So I finally got my iPad 2 replaced today, and I can't say I'm fully satisfied.
- The Genius forgot about me after I was told to wait for him. Completely. I waited there until he stopped talking to a customer, approached, and he left, claiming his shift was over. Douche. Had to wait for another Genius to come to my aid (the box was there and ready to go the whole time!)
- Got the replacement, at a quick glance, looks okay, I'm happy.
- Get home, brightness at 100%, dark room, black background, and there is indeed some bleed. I expected there to be some bleed, and honestly, while it's not ideal it's fairly tolerable and I could have lived with it IF NOT...
- ...FOR THE SINGLE DEAD PIXEL CLEARLY LOCATED ON THE UPPER TOP HALF OF THE SCREEN.
- So now I'm running this pixel unsticking website that'll either a) do nothing b) unstick the pixel (assuming it's stuck, which is unlikely, it's probably dead).
I'm sick of going to the Genius Bar, but hey, looks like another trip will be made soon enough. I love Apple, am completely immersed in the ecosystem, product-wise, and I believe in what they preach regarding how tech should be used and how tech should be. Nothing is perfect, no company ships any product without defects, but I can't say I'm impressed with the quality control here. I realize a lot of units need to be pushed out, and just *maybe* that results in reduced quality control time in order to push them out as fast as possible, but Apple built its rep on "it just works", but I can't say that's the case right now.
I was one of those saying "don't worry, those who have problems will be heard, and those with no problems will not make a peep, so the problem is not as widespread as you might think". I still stand by that, and I don't think every iPad 2 has a manufacturing defect, but there's no doubt that Apple needs to address its manufacturing process for future iPad revisions to avoid the volume of iPad 2s going out with backlight bleed. This is not to say EVERY iPad 2 has backlight bleed; most LCDs have a certain amount of bleeding, even if it's very faint, I've accepted that and have come to realize this for a long time now. What is NOT normal is Apple telling people "wait 3-5 days for the glue to dry" because they can't make them fast enough; Cook, who's responsible for the supply relations and oversees manufacturing processes along with others, needs to without a doubt get iPad 2 production to ramp up much earlier than it did and to get better quality control in there.
The iPad 2 is a great product, but not all of us can experience it to its full potential with the defects we've got. Who knows, maybe we're within the norm for "bad models", maybe the number of "bad" iPads with bleeding, dead pixels, cosmetic blemishes is within the norm and considered acceptable. But doesn't mean it's not absolutely ****** to have to go through the process of getting 3, 4, or even 5+ iPad 2s to get a perfect one.
Or maybe we're too obsessive about this, probably because we expect perfection from Apple, which might be too much to ask for, no doubt, but hey, I've already said it all.
/long rant
