Some iPad Air 5 Users Complain About Creaking and Build Quality Downgrade

I really can't take these "gates" seriously anymore as they are usually more due to owner's of faulty units being vocal on Twitter and having large followings than there actually being a big issue at hand.

Just return the product until you get a good one -If it's all lemons then there's something to it, but if not then it's just you being unlucky.
 
If Apple start skimping on the build quality of their hardware then in my opinion it will be their gradual undoing. The software these days absolutely sucks. Hardware is their one remaining USP unless you buy stuff based on the virtue signalling and social justice politics of the person selling it. Too big to fail? Maybe.
 
Getting slightly worried about Apples build quality lately. The iPad mini 6 was a major disappointment for me personally (I still have it though), and now both the Air 5 and Studio Display seems to be getting a rather poor reception. Sounds like cost saving measures...
 
If anything, I would chalk this up to the widespread disruption of "things as normal" in worldwide supply chains.

I wish apple designed around the problem instead of insisting on aluminium. Absolutely they hold the responsibility if their product is inferior, and should and will pay the consequence.
 
An Ipad Air feeling less substantial than other non Air iPad's. Imagine Apple continuing to mold a device to make it feel lighter and easier to perhaps cary around for a substantial period of the day, so as not to become too tedious by comparison to other iPad's. Imagine Apple offering an iPad that mirrors the performance in almost all ways to the iPad Pro, save for differences in screen architecture and backlighting technologies; making that device substantially less expensive. At the end of the day opening up an entirely new market for consumers that didn't like the higher price of the iPad Pro, but appreciate that Apple is offering a product that still offers many of the benefits of the higher end Pro. Finally imagine people endlessly complaining that it just doesn't feel like they are holding a "brick" like their old iPads.

I guess this is a bummer to all the fanboys who care more about the superficial aspects of Apple products. Probably not a big deal to the people who bought it to actually use it.
 
aibloop said:
If anything, I would chalk this up to the widespread disruption of "things as normal" in worldwide supply chains.

I wish apple designed around the problem instead of insisting on aluminium. Absolutely they hold the responsibility if their product is inferior, and should and will pay the consequence.
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How do you know the product is inferior? Have you purchased one?
 
solo_riser said:
I guess this is a bummer to all the fanboys who care more about the superficial aspects of Apple products. Probably not a big deal to the people who bought it to actually use it.
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Superficial generally describes something external, like case color, but case thickness is something you can't see, unless you have x ray vision. I do actually use my iPhone and my M1 MacBook Air as a web developer, and I bought the MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro 14 largely because of an ifixit teardown that showed how easily the bottom of the MacBook Pro case flexes, from thinness apparently. Now that's something that hasn't been reported anywhere else that I'm aware of, but I have no reason to doubt what users are reporting on the iPad Air 5, and before I buy one, I'd compare it with an iPad pro 11 and judge for myself if the reports are accurate.

I'll also comment on the side issues of reviewers not mentioning this. It's possible they just took a superficial look at the product and simply didn't notice the difference in build quality.
 
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yitwail said:
Superficial generally describes something external, like case color, but case thickness is something you can't see, unless you have x ray vision. I do actually use my iPhone and my M1 MacBook Air as a web developer, and I bought the MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro 14 largely because of an ifixit breakdown that showed how easily the bottom of the MacBook Pro case flexes, from thinness apparently. Now that's something that hasn't been reported anywhere else that I'm aware of, but I have no reason to doubt what users are reporting on the iPad Air 5, and before I buy one, I'd compare it with an iPad pro 11 and judge for myself if the reports are accurate.

I'll also comment on the side issues of reviewers not mentioning this. It's possible they just took a superficial look at the product and simply didn't notice the difference in build quality.
Click to expand...

I undertand that. And just to be clear I would take these complaints a lot more seriously if somebody, anybody could show that these issues are effecting the actual functionality of the product. Unless the functionality of a product has been diminished in some quantifiable way, then yes I will chalk this up to the usual "fanboy" banter that mostly centers around the polish of a product and not it's functionality.
 
Thebrochure said:
This has been going on for some time. Find an iPad 2 and hold it in your hand. Within one second, it's obvious that the thing was built to withstand nuclear war.
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This is absolutely true.

That’s the oldest iPad that I own to date, and it’s just reliably solid the whole way around without any type of creaking that would be caused from the chassis securing to the display.

As much as the iPad has transitioned over the years, there’s no doubt that it could be from the adhesive and/or to a thinner, series cheaper aluminum that would cause creaking.
 
Stratus Fear said:
Not excusing poor build quality here, but I have to bemoan the fact that now we’re probably going to have to endure, yet again, someone coming up with some “clever” whatever-gate, and the resultant flood of trolls using the term at every possible opportunity for the next few weeks. Apple, please step up your build quality and QA, if only for making it such that none of us have to hear another “-gate” again…please…
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Oh and don’t forget the class action lawsuit that follows LOL
 
Since Russias invasion of Ukraine raw metal prices, including aluminium, have soared. Clearly Apple have sneakily tried to cost cut by making the case a bit thinner.
 
This creaking is also happening with my new 14-inch MacBook Pro. I’m wondering if it’s some new, lower quality adhesive Apple started using.
 
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