I would not be happy with it either. I hope you're able to get one you're happy with. Good luck.
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iPad Air screen defect?
- Thread starter xenaki
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I would not be happy with it either. I hope you're able to get one you're happy with. Good luck.
Wanted to chime in here, as this thread got me extremely worried. I have 20/20 eyesight with perfect color vision so I was worried I'd notice all these faults once my Ipad came. Received my 32 gb Sprint Air today, week 50 DMPL and am absolutely relieved. Beautiful, super bright, cool even screen. Only the very faintest hint of blacklight bleed in one corner. Very very slight. If I try absolutely hard enough I can sometimes think I can imagine a very slight bookspine effect on the left edge, but I really think it's imaginary. No yellowing that I can see. Possibly the slightest slightest hue if I hold it a certain way, but again I really think it's imaginary. I *REALLY* tried hard to find faults (no idea why), but came away very happy. So relieved. Hope you all find units you are happy with! 
Thanks. Am glad I still have my 1st Gen Mini. The display on it is so much better.
I may forgo the Air and order a refurb iPad 4. For me, weight/size difference between the 4 and Air isn't enough to change how I would use it. It would still be awkward for me to use it one-handed or walk around using it. So if it's going to be on my lap or desk, anyway, being lighter isn't a big deal.
Nice to read. This is what we all wished we got Qamsi. And it's accounting like yours which make us try and try again. Imagine our frustration at each new iPad we receive, we open the box, power the iPad and as soon as the "hello " screen displays we immediately see the dreaded yellow tint and flawed backlighting.
I'm stucked in the exchange process because refund had been denied to me from the retailer. Otherwise I'd have call it a day for good. The last Air I received yesterday (a DMPL 48th week) has the worst tint I ever saw. Awful.
Merry Xmas to you all anyway.
Happy to hear that
Bought a new one today (after a refund on Monday) and the serial is DMPL (week 50) as well.
But the screen is uneven: top side is warm / a bit more yellow, bottom side is slightly blue/green and there is no book spine. Actually I'll not keep it and swap or be refund again.
I've been able to catch this issue in the Setting screen when seeing the top and then the bottom I can see the difference. Also in landscape mode when using the keyboard I can see the color difference between the keys (keys from top left and keys from right left).
Very tired!
Mery Xmas
Bought a new one today (after a refund on Monday) and the serial is DMPL (week 50) as well.
But the screen is uneven: top side is warm / a bit more yellow, bottom side is slightly blue/green and there is no book spine. Actually I'll not keep it and swap or be refund again.
I've been able to catch this issue in the Setting screen when seeing the top and then the bottom I can see the difference. Also in landscape mode when using the keyboard I can see the color difference between the keys (keys from top left and keys from right left).
Very tired!
Mery Xmas
Wanted to chime in here, as this thread got me extremely worried. I have 20/20 eyesight with perfect color vision so I was worried I'd notice all these faults once my Ipad came. Received my 32 gb Sprint Air today, week 50 DMPL and am absolutely relieved. Beautiful, super bright, cool even screen. Only the very faintest hint of blacklight bleed in one corner. Very very slight. If I try absolutely hard enough I can sometimes think I can imagine a very slight bookspine effect on the left edge, but I really think it's imaginary. No yellowing that I can see. Possibly the slightest slightest hue if I hold it a certain way, but again I really think it's imaginary. I *REALLY* tried hard to find faults (no idea why), but came away very happy. So relieved. Hope you all find units you are happy with!
Honestly (because no one pokes fun of the OCD crowd more than me...) I wouldn't accept that either, and I'm reasonable with tech "imperfections".
While I could live with mine, I decided that I liked the mini better anyway and returned it last night. My mini is flawless. No retention, and the screen is perfectly even. The tmobile free data is pretty slick, and by "downgrading" to the mini it only cost me 30 bucks for gps and a lifetime of free data (200mb a month, but free is free).
I too believe the air just has a design flaw. They all do. Maybe some don't notice it, but it's there...
I liked it, but in the end if I could be happier with something else I make the move. Would I return 8? Nah. 2, tops, then it'd be on to something else.
It might not be OCD this time, but it's still silly to put yourself through that many returns if it bugs you that much.
While I could live with mine, I decided that I liked the mini better anyway and returned it last night. My mini is flawless. No retention, and the screen is perfectly even. The tmobile free data is pretty slick, and by "downgrading" to the mini it only cost me 30 bucks for gps and a lifetime of free data (200mb a month, but free is free
).I too believe the air just has a design flaw. They all do. Maybe some don't notice it, but it's there...
I liked it, but in the end if I could be happier with something else I make the move. Would I return 8? Nah. 2, tops, then it'd be on to something else.
It might not be OCD this time, but it's still silly to put yourself through that many returns if it bugs you that much.
Agree. As someone else mentioned, it's so disappointing and frustrating to unbox an iPad and power it up and then be immediately disappointed as soon as the "Hello" screen appears.
Tried three rMinis and two Airs myself (all with vastly different color temperatures from side to side or top to bottom), and have just given up.
Whether there's something with my eyes causing them to be more sensitive to the colors or whatever; the difference between one side of the screen and the other is as clear as night and day to me (one side is blue and one side is yellow). It's just too distracting, and there's just no reason to think that another will be any different. It's obviously something about the way the new models are designed and/or assembled.
I just hope that whatever change Apple made causing this for some of us impacts enough people that they feel the need to correct it in future generations. I've considered competing tablets, but I just don't want to get into the whole Google universe or deal with Windows 8.
