Apple Says Some 2018 iPad Pros Ship Bent, But It's Normal and Not a Defect

[nasa25]

love the bend. creates a nice little nook for my hand to rest comfortably

#bendghazi
#benditlikebeckham
#itsallaboutthebendjamins

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

I have not heard of any bent Samsung devices. It looks like the reverse of what you say is true. It's not that other brands are held to low standards, it's just Apple fans standards got very low. I might expect that a $90 phone/tablet is slightly bent. A $1000+ device? Never heard of such thing in my life. Unless they are talking about imperfections measured in microns. But those would not be seen by naked eye so I do not think that's what they are talking about.

You haven't heard about those other brands because no one else gets the fine-toothed-comb treatment like Apple does.

 

[GuruZac]

Thankfully Jony Ive didn’t design the Golden Gate Bridge.

It would be revolutionary, unapologetically simple yet elegant, and courageous in design!

 

[MacsRuleOthersDrool]

I would have assumed these cases are milled and not made from sheet metal.

They are (AFAIK); however, it is the fact that they are milled-down to ALMOST sheet-metal thickness that makes them start ACTING like sheet metal.
[doublepost=1545329803][/doublepost]

I read your post and only receive bla bla bla.
We can produce with tolerances You won’t believe. We can measure if something is plain with accuracy You never heard of ... and so on
Haha ... bla bla bla

We CAN do that; but not at the production rates and volumes of a typical Apple product.

 

[KPandian1]

But, at the same time, presenting this situation as proof that Apple sucks and that these iPad Pros are somehow defective by design and come with major design flaws - I don't think that's true at all. Furthermore, it just builds this unease of using the device for a lot of people who will buy this whole story. Like it will bend if you look at it silly.

Dude - who are you? Apple is shipping 2018 iPads that are bent, there is enough proof from various outlets.

Even Apple admits that it is shipping them bent.

This is an Apple fan site - even for this place your "Apple is great" chant is outlandish, too extremely fan-boyish.

 

[sdreamer07]

Wait, didn't Samsung TVs ship bent as a feature? Maybe this is what Apple is doing too? /sarcasm
Still pretty stupid that Apple is saying this is normal and part of the cooling process. Then toss these in the reject pile instead and keep the ones that are flat. We didn't pay $1000+ for a bent piece of metal...

 

[512ke]

Apple, if you're going to charge insanely high prices, customers will have high expectations.

 

[cocky jeremy]

I don't see the big deal. If you buy it, take it out of the box, and it's bent... just return it. They can't deny it. I mean, the bend is "normal", right?

 

[acksurf]

Sure, it's not a problem until you get denied service at the Genius Bar because there's a bend aka "physical damage", so now any issue is out of warranty.

Exactly. In 2017 was about to receive credit for my iPhone 6 at an Apple Store when an associate noticed a small bend and denied it. Later I sent the same iPhone into Apple for a new battery and they sent it back saying there was physical damage. After that the Apple "magic" disappeared for me. Every year since 2010 I've bought some kind of Apple product but not this year.

 

[x-evil-x]

Even though I have concerns about Tim as a CEO, as a product supply guy he knows very much what he is doing. It is arguable that he helped save Apple just as much as SJ.

He might understand what people want as far as sizes of phones that Steve never wanted to do but as far as customer service and making customers feel good about their purchase he is very far behind in what Steve was. Charging for little things that should be included With the phones is pretty big and tons of people are complaining. Also marking up storage sizes just because it pushes customers to get a storage size they don’t need is rediculous. Offering the xr in the storage size most xs people want and for only 50$ more is nice. But paying 150$ more and pushing customers into spending that because they don’t offer 128 gig is ridiculous but hey it’s a strategy for apple. Same as not including the dongle for headphones anymore in a luxury priced phone. No fast charging like the competitors unless you want to spend an extra 60$. Just a few things here that have started to make customers angry. I don’t see Steve ever steering so far away from customer satisfaction as it has gotten.

 

[skitidetdu]

Quality control when designing and creating prototypes seams to have hit a low mark.

"We can't get every version completely straight in its design - what do we do? I know, we call it normal instead of going back to the drawing board and make it perfect"

 

[seadragon]

A small number of iPads (and it is small, don't let the forum cognitive bias fool you)...

With respect, you really have no way of knowing that. Neither do I for that matter.

I often see people dismiss issues like this as involving only a handful of vocal people. That may be so, but it could also be much bigger than that as not everyone gets vocal or posts on forums like this. Heck, there could be a lot of folks that have a bent iPad but don't even realize it unless they examine it closely, depending on how severe the bend is of course.

The fact that Apple has even made a statement on it at all makes the issue significant enough that they felt it necessary to do so.

 

[shareef777]

It's this type of non-sense from Apple that makes me question my loyalty to the brand. I bought the 11" Pro with folio keyboard and pencil. All three will be going back just from this one stupid statement. I'll speak with my $$$ as it's becoming more apparent that's the only language Apple understands.

 

[Arran]

I don't see the big deal. If you buy it, take it out of the box, and it's bent... just return it. They can't deny it. I mean, the bend is "normal", right?

Check the water sensors too. Maybe run some other basic tests while you’re at it since Apple’s QA can’t be bothered.

Do it before you leave the store. Otherwise it’s their word against yours.

 

[Mike MA]

Contributing to reach a thousand posts. Of course I’m shocked too!

 

[TheSouthPaw45]

I definitely think this is a defect. Apple needs to further address this issue. However, how widespread is the problem? What percentage of devices are actually affected? Would like to know the numbers.

 

[anthonyondre]

Your dollar is your vote folks.

Apple has increasingly done slop-shod quality assurance on software since Mac OS X 10.6, instead relying on users to report problems in beta and users to suffer through problems at release. The difference in an Apple beta release vs a final release is the calendar date, that's it.

