Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Backlight bleeding
- Thread starter i eversaw
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Twitter stating that Apple is no longer swapping for light bleed at all. Not sure if this is true but I will not be buying a replacement for my now returned ipad unless they solve this issue.
My third digit is X and I have virtual no light bleed. I think it's hit or miss.
I think at this point, Apple's just pushing them out the door to meet demand.
The previous disaster in Japan isn't helping with supplies.
I say just live with it until demand is not as high and then swap.
I might do this a year from now before the the initial warranty is up.
This is probably what Apple is ultimately hoping most would do.
That is untrue. Whoever put that out is wrong. I just replaced one yesterday afternoon...that I purchased yesterday morning...and it was exchanged cheerfully at my local Apple store.
Edited to add: I placed my iPad 2 next to my iPad 1 to test as a comparison. The screen on the 2 is just as bright as the screen on the 1...and, to be honest, when looking at a black screen, my 2 (without light bleed) looks better, and more even, than my 1, which, up to now, I thought was perfect.
They are out there...it sounds like it's hit or miss. Whether this is has anything to do with it or not, I have to say that my unit with the X serial number is perfect, whereby my original unit with a 6 was clearly not.
Good luck everybody.
Don't know the third digit of my first iPad, it was returned with horrible light bleed. However, the replacement had an X as the third digit... Zero bleed.
It seems to be the case...more than not...as reported on here...That the X serial number units are overall better with regards to the screens. It's ironic because I had not read anything about the X serial numbers until yesterday when I had just come home with my replacement (perfect screen) iPad, which, when I checked, had DLX as the first three characters in the serial number.
I read a post by one person with an X serial number who had leakage, I think, earlier...so maybe we are on to something here. My original was definitely a 6 because I had to give the serial number to the agent over the phone yesterday when I was making my Genius appointment....I bet yours was 6 too.
Enjoy your iPad, Grimes!
My iPad (haven't replaced it yet) has an X as the 3rd letter of the serial number and has bad backlight bleed
Damn...definitely hit-or-miss, then...I was hoping that this was a trend. The point in my posting is not to do a "Ha-ha, I got a good one," but rather to give hope that the issue is being resolved with new production units, at least those with certain screens, ie. Samsung vs LG.
I called our local Apple store for their inventory of AT&T 64GB Black iPads and was told they did have some, but they were going fast. I didn't rush to get there, figured if they were sold out by then, no big deal.
So when I got there, I was pleasantly surprised I was able to walk in and get it. I did the "personal care" setup, but since I don't have my passwords memorized (I use a password manager with random passwords), the Apple rep couldn't really help me. Under those bright lights, it was hard to see any light leakage.
Got it home and under just the light of our living room, both the wife and I can detect the light leakage, even at normal brightness percentage.
Needless to say, I have an appointment with a Genius tomorrow morning.
Oh, FWIW, the third digit in my S/N is: T.
I'll try to post pics later.
So when I got there, I was pleasantly surprised I was able to walk in and get it. I did the "personal care" setup, but since I don't have my passwords memorized (I use a password manager with random passwords), the Apple rep couldn't really help me. Under those bright lights, it was hard to see any light leakage.
Got it home and under just the light of our living room, both the wife and I can detect the light leakage, even at normal brightness percentage.
Needless to say, I have an appointment with a Genius tomorrow morning.
Oh, FWIW, the third digit in my S/N is: T.
I'll try to post pics later.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
Plan on getting a iPad 2 in June.. Should this issue be fixed by than???
Plan on getting a iPad 2 in June.. Should this issue be fixed by than???
I was thinking about this too. But now that I've thought about it I think it will only be fixed once your able to, without a doubt, walk into any store and buy an iPad 2.
Apple is just manufacturing these things way too fast in order to meet up with the demand. Once they get to the point where they are meeting demand the yields will probably be better.
So to try and answer your question... its a big maybe if what I said above is correct.
Apple's Support Is Horrible...
So I wanted a refund since my iPad2 screen has this light leak issue, called support, had to wait 15 min. then I had to restore the ipad (like that's going to fix the light leak in the screen...) Then I had to do a full restore and call back later...
Called back and had to wait 15 more min. Then they wouldn't even give me a refund, they are forcing me to try a replacement.
Now I gotta wait for a pre-paid box, drive 50 miles to the nearest Fedex location, ship my old one back and then wait for this replacement.
Pretty sure this replacement will have the same problem also..
Anyway never, ever will I buy another Apple product after this... Wasted $600
So I wanted a refund since my iPad2 screen has this light leak issue, called support, had to wait 15 min. then I had to restore the ipad (like that's going to fix the light leak in the screen...) Then I had to do a full restore and call back later...
Called back and had to wait 15 more min. Then they wouldn't even give me a refund, they are forcing me to try a replacement.
Now I gotta wait for a pre-paid box, drive 50 miles to the nearest Fedex location, ship my old one back and then wait for this replacement.
Pretty sure this replacement will have the same problem also..
Anyway never, ever will I buy another Apple product after this... Wasted $600
Hi all From the uk here and i have had 2 Ipad 2s.
