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Backlight bleeding

VidPro said:
I almost get the feeling that those of us who choose to use the iPad 2 in a dark room watching or looking at images that can show this obvious defect are somehow using the device wrong. ;)
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I'm typing this on my iPad in the dark right now!

Not turned the light on yet, and from my position I cannot see where the iPad border ends and my apple case starts.

I get out of bed in the morning, work during the day, come home, have my evening meal, and then often use my iPad in a dimly lit relaxing mood at the end of the day. I don't wish to sit, in the evening in a brightly lit room. So all the time my ipads getting used in that way really.

I keep brightness at 50% but have auto brightness on, so if often dimmer than that automatically. Even at this level, when watching video I can see the black bars on screen above and below the actual video are no jet black like the bezel.
Any bright spots would stand out like a sore thumb for me.
I'm going to reject any ipad2 that's worse than my iPad 1.

I will take my ipad1 with me, back to the store if needed to show them how the screen should be. I just hope I don't have to do this and get a ipad2 that's not got a faulty screen.
 
Piggie said:
I'm typing this on my iPad in the dark right now!

Not turned the light on yet, and from my position I cannot see where the iPad border ends and my apple case starts.

I get out of bed in the morning, work during the day, come home, have my evening meal, and then often use my iPad in a dimly lit relaxing mood at the end of the day. I don't wish to sit, in the evening in a brightly lit room. So all the time my ipads getting used in that way really.

I keep brightness at 50% but have auto brightness on, so if often dimmer than that automatically. Even at this level, when watching video I can see the black bars on screen above and below the actual video are no jet black like the bezel.
Any bright spots would stand out like a sore thumb for me.
I'm going to reject any ipad2 that's worse than my iPad 1.

I will take my ipad1 with me, back to the store if needed to show them how the screen should be. I just hope I don't have to do this and get a ipad2 that's not got a faulty screen.
Click to expand...

Ah blacks melting into the bezel aint gonna happen. I'm just looking for a solid crappy LCD black level. LOL!
 
I thought I would provide an update.

I was one of the original people that noticed this issue (see my pics on the third page of this thread). As soon as I turned my iPad I noticed the backlight bleed. I thought I would give it a week to see how it faded. Over the last week it didn't appear to be fading so I made an appointment to have it looked at.

The Genius took it back in the back to take a look at it, he came back 2 minutes later with a unopened box in his hands. "Yep you definitely have an issue". He said he noticed right away and they would give me a brand new replacement. He also mentioned while they're sold out, they do have a few replacements on hand.

I'm a happy camper and I'm glad I decided to take it back.

Cheers.
 
Kind of a crazy idea but shockingly it worked for me. In the spot where in had the worst bleeding, I squeezed that spot of the iPad. Not where I would damage it of course, but enough that the bleeding diminished greatly.
 
rkdiddy said:
I thought I would provide an update.

I was one of the original people that noticed this issue (see my pics on the third page of this thread). As soon as I turned my iPad I noticed the backlight bleed. I thought I would give it a week to see how it faded. Over the last week it didn't appear to be fading so I made an appointment to have it looked at.

The Genius took it back in the back to take a look at it, he came back 2 minutes later with a unopened box in his hands. "Yep you definitely have an issue". He said he noticed right away and they would give me a brand new replacement. He also mentioned while they're sold out, they do have a few replacements on hand.

I'm a happy camper and I'm glad I decided to take it back.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

How does your new one compare?
 
jlyanks85 said:
Kind of a crazy idea but shockingly it worked for me. In the spot where in had the worst bleeding, I squeezed that spot of the iPad. Not where I would damage it of course, but enough that the bleeding diminished greatly.
Click to expand...

It's all pointint to what I suspect.

It's the actual LCD panel itself being squeezed by the glass.

I'd bet the LCD panels before assembly are mostly very good and it's Apple's design/assembly process that's causing the problem.
It's designed in such a way that the glass is pressing against the panel, but due to some internal variances, and the manner in which the glass is glued into place there are pressure points against the actual panel.
It's these pressure points that show up as bright spots.

