Apple Addresses 2018 iPad Pro 'Bending' Controversy, Says Subtle Deviations May Be More Visible Due to New Design

[DevNull0]

Do people actually think it's possible to manufacture a product without microscopic bends?

Every product is designed with a tolerance metric. There is no such thing as a product designed with zero tolerance. This includes ultra fancy luxury products (smaller tolerances) to crappy products (large tolerance levels).

You do know that your Macbook Pro, Macs, iPhones, etc.. all have these same tolerance levels, right?

Your BMW's and Teslas also have bends in them.

That's entirely the point imo. Good product designers work around these tolerances to create a product that looks sleek and perfect. Apple doesn't even care enough to anymore.

I'm sure the tolerances in my car are much more lax than the new iPad, yet I'll never see a defect unless I get out a micrometer and start checking it. The iPad is a defective design.

 

[sdf]

This is actually not acceptable

I really doubt we've seen any legitimate photos of the manufacturing bend. Most of the photos I've seen have been of iPads that were very obviously bent by customers.

 

[TitanicManDC]

You’re looking at it wrong!

What a joke.

 

[applefan69]

I see macrumors is using that misleading and completely unrelated picture again.

The picture does NOT show a freshly-unboxed iPad.

The user who posted it on MacRumors (link) said it did NOT come bent from the factory:

​

The only bent thing here is MacRumours respect for the truth.

I honestly appreciate you posting this to bring to our attention the potentially misleading image. Good work! There is way too much of this crap going around & idiots believing it.

HOWEVER, I did click the link you provided, & read the post by the user providing the picture. I am paraphrasing but he basically says he didnt check the iPad when new, he had it in a backpack while hiking or something for a week, looked at it after & sees it is bent, shares photo with internet.

Either the users iPad came bent. Or it got bent in the backpack. Agreed? Both scenarios are still fairly unacceptable. If it got bent in the backpack that is still a major red flag not to buy this product & goes against Apple's statement "the design will not bend as time goes on", implying the product is durable enough to avoid bending over time.

 

[stanhope]

if they bend, and it's visible then IT IS A DESIGN FLAW.no if, no but,no fancy terms, no manufacturing explanation will change that.
it SHOULD be flat with no visible bending.if it's not, then you've got a design flaw.
end of story.

Amen

 

[jimmy_uk]

Nice to see my thread, which came first, was closed and not merged.

 

[317342]

The first genius I had accused me of accidentally damaging the 20 day old iPad! I went around him

Good job. I can believe it.

Be patient, persistent, and above all, keep good notes/records of who you talked to, when, and what was promised or otherwise said. --should you have to work with the corporate office, this is what they will need from you.

In 15+ years of Mac ownership, bad customer service is rare but does happen, and knowing how to navigate it is key.

 

[citysnaps]

You implied you can easily bend a 2017 MacBook Pro , don’t pretend you have an engineering background - that was complete nonsense. My 2017 MacBook Pro is a very solid laptop , which would taken unreasonable force to bend .

And my 2017 MBP is solid as well. No complaints. But, if opened and motivated, I could certainly bend it.


"don’t pretend you have an engineering background - that was complete nonsense"

Really. And how would you know? What is your background? Still in school, perhaps?

 

[synergize]

My brand new Aluminum Ford 150 is bent!

 

[rmoliv]

They can’t admit they screwed up can they? They should address the AirPower too, 2018 is over. Apple shows very little respect for their customers. Disgusting.

 

[stanhope]

This response is unacceptable.

No, if it doesn’t bother you, so be it and bend over. What is unacceptable is your weigh in on how somebody else spends their dollars. I was a day away from buying one and i cancelled that plan until this satisfactorily sorted. My dollars don’t dance to trump like explanations With 3 homes full of Apple products I’d wager my business is at least as important to Apple as your’s and in all likelihood more.

 

[MrRage]

400 micron is 0.0157 of an inch. That is pretty piss poor for anything precision related.

 

[citysnaps]

They can’t admit they screwed up can they? They should address the AirPower too, 2018 is over. Apple shows very little respect for their customers. Disgusting.

Why do you reward a company purchasing their products with your hard-earned currency if you feel disrespected and disgusted by that company?

Genuinely curious.

 

[ChrisChaval]

Pathetic

 

[CreeptoLoser]

Having the curved chassies edges made deviations impossible to see. Having a flat edged chassis makes even tiny deviations visible if you look hard for them. This has been known in engineering of many products. We're battling with physics not bad design.

 

[jclo]

Just a heads up -- we had some complaints about the photo that was previously used in this article, so I've swapped the original photo for a different photo of a 12.9-inch 2018 iPad Pro demonstrating a slight bend. The original photo featured a more significant bend and some users rightly pointed out that it was not perhaps the same issue that Apple is describing.

It's still unclear what's going on with the bending on the whole, as some of the bends we've seen have been more dramatic than others. For that reason, I'd encourage you guys not to focus too much on the photos in the article, but more so on the information that Apple is offering up.

If you have a bent iPad, please feel free to share photos and let us know if you've been able to get a replacement from Apple. Apple suggests this is just a cellular issue, but we've seen complaints from non-cellular owners too, which indicates there could be more than one bending problem happening.

 

[Rob_2811]

Nope, not a survey. Why do you keep making stuff up?

It's called being an engineer and naturally curious. And needing data and information in order to make an informed judgment.

You're apparently OK thinking an iPad being in backpack was enough to cause it to bend. I'm not.

No, I'm not and you know this because I even said as much in my first response to you.

 

[DragonX]

So what happens if your iPad gets bent after 1 Year period? Imagine what happens to motherboard and other components inside a bent structure. Add some time.

