones, you would think engineering would want to figure out what's going on.
Click to expand...

I took photos of basically the same issue, at the request of Apple corporate, who then forwarded them to "engineering". I was politely told, "Sorry, it's within spec."

I maintain that a large number of these types of flaws are present in many new iPads, and that people are either not using them in a way that it's readily noticeable, (used only for games, photos and movies) or they just can't see it, or they don't realize it shouldn't be like that because they've never owned a previous iPad.

There are more and more people chiming in here on this issue every day. There's also a 29 page thread about it on Apple's forum, and a 7 page thread on avsforums, as well as several other scattered reports on various smaller forums.

I'm willing to bet it gets bigger before it goes away.
 
M

macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
mcdj said:
I took photos of basically the same issue, at the request of Apple corporate, who then forwarded them to "engineering". I was politely told, "Sorry, it's within spec."
Click to expand...

If that's the response I get from AppleCare tomorrow, I will go for the full refund the genius bar employee offered yesterday. I've had plenty of other Apple products without issues, and I don't really feel like settling for subpar quality. I'd rather just put that money toward vacation later this year.
 
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master-ceo

master-ceo

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2007
1,495
3
The SUN
macjoshua said:
iPhone 4 indeed. It is actually a pretty good representation of what I'm seeing in real life, though. Which isn't all that wonderful.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention that looking at the pic at different angles I can see the dark strip too. Apple needs to tighten up. The green + antenna in the iPhone 4 is a perfect example of the lack of beta testing and poor QC on its mobile devices.
 
G

Giov

macrumors member
Mar 28, 2012
62
0
I am with you for this one. If you are not happy, just settle for a refund. It's quite appalling to see that it is still happening even after a month. Don't know how long I am going to wait.
 
nicoplanet

nicoplanet

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2009
130
0
France
What about some sort of international petition for this screen issue?
In order to let Apple know this issue more "loudly"? :mad:

Honestly, I haven't seen any correct new IPad screen until now... Exchanging is not the solution (even more if Apple guys say DOA!). Apple should modify something in the production lines...

My 2 cents.
 
Nhwhazup

Nhwhazup

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2010
3,450
1,697
New Hampshire
Either you must be extremely unlucky or I've been very lucky as my first purchase iPad has been fine. No discoloration on the screen, no back bleed and no dead pixels.

I guess you should have kept one of the two that were the wrong color iPad. How could you have gotten two the wrong color? Did like the box say white and inside was a black one? And this happened to you twice? If so you must really be unlucky as I would say the odds are pretty slim that happening twice in 13 purchases.
 
S

seadragon

Contributor
Mar 10, 2009
1,872
3,151
Wow. :eek:

That screen looks like absolute garbage. This is what I was seeing in person too. Seriously, these new screens are utterly terrible. How anyone can defend crap like this is beyond me. The apologists have their heads up their own...

Anyway, Apple has a quality control problem here. I sincerely hope they get this sorted out and start producing good and CONSISTENT screens.

But, I'd get rid of that one in the photo for sure. And I wouldn't care if it was number 13 or 113. Or you could do what I did and just give up on the new iPad for now and try again in a few months.

That's the amazing Retina display Apple advertises?

29425.jpg
 
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ZipZap

macrumors 603
Dec 14, 2007
6,076
1,448
13 ipads is extreme and I am wondering why you did not inspect them in the store before leaving?

This problem could be easily mitigated if Apple would take a position on these exchanges/issues.

Since Apple continues to allow these echanges, and has remained silent on the issues, I must conclude that Apple agrees that these devices are defective.
 
M

macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
0m3ga said:
ummm, there are only 2 colors?
Click to expand...

It wasn't two because of color, it was one to change color and one to add 4g. I fixed the original post.

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ZipZap said:
13 ipads is extreme and I am wondering why you did not inspect them in the store before leaving?

This problem could be easily mitigated if Apple would take a position on these exchanges/issues.

Since Apple continues to allow these echanges, and has remained silent on the issues, I must conclude that Apple agrees that these devices are defective.
Click to expand...

I agree. It is extreme. There is one I wish I had just kept in hindsight. The glass wasn't fitting into the aluminum frame right at the bottom, but the screen was absolutely gorgeous. However, every time I went into the store, the Apple employee noticed what I was talking about immediately.
 
Abazigal

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,551
21,993
Singapore
I am starting to wonder if this is apple's way of trolling you.

Want to exchange another IPad? Here's a faulty one. Oh, what's that? You want another one...?:cool:exchange some more...we have tons more faulty units where that came from...
 
T

tanboom

macrumors member
Aug 19, 2011
98
0
macjoshua said:
Ok, so I'm on my 13th iPad. In fairness, one of those was because I decided I wanted a different color, and another one i decided i wanted to upgrade to one with 4G. 3 were returned right away in the store (scratches, dark blotches behind the screen). A couple were super yellow, one had over a dozen dead pixels, and one even had the bottom half of the screen turn baby blue! :eek:

I just got a new one from the genius bar tonight. Pretty bad backlight bleed, and the weirdest thing: there's a darker 'stripe' through the middle of the screen. Has anyone else seen this on their iPad? (Not to mention the pinkish areas)

Image
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous. New iPad has other problems which and when I put on MR for open discussion, people said I am a troll !!!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1347314/
 
M

macjoshua

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
504
553
Nashville, TN
tanboom said:
That's ridiculous. New iPad has other problems which and when I put on MR for open discussion, people said I am a troll !!!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1347314/
Click to expand...

Your post was a bunch of reasons why you didn't think people should buy an iPad, or what you didn't like about it.

Mine is a photo of a real quality issue rather than random stuff I am unhappy about. If I could get one that has relatively even backlighting, tint, and no dead pixel issues, I would be super happy with the new iPad.

You're entitled to your opinion, but if you post derogatory stuff about Apple products on an Apple-based forum, you should expect to get some negative feedback.

...and if you noticed, my post has been down-voted quite a bit. So it's not like people are often kind in these forums.
 
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I

inaka

macrumors 6502
Apr 26, 2010
366
3
I can't wait to see when you next test your car's MPG to the advertised claims....
 
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