To put it's bluntly, it's a design flaw, that cannot really be corrected without a redesign, there is no way to control how the glass will press against the LCD panel due to it's design/assembly method.
 
My Apple store got my replacement in today, they didn't have any back stock so they had to order it, and it's was worse than my original iPad 2. So they're ordering another one, he said it should be in Monday or Tuesday :(

Should I take my sim card out before I exchange the iPad?
 
After reading a number of pages of this thread, it sounds like Apple is aware of this issue, or is fine with replacing it if there is an issue. I guess I could be lucky that I am not getting one now and ordered mine online. Granted now I have to wait a month or so, but hopefully all the issues should be ironed out in the process.

I feel bad for those who have this issue, but hopefully it should be ironed out soon.

A good possible reason why the ipad 1 didn't have this issue is cause the components where not so tight together and there was enough thickness in the unit to allow things to be nice and cozy. With the ipad 2, there was a reduction in the units size.
 
First iPad2 was bad, replacement looked good in the BRIGHTLY lit Apple store. But after getting home and seeing it in even normal lighting it is TERRIBLE.

Taking it back tomorrow to hopefully fix this problem, but this time I'm gonna make sure I check the replacement under the counter or something where it's not so bright.
 
hoofbite said:
First iPad2 was bad, replacement looked good in the BRIGHTLY lit Apple store. But after getting home and seeing it in even normal lighting it is TERRIBLE.

Taking it back tomorrow to hopefully fix this problem, but this time I'm gonna make sure I check the replacement under the counter or something where it's not so bright.
Click to expand...

They probably won't let you go in the back to check it, but ask a genius to take in the back and check it. That's what the genius had to do when I took mine in, because you're right, the bright lights in the store so make it near impossible to see any light bleeding..
 
ozred said:
They are all like this. Welcome to the new quality standard.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I have the feeling that there is only varying degrees of this issue present with each iPad sold and no "perfect" screens out there. A bummer for sure and I almost envy those who either don't notice it or don't care. Therapy anyone? :)
 
As a long-time fan of Apple, it's really quite sad to see them pushing out another product with an obvious design flaw. Someone's probably said this before, but it's almost like they're saying, 'We took what we learnt from the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco and did the same thing all over again with the iPad 2!' Well, they say any publicity is good publicity. People still queuing up to get one. As for me, I will not support a product from Apple that doesn't measure up to the quality I expect from Apple.
 
VidPro said:
I almost get the feeling that those of us who choose to use the iPad 2 in a dark room watching or looking at images that can show this obvious defect are somehow using the device wrong. ;)
Click to expand...

Not at all. It's just that it's not much of an issue for some of us who have minor bleeding and never use our iPads in tHe dark anyway.

Ones with bad bleeding should be exchange, but for those of you who do use them in the dark a ton it's probably best to give up for now and wait and see if Apple fixes the issue down the road rather than wasting time exchanging to just get units with varying levels of bleeding--none of which are likelytobe acceptable given your use of the device in dark rooms.
 
dmaul1114 said:
Not at all. It's just that it's not much of an issue for some of us who have minor bleeding and never use our iPads in tHe dark anyway.

Ones with bad bleeding should be exchange, but for those of you who do use them in the dark a ton it's probably best to give up for now and wait and see if Apple fixes the issue down the road rather than wasting time exchanging to just get units with varying levels of bleeding--none of which are likelytobe acceptable given your use of the device in dark rooms.
Click to expand...

I'm tempted to agree but what a joke for someone who's waited for gen 2.
 
No point to complain about backlight now. More headache than it is worth. Just wait some months for supply to catch up and for manufacturing issues to get solved. My wife and I both have a slight light bleed but we know the manufacturing process is to blame so may as well wait 2-3 months to 'worry' about it.


And this is my first post on an iPad 2 and it is working pretty well. I learned how to type with 2 fingers so this is perfect


Yay
 
Selfdestrukt said:
No point to complain about backlight now. More headache than it is worth. Just wait some months for supply to catch up and for manufacturing issues to get solved. My wife and I both have a slight light bleed but we know the manufacturing process is to blame so may as well wait 2-3 months to 'worry' about it.