Also, as actual proof that there is a difference (whether everyone can actually discern it or not), I loaded up my earlier screenshots in Photoshop and used the eyedropper tool to compare the RGB values of different portions of the screen.
Set to a 50x50 average sample, here are some examples of the numerical data captured by the DSL sensor:
So, unless someone is now going to claim that my Canon DSLR is just OCD, the shift is there.
Set to a 50x50 average sample, here are some examples of the numerical data captured by the DSL sensor:
- The center shows RGB 234/233/231.
- The upper right corner is 202/200/208 (bluish).
- The lower left corner is 213/213/209 (yellowish).
- An area on the left side is 211/215/213 (greenish)
So, unless someone is now going to claim that my Canon DSLR is just OCD, the shift is there.
Depending on what Santa does tomorrow, I might have enough money to get an iPad Air to use for school. I have never had an iPad. After reading about all the screen problems, I am concerned.
It seems in all likelihood you either won't even notice it or won't be bothered by it. Obviously, there are a lot of happy iPad Air owners out there. I'm just not one of them.
If the money is there, I will be heading to the Apple store Thursday morning. Hopefully, I will be happy with a purchase. I hope Santa can help this poor college student out.
If the money is there, I will be heading to the Apple store Thursday morning. Hopefully, I will be happy with a purchase. I hope Santa can help this poor college student out.
Good luck. Target had the Airs discounted and was offering $20 gift cards, but not sure whether it ends tonight.
Brent you should send that data to apple....although knowing them, there will only be more silence.
I have read so much on this I don't know what to believe.
All the stuff about glue that hasn't cured...really?
If that's the case, it should be part of the official product notes:
"Your partially yellow screen is not a cause for concern. Please give it a few weeks and it will turn to crisp, evenly tinted white.In case this does not happen, your warranty will allow for a refund."
I have read so much on this I don't know what to believe.
All the stuff about glue that hasn't cured...really?
If that's the case, it should be part of the official product notes:
"Your partially yellow screen is not a cause for concern. Please give it a few weeks and it will turn to crisp, evenly tinted white.In case this does not happen, your warranty will allow for a refund."
Probably no point in providing the numbers. If that's the official line, they're admitting that the issue is present - just saying it will go away.
And I'm sure they've done far more measuring and testing than what I did.
This is the kind of test I like.
The question is: 5% is something to complain ?
It could be very interesting to check several displays from different manufacturers ...
What was the distance between your iPad and camera?
And how do you set white balance on your camera?
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I positioned the camera approximately five to six feet from the screen to try to minimize any impact of viewing angles.
Left white balance on auto since my goal wasn't to test the calibration of the screen - only to test tone variation from one side to the other.
Also just for info, I used my Datacolor Spyder with their calibration app, and the actual calibration (at the cente of the screen, at least) seemed very good.
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It's definitely enough for me to notice, but may be within their tolerances. I was mainly just wanting to see whether an objective, unbiased sensor would pick up the same thing or not.
What would be interesting would be to use custom, fixed white balance and take direct, isolated shots of individual portions of the screen and compare the color temperature.
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Can you take a photo of both iPad and a white sheet of paper (or Kodak gray card) next to each other? It would be interesting to see RGB variations on both.
I'll see what I can do when I get back home. I'm not sure that test will be able to show anything useful, though, since the gray card will be providing the camera white balance system with a baseline for the ambient light in the room which doesn't impact the iPad screen at all since it is backlit.
Will still play around with it.
Alright. As I expected, photos of gray calibration card (in my case an 18%-gray mouse mat) next to the iPad screen didn't work since both white balance and exposure were too different (ambient light vs. LED backlights).
I was thinking later, though, that maybe what you were after was just to see how uniform a photograph of the gray card would be. So, attached is a crop of a portion of the gray mat. Keep in mind that this is a fabric surface so it's not completely clean. Still, there is very little variation in tone.
I then used the gray mat illuminated only by the iPad screen to set a custom, fixed white balance and took some more photos of the iPad screen - this time the Settings page because gray looks even worse than white. To further eliminate the possibility of viewing angle issues, I used the custom white balance to take photos framing just opposite corners rather than just cropping them from the larger one.
These photos capture the way the screen actually looks in-person very well.
I was thinking later, though, that maybe what you were after was just to see how uniform a photograph of the gray card would be. So, attached is a crop of a portion of the gray mat. Keep in mind that this is a fabric surface so it's not completely clean. Still, there is very little variation in tone.
I then used the gray mat illuminated only by the iPad screen to set a custom, fixed white balance and took some more photos of the iPad screen - this time the Settings page because gray looks even worse than white. To further eliminate the possibility of viewing angle issues, I used the custom white balance to take photos framing just opposite corners rather than just cropping them from the larger one.
These photos capture the way the screen actually looks in-person very well.
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I would also point out that my 5% variation statement was simply talking about the variation value as a percentage of the full RGB range (0-255 for each color). I would say that the perceived variation would probably be greater because both the RGB format and digital sensors are limited.
Again ... While I do appreciate the analytic approach of your previous post, looking at this pictures I can't see anything worthing a return in your unit.
There could be slightly variations in your display illumination, but judging from this photos I think it's a perfectly working unit (keep in mind that I'm speaking only with your photos in mind, since I didn't see your iPad ).
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No I didn't and he can't do.
We don't know what is the acceptable production variation on this display.
Is it 6% variation ? So the screen is just within limits.
Is it 3% variation ? Ok then we have a defective unit.
The annoying part comes from sitting down and actually using the iPad, not by glancing at a bunch of photos on a forum.
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