For example my iPad stopped normally reacting to touch after 1 Year. After reading numerous threads about my issue I suspect it happened due to structural inconsistencies due to poor manufacturing (by the way never admitted by Apple) I cannot sell it, I cannot replace it, I’m stuck with an expensive device that was supposed to work better than competitors.

Truly speaking not just expensive but also quite limited - one can blame developers or China or something else - but in fact it is very limited for its price. For typing text or browsing web or even watching movies you can buy a $100 computer. Drawing with pencil? Yes! But for $1000 and one year warranty? No way.

This statement from Apple made me woke up.

 

[Solver]

If a new iPad has an out of the box bend more than the thickness of four pieces of paper, Apple should replace it on demand.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Oh, please. It’s a $1000 device. I expect it to be flawless. You want to charge premium, supply premium. No it doesn’t affect my use. But neither does a dent on my car, which would also not be acceptable.

 

[FairlyKors]

This is actually not acceptable

What isn’t acceptable? A 4 micron tolerance governing a flat surface? When I picked up my 2018 iPad Pro, I took a look at it (like all reasonably sentient beings would), and seeing no aberrations, I still decided to try sliding 4 pieces of very thin paper under any edge or gap I could find. Then I flipped it over and tried again. I did this partly because I wanted to make sure all the concern trolling didn’t actually, somehow, have a 5 micron leg to stand on.

But, I couldn’t slide even one sheet of paper under any part of the tablet on either side.

***The fact that MacRumors keeps using the picture of the ultra-bent (AKA: broken) iPad at the top of every one of these articles that chronicle this running “news coverage,” really forces me to question MacRumor’s motives—because if they keep even one legitimate journalist on staff—they should absolutely know better than to print this story like this.

The way this story was spun originally I *did* think Apple had a QC issue. But it turns out very few people seem to actually mean what they say. Amd nor do many actually care about the issues they claim to be terribly concerned over. MacRumors is prioritizing clicks over truth, and many readers seem to want to feel self righteous outrage, whether it makes sense or not.

Why don’t we all grow up a little bit? It’s bad enough that we have to watch politicians pull us all down with their childish, petty lies and preschool antics. Let’s (try) to save our outrage for actual things that actually matter—like iPads that actually come brand new with more than 4 microns(!) of curvature to them (that Apple refuses to exchange). Let’s aim for that.

 

[KPOM]

Sure - but Apple is not admitting a manufacturing defect . Therefore it will be misuse , even if there is a design flaw. Apple has not admitted any flaw . Therefore a bent iPad , will be for the customer to prove it was a manafacturing defect .

In general, cosmetic manufacturing defects are apparent fairly quickly. So are most mechanical defects. There are some, such as GPU overheating, that take time.

I’ve used my iPad Pro for 2 months and it looks good. No bending.

 

[nordique]

People act like a case is magic shield that will somehow stop the forces of physics and reality from applying to the enclosed device. It's simply not true. Here's some of the issues cases cause:

•Apple designs their devices to cool through the body. Adding a case is adding insulation. Like you putting on a parka when you really want to keep cool on your run.
•retaining and concentrating heat in the body can, and likely will, lead to different rates of expansion in the metal, possibly causing a permanent bend.
•most cases snap on the enclosed devices and likely cause a compressing force that over time can encourage bending and warping unless the case is very, very well designed.
•different metals/alloys have different levels of 'memory' that may allow them to return to their original shape when they cool again, some do it very well some nearly not at all.
•A case is just about guaranteed to collect dust and debris between itself and the device causing micro-scratches in the surface. This happened a LOT with the colorful iPods with the anodized color cases,

I'm hard pressed to come up with any other high-cost thing in our lives that we purchase then put in a case. Not our TVs, stereos, refrigerators, cars, jewelry, etc. You'd laugh if you saw a Rolex or a gold ring in a case. Who sold us this bill of goods that a case is needed for our mobile electronics?
Fact is that if you put enough G-force through a sheet of glass it will break, enough torque on a plane it will bend, enough point pressure of metal it will dent. A case may make it harder for those levels or force to get to the device but why don't you keep it out of the case and just treat it with the care and respect that an expensive device deserves?

How on Earth can you know or judge how he uses his product unless you see him use it or know his habits with his electronics. He's a smart man, he's a well off man, and he certainly treats his electronics with more care than you put into your posts. Some pretty pompous statements there, especially towards the end.

We also both understand enough about the natural laws of physics to know cases aren't magical shields. This isn't about cases not being magical shields. This is about an expensive device that has the branding of a company with a reputation for quality, making a product that is more prone to bending than is reasonable.

The genius who looked at the iPad agreed, and that's why they're swapping it out. Seems that I haven't been the only one at this local Apple Store who has swung by an noticed this issue.

My father's owned the iPad 2, iPad with Retina, iPad Air, Air 2, Pro 10.5.
No issues with bending ever since the iPad 2!

 

[Shiro_Simba]

And my 2017 MBP is solid as well. No complaints. But, if opened and motivated, I could certainly bend it.


"don’t pretend you have an engineering background - that was complete nonsense"

Really. And how would you know? What is your background? Still in school, perhaps?

My first apple product was in 1980. Don't patronise me.

Now it's an open MacBook Pro you can bend . Just stop.

Feel free to play with the kids here, a few fancy words, claim of engineering background... clearly superior strength ..... Etc. might impress them, I'm not interested. Another universal man .....

 

[ahostmadsen]

I took a picture of my bent iPad (LTE) against the Keyboard Folio. If you look very, very carefully you can see that there is a very slight gap on the right hand side (a little more visible in person than on the picture). I think this is the kind of bend Apple addresses, it seems within 0.4 mm. I can live with it, although not that happy about it.