And this is my first post on an iPad 2 and it is working pretty well. I learned how to type with 2 fingers so this is perfect


Yay
Click to expand...

while I agree. Trying watching a non fullscreen movie, I have mild/mod bleed(probably most would say mild) but I hate it in this situation. I said pages back the QC at Apple sucks along the product lines.

This is a huge gaffe and makes no sense how they did see this issue, its not really subtle:mad:
 
my backlight bleed experience

I just wanted to share with everyone my experience to maybe help others out in my situation.

I had severe backlight bleed on my 32 gig black. I could see it in netflix on any brightness I would use the ipad with (I use it at a little more than 33% most of the time); furthermore, I could see it on the wallpapers the ipad2 came with like the one with the cherry blossoms on the gray background. Anyway to me, it was an unacceptable amount. This most definitely is an issue Apple had to have noticed which just p isses me off.

I bought it at bestbuy, and after 8 days of waiting to see if the glue was dry (no improvement, I tend to agree with the pinching theory) and not wanting to return it during my work week, I made an appointment with an Apple Genius yesterday, Saturday. I was ten minutes late for my appt., and no one would help me, but they scheduled me for an hour and a half later. I just walked around the mall and got dinner. I knew I was late, but I kind of felt like they should still help me because I was returning a brand new, defective product.

Anyway, when I did get to the appointment, the tech said it was due to glue drying and started talking about iphone 4. I dont believe it. He said he only had a replacement in white, but I could get the 32g wifi plus 3g. I took this option because I regretted not getting 3g with my type of use in the first place. He came out with a brand new one, and I asked if I could open it to check it. He said no, but I could definitely return it again, and that would be no problem (as I have read about people getting worse ones!) I took my chances and went home. Oh and I also asked him if others were having this problem, he tried to downplay the issue, but admitted to returning "a few" of these due to the same problem last week. (And with so many tech people in that small store and he got 3 returns for this issue, imagine how many in total, I wonder...)

My second iPad is considerably better. There is only one noticeable area of bleeding that I can't see at 35% brightness. I was made happy by the solution I was given, but wish I didn't have to wait at the mall for over 2 hours yesterday for a return.

I am writing this post to say: Dont settle for something youre not happy with. Even if it's not noticeable in regular use, if it's bothering you and you can see it around the borders of your pictures or movie box, why keep it? From what I hear this wasn't a large issue with ipad1, so the same quality should be expected in the upgraded, more expensive edition. If you didn't buy your ipad at Apple, it's ok, you can still take it to apple. You can return it over and over again. And lastly, they DO keep exchange stock in the back. Apple was more than happy to replace it, as I'm sure they know of the problem. I was overall satisfied with the customer care.

And I forgot to mention, if I had chosen to order the 32g black(which he said would have taken a week), I would have still taken my original ipad2 home that day. If you go through Apple, you wont ever be without the device even if they dont have your exact model in stock.
 
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AppleCare support

My iPad 1 had 1 minor bleed... Nothing that I couldn't handle. I gave it to a family member on the drive home after scoring my new iPad 2 on launch day.

I immediately noticed moderate bleed on 2 sides in about 9 different areas. I googled the issue and found this forum/thread. After 2 days, I decided I should not have to live with this on a $750 device ( and because no replacements were available) I decided to get a refund and try again in a few months.

Well, life without the iPad was harder then expected. A week later, on a whim, I stopped in Microcenter and scored again. I decided that having no iPad is worse then one with some bleed.

Well #2 is worse...

I do not want to keep returning iPads so I called AppleCare to create a ticket hoping they would send me a replacement when the issue is solved production. Naive on my part perhaps, but the game plan made me feel better.

I told the support rep my problem with both iPads and that my first did not have any significant issue. I did not bring up the fact that I was aware of others having the same issue. I did not solicit this response, but the rep went out of his way to tell me that he has never heard of any backlight bleed issue and would send this case to engineering to alert them of the problem.

Perhaps he has not ever heard of this issue... But, I feel that he has... I did not call him out, and ended the conversation with my ticket number...

I did not expect them to tell me there is an issue with production,but I sure did not expect them to play the "never heard of this issue" card...