1st Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 bought on April 26th (DLXF) Loads of light Bleed, Took it back for this reason
Took it back for
2nd Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 bought on May 3rd (DLXF) No Light Bleed at all 100% perfect in a dark room 100% brightness, Took it back becasue about 70% of the top screen was more yellow and darker to the other 30% bottom half which was whiter and brighter meaning half the screen had a darker tint than the rest and was very bad when reading on web pages and books very off putting. You could only notice it on white but when using it for videos or other stuff it was fine but as i read alot it was not on plus the wife noticed it stright away enough said.
Took it back for
3rd Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 (wating for stock)
the DLXF does not make any difference if it has light bleed or not as both my Ipad 2s had the same number and one had it and the other did not, I just think this is a lottery at the moment.
has anyone had the same problem with half the screen been darker than the rest i have read that some people have a warmer more yellow tint but i would of been happy with that if the whole screen was that colour not half and half.
cheers all
1st Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 bought on April 26th (DLXF) Loads of light Bleed, Took it back for this reason
Took it back for
2nd Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 bought on May 3rd (DLXF) No Light Bleed at all 100% perfect in a dark room 100% brightness, Took it back becasue about 70% of the top screen was more yellow and darker to the other 30% bottom half which was whiter and brighter meaning half the screen had a darker tint than the rest and was very bad when reading on web pages and books very off putting. You could only notice it on white but when using it for videos or other stuff it was fine but as i read alot it was not on plus the wife noticed it stright away enough said.
Took it back for
3rd Black 64gb Wifi Ipad 2 (wating for stock)
the DLXF does not make any difference if it has light bleed or not as both my Ipad 2s had the same number and one had it and the other did not, I just think this is a lottery at the moment.
has anyone had the same problem with half the screen been darker than the rest i have read that some people have a warmer more yellow tint but i would of been happy with that if the whole screen was that colour not half and half.
cheers all
Today is one week since I got my 1st replacement; I tried to turn off room lights, turn the brightness to 100%. And I surprisingly found that the bleeding seems to be less than one week ago!!! Will give it little more time before come back to apple store 
Bought April 30 from Hong Kong. Serial Number DLXF... . I noticed very very slight light bleeding on the lower right portion in the "ideal" conditions which I have not noticed in daily use (I do read/watch videos in the dark frequently). Maybe it's because I have a very low brightness tolerance; my friends' initial reactions to using my devices are "Why the hell is this thing so dark?" Just wanna put it out there for reference. Good luck to those with light bleeding.
Good luck to those with light bleeding.
Probably not. If you want to maximize your chances of getting a bleed-free unit, wait until the online Apple store's ship estimate says, "ships immediately".
At least this thread seems to be slowing down...I wonder if that means that there are more good screens in the system now...or...perhaps it's because new sales are inevitably slowing down somewhat from the initial after-launch craze...
Or we all just gave up
That occurred to me too.
In my opinion, people should keep after Apple until they get a good screen. I've posted elsewhere that I purchased a few Sony Digital Picture Frames last year, two of which had light bleed. I returned them and kept trying until I got two good ones. If I won't accept a bad screen on a relatively cheap item, why would I accept one on an iPad?
LCD is the wrong technology for something as thin and flexible as the iPad. I don't see this problem ever going away without a complete revision.
I'm on my third iPad in two weeks, and they've all suffered terrible backlight bleeding. I'll exchange the one I have now for a forth, but that's it. I want my money back after that. It's really just a luxury item anyways.
I'm on my third iPad in two weeks, and they've all suffered terrible backlight bleeding. I'll exchange the one I have now for a forth, but that's it. I want my money back after that. It's really just a luxury item anyways.
it really is hit or miss
i picked mine up this weekend and and had to exchange it because of the issue
both had serial numbers with a 6 as the 3rd digit. the 2nd one was perfect
in talking with the "genius" there he was saying that if buy now there is a high chance you will have the issue simply because this production run has the issue. he was saying that realistically the choices are either live without an iPad for a few months and wait for the next batches or live with the issue and get a replacement later
and he did mention that the directive from apple is 1 exchange and after that refund if still unhappy.
and for my exchange he did give me a new retail box and not the brown box. not that it really matters but it was nice that he gave me one of those
i picked mine up this weekend and and had to exchange it because of the issue
both had serial numbers with a 6 as the 3rd digit. the 2nd one was perfect
in talking with the "genius" there he was saying that if buy now there is a high chance you will have the issue simply because this production run has the issue. he was saying that realistically the choices are either live without an iPad for a few months and wait for the next batches or live with the issue and get a replacement later
and he did mention that the directive from apple is 1 exchange and after that refund if still unhappy.
and for my exchange he did give me a new retail box and not the brown box. not that it really matters but it was nice that he gave me one of those
I bought my first one from Target, and returned it because they had none left in stock. I bought my second from Walmart, and returned it because they also had none left in stock. I bought my third one from Bestbuy today, and its screen is no better than the first two, but I'll exchange it tomorrow. They had 7 or 8 in stock of this model (64GB Verizon), so we'll see how far they're willing to go.