And any accountant will tell you, it is not about right or wrong, it is about how much quality assurance and 'to market second' costs vs the damage control and updates. If it costs less for a mining company to not re-enforce the mines and let workers die, and pay off lawsuits, that's what they do. Welcome to capitalism!

Now you are seeing the same approach to Apple hardware quality control, or lack there of. It started with Macs using engineering-defective Nvidia video cards in MacBooks, graduated to bend-gate phones and screen-gate flickering displays. A bend is normal... my (*). I have never seen a 12.9" iPad Pro prior to these new ones bent out of the box or even bent later.

One thing for sure, 1984 in 2018 is not what we expected... Time to vote with your dollar... your Christmas dollar.

 

[itguy06]

The main reason why Cook will not be shown the door is Apple is such a strong brand name that even major missteps don't seem to have any effect on it. If it was another brand with more fickle customers he would have been gone long ago. I hate seeing it happen, but I can't blame Cook and the rest of Apple management leveraging the brand name as hard as they can for maximum profitability.

I'd not be so sure about that. The market reacted quite negatively to them pulling the sales #s of iPhones. It's almost as if they are hiding something. Anti-Apple sentiment is at an all time high. I know as a shareholder I will continue my vote against Tim - he's not good for the company.

 

[anthonyondre]

And "one more thing" in the true "Steve Jobs" way.

I bet Apple Park does not have bends in it's walls, ceilings or humps in the floors. I bet the Apple space ship is perfectly round to the fraction of an inch. It is the last part of Steve that the world can appreciate.

The healthy Steve Jobs (one not overcome by cancer) would have never let this go. Heads would have rolled.

 

[DNichter]

If my iPad doesnt contain a bend then is it defective?

I would say no, you should be fine. The defect comes from manufacturing, likely a small batch of iPad's. Apple said they haven't seen any more returns than iPad's prior, but that could obviously be false. If you got yours and it's straight (like mine is), then you are good. It's a non issue for the bulk of people. People on this site just like to complain.
[doublepost=1545332238][/doublepost]

the 2017 10.5" iPad Pro I still believe is the best product Apple has ever created.

I loved that product, but I am liking the 11 inch Pro even more so. The new design and aspect ratio has been great. I don't think I could go back at this point. The 10.5 is still an awesome device though.
[doublepost=1545332282][/doublepost]

I don't see the big deal. If you buy it, take it out of the box, and it's bent... just return it. They can't deny it. I mean, the bend is "normal", right?

That's a good point. If it's normal, you should have every right to return it.

 

[Ankaa]

Well, this, and i also think, they should warn people about "issues" those products are having. I didn't know the MBP 15 2018 was so fragile, that i took it to work today, and i think it got each time i looked at it a new scratch or something.

Maybe you REALLY should reconsider how you use and handle your things. My MBP is 2+ years old, goes with me everywhere, and doesn't have a single scratch.

People complain about the weirdest things and want "perfect" products, yet I see what feels like every second iPhone with a cracked screen. Hypocritical.

That being said, it's also not like Apple products never had any "issues" before. People must keep in mind that these are mass produced items. And yes, I'm very very certain that other companies have similar or other issues and tolerances in their products, but just no one's paying attention. Observation bias and internet amplification. How many of those complaining on this thread have actually personally seen a bend iPad? I've read about maybe 2 or 3...

Dead pixels.....seriously.... (yes, there has been and always will some tolerance for dead pixels with all manufacturers....just one example)

 

[silver_mtb]

Haha, ironically, I made an image that would be perfect for this article four years ago:

View attachment 811803
Let's look at a few more. Here's a recent joke about how bloated and unresponsive iTunes is:

View attachment 811810

One that accompanied my suggestion that Apple try cortisone cream on that unsightly welt:

View attachment 811804

The HomePod, whose sales haven't exactly been great, reacting to the news that Apple Music will come to Echo devices:

View attachment 811805

Back when the iPhone 6 first introduced that lovely camera bump:

View attachment 811808

I've even blown up Tim Cook's head:

Suffice it to say, I'm around when my silly GIFs present Apple in a negative light as well.

yea, but THAT iPad did not actually have a serious bending problem like the new one.

 

[burgman]

I don't see the big deal. If you buy it, take it out of the box, and it's bent... just return it. They can't deny it. I mean, the bend is "normal", right?

Nobody buys mail order right?

 

[sofila]

I already mentioned this in the post you quoted:



*********************************



I don’t think partially the reason is that some customers are necessarily ignored, but it’s not considered a major issue until Apple likely needs to see a larger quantity of consumers coming forward discussing the issue. Sort of like the battery throttling last year at this time, Apple responded, because the ‘tech media’ was inquiring and they were receiving a lot of feedback, in which they responded to the issue.

Same thing applies here. Customers are coming forward with bent iPads and confused/upset, I’m sure Apple stores are reporting customers returning iPads for this reason, and Apple is starting to see a pattern, which if they don’t respond, it doesn’t look good and it looks like they might be hiding something, but if they do respond, they need to notify the consumer what the outcome is.

What I would like to see/read, is a _real_ (Not a Macrumors member guess) engineer that understands this type of manufacturing, and if they could comment specifically if this seems accurate to what Apple is describing reference the bending in the aluminum, And is it considered ‘Normal.’

Everything seems pink and joyful, but the truth is that Apple denied paid battery replacements for willing customers until forced by general public pressure, in full PR emergency mode. Bad news spreading fast, Apple turns "niet niet" in good behaving. Is simple

 

[Cobalt50]

It would be revolutionary, unapologetically simple yet elegant, and courageous in design!

Tacoma Narrows bridge.