I am more disappointed by that call then I am with my backlight bleed.
 
luvcavia said:
I just wanted to share with everyone my experience to maybe help others out in my situation.

I had severe backlight bleed on my 32 gig black. I could see it in netflix on any brightness I would use the ipad with (I use it at a little more than 33% most of the time); furthermore, I could see it on the wallpapers the ipad2 came with like the one with the cherry blossoms on the gray background. Anyway to me, it was an unacceptable amount. This most definitely is an issue Apple had to have noticed which just p isses me off.

I bought it at bestbuy, and after 8 days of waiting to see if the glue was dry (no improvement, I tend to agree with the pinching theory) and not wanting to return it during my work week, I made an appointment with an Apple Genius yesterday, Saturday. I was ten minutes late for my appt., and no one would help me, but they scheduled me for an hour and a half later. I just walked around the mall and got dinner. I knew I was late, but I kind of felt like they should still help me because I was returning a brand new, defective product.

Anyway, when I did get to the appointment, the tech said it was due to glue drying and started talking about iphone 4. I dont believe it. He said he only had a replacement in white, but I could get the 32g wifi plus 3g. I took this option because I regretted not getting 3g with my type of use in the first place. He came out with a brand new one, and I asked if I could open it to check it. He said no, but I could definitely return it again, and that would be no problem (as I have read about people getting worse ones!) I took my chances and went home. Oh and I also asked him if others were having this problem, he tried to downplay the issue, but admitted to returning "a few" of these due to the same problem last week. (And with so many tech people in that small store and he got 3 returns for this issue, imagine how many in total, I wonder...)

My second iPad is considerably better. There is only one noticeable area of bleeding that I can't see at 35% brightness. I was made happy by the solution I was given, but wish I didn't have to wait at the mall for over 2 hours yesterday for a return.

I am writing this post to say: Dont settle for something youre not happy with. Even if it's not noticeable in regular use, if it's bothering you and you can see it around the borders of your pictures or movie box, why keep it? From what I hear this wasn't a large issue with ipad1, so the same quality should be expected in the upgraded, more expensive edition. If you didn't buy your ipad at Apple, it's ok, you can still take it to apple. You can return it over and over again. And lastly, they DO keep exchange stock in the back. Apple was more than happy to replace it, as I'm sure they know of the problem. I was overall satisfied with the customer care.

And I forgot to mention, if I had chosen to order the 32g black(which he said would have taken a week), I would have still taken my original ipad2 home that day. If you go through Apple, you wont ever be without the device even if they dont have your exact model in stock.
Click to expand...

Interesting that they offered you a different model than your original one...how much did you have to add?
 
I of course had to pay the difference, which was 129, but I had a gift card from a while back
 
My backlights been bleeding around the edges too. I think I'm just gonna wait a month and wait till they have more supplies and then have it exchanged. Hopefully by then the problem will be fixed.
 
New accessorie coming out soon. Clip on ambient lights to diminish iPad light leak. $29.95 ea. 3 recommended. ;)

By the way, my second iPad 2 has a stuck pixel. :(
 
This whole thing is so disappointing. It seems like there are so few iPads WITHOUT screen bleeding. The question is: Is there anything Apple can do at this point? Aren't the production lines and design already set in stone? Aren't they probably working on iPad 3 by now that a redesign is the last thing they are going to worry about, especially since most users won't notice or care? (I doubt I would have without reading these forums)
I know one thing, exchanging iPads at this point is a big gamble and a huge frustration based on other's experiences trying to do so. Chances are you will get the same problem or worse. If Apple is paying attention, and they are truly concerned and worried about fixing it (and are able to with such a thin design and the current parts), it may take them weeks to implement a manufacturing process that will eliminate this problem totally. Which means you won't see them in stores for months. I truly believe your best bet is to wait at least a month to see if Apple does something about it and then do an exchange. (And insist on a new iPad, not a refurb. I didn't spend $900 on something to get a used product. It is not my fault that they didnt know how to make the thing without defects.)That is my plan anyway. I got mine at Target which has a 90 day return policy. I am going to wait 80 days and then exchange it. If the production problems aren't fixed by then, they never will be.
 
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