Sorry to say, but expectations not met

[seadragon]

This thread sucks!

Of course, I'm just kidding as you can easily tell.

Emoticons are your friend.

But regarding the multi-tinted, blotchy screens...

I am shocked that Apple is still letting these leave the factory.
I returned 4 of them and have decided to wait.
I'm confused as to why some find the quality problem acceptable.
So, for now, I'm back to my iPad 1.

Way to go .

 

[TheWheelMan]

I'm confused as to why some find the quality problem acceptable. ...

Who has found them acceptable? Many, probably most of us, don't have problems, and no doubt a few of those who do have problem iPads have blown very minor issues out of proportion. But I think very few, if any, have accepted blatantly problematic iPads.

 

[thekev]

I kind of expected some growing pains on the displays given the number of things that were changed simultaneously. Making such a thing on a large scale probably introduced a lot of problems, including at testing phases. Uneven casts were mentioned. Let's say they measure it in the center when testing. It could pass without being truly acceptable. Depending on the speed of the measurement device, a patch test could add a lot of time to construction. That's just a single consideration. I think it'll even out eventually. Either the manufacturing process will improve or they'll find ways to compensate if they're hitting a wall on panel/backlight consistency.

 

[seadragon]

Who has found them acceptable? Many, probably most of us, don't have problems, and no doubt a few of those who do have problem iPads have blown very minor issues out of proportion. But I think very few, if any, have accepted blatantly problematic iPads.

Well, this forum is full of examples. When people have posted that they received multiple iPads in a row with these problems, they are criticized by those not experiencing problems.

Photos have been posted clearly illustrating the issues and the response by some has been to accuse the person of suffering from OCD or having unrealistic expectations etc. If the purchaser returned it more than "X" amount of times (not sure what the acceptable number is or how that can even be determined), they are told they need to get a life.

Stuff like that.

This, to me, indicates that these "accusers" are saying there are no issues with the iPad and are therefore accepting of the screen quality, even after seeing the photos.

If these problems are so isolated, how is it possible to get so many in a row from different sources with the same issues (4 iPads in my case)? I gave up after 4, but others have tried more than that without getting a good one.

Bottom line is that if someone has a good iPad, that's great. Congrats. But some of us have not been so lucky.

 

[TheWheelMan]

I'm one of those people, and I believe (now) that there are problems, as I was clearly wrong. That had nothing to do with accepting it, once I realized that there were legitimate cases of problems and not just a few who were going through extraordinary measures to find the most trivial flaws.

But I think it's just as wrong to assume that the majority of iPads are flawed when they sold millions of them. Millions are not complaining and millions are not being returned or it'd be an international news scandal. People are not accepting the flaws, most literally don't have them, and they are just having problems believing the few here who keep insisting that the entire stock of iPads are defective when they themselves have non-defective iPads in their own hands.

We all need to stop making presumptions about everyone else's iPads and deal with our own. For every person who's returned a butt load of iPads, there are likely millions of individuals who bought an iPad and never ran into any of these issues. I'm one myself.

 

[seadragon]

^^^ Fair enough.

I do acknowledge that there are many people that are thoroughly enjoying their iPads.

Speaking from my experience only, my disappointment is from the fact that as a long time Apple customer, I'm just not used to getting bad quality products from them, especially after multiple exchanges (which is very surprising). So, from MY view, something is different/wrong with these new iPads. I really do want one, but I've lost optimism for now after the units I did buy/return and the ones I've seen on display in various stores.

Anyway, everybody has their own perspectives on this kind of thing. In the end, we should just do what we feel is right for our own situation. If that means returning 12 iPads (or whatever the magic number is) in pursuit of a good one, so be it.

Personally, I'm in a holding pattern for now.

 

[Geekbabe]

Well, this forum is full of examples. When people have posted that they received multiple iPad in a row with these problems, they are criticized by those not experiencing problems.

Photos have been posted clearly illustrating the issues and the response by some has been to accuse the person of suffering from OCD or having unrealistic expectations etc. If the purchaser returned it more than "X" amount of times (not sure what the acceptable number is or how that can even be determined), they are told they need to get a life.

Stuff like that.

This, to me, indicates that these "accusers" are saying there are no issues with the iPad and are therefore accepting of the screen quality, even after seeing the photos.

If these problems are so isolated, how is it possible to get so many in a row from different source with the same issues (4 iPads in my case)? I gave up after 4, but others have tried more than that without getting a good one.

Bottom line is that if someone has a good iPad, that's great. Congrats. But some of us have not been so lucky.

I would never tell anybody that they should keep what they believe to be a defective product & yes some here have posted pics of clearly defective iPads. Having said that though, I've also seen pics posted that I truthfully could not see what exactly the problem was with the screen.

 

[falconer.]

The vast majority of people don't have any problem with their new iPads because they're not perceptive or discerning enough to notice or care about the type of (relatively minor) inconsistencies a lot of people on this forum have been posting about since March.

Just take one of those "perfectly fine" iPads and hand it to someone who's really particular, and they will be able to find the 1/3 of the screen that's tinted a bit more to yellow than the rest of the screen, or the small bit of backlight bleeding coming from one corner, or the overall color temperature of the screen vs. the iPad 2 or iPhone, or the slight difference in weight or heat or what have you -- little things the owner doesn't see.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong. The millions of people who are perfectly fine with their iPads, that's great. The people who notice the little problems, they're not wrong, those problems do really exist to a varying degree on all new iPads -- of course, some units are closer to ideal than others. They aren't extremely unlucky people who just happen to get 10 "bad" iPads in a row while the vast majority of people get "perfect" ones on the first try. It's just that the vast majority of people don't have very particular standards of quality.

 

[alehen]

My iPad is yellow and its manufacturer date is 04/20 ..

 

[M5RahuL]

I went thru 2 before getting one with a good screen. However, my iPad 2's screen is still visibly brighter and whiter than the new one!! My new iPad has a manufacture date of Jan 12th.

Speedwise, the new iPad is much better when you have multiple tabs and/or apps open!

 

[ZipZap]

Who has found them acceptable? Many, probably most of us, don't have problems, and no doubt a few of those who do have problem iPads have blown very minor issues out of proportion. But I think very few, if any, have accepted blatantly problematic iPads.

Lets be clear...most dont know they have a poor quality display and Apple is counting on that ...

Notice, Apple have said nothing about screen quality?

Dont confuse this with "there is no issue". Its a cost risk for apple and its better to say nothing then risk a HUGE onslaught of returns.

For those that know better, they should be entitled to get what they paid for and if that means 100 returns so be it. That's all on Apple.

My only issue is why people are leaving the store without checking their ipads...especially, if they just returned one.

----------

I'm one of those people, and I believe (now) that there are problems, as I was clearly wrong. That had nothing to do with accepting it, once I realized that there were legitimate cases of problems and not just a few who were going through extraordinary measures to find the most trivial flaws.

But I think it's just as wrong to assume that the majority of iPads are flawed when they sold millions of them. Millions are not complaining and millions are not being returned or it'd be an international news scandal. People are not accepting the flaws, most literally don't have them, and they are just having problems believing the few here who keep insisting that the entire stock of iPads are defective when they themselves have non-defective iPads in their own hands.

We all need to stop making presumptions about everyone else's iPads and deal with our own. For every person who's returned a butt load of iPads, there are likely millions of individuals who bought an iPad and never ran into any of these issues. I'm one myself.

You just cant say you're wrong and accept it...you have to continue to add clarifications and nonsense.

People dont complain because they just dont know they have a bad display. You also dont know what the return situation really is at Apple but you are free to state it as if you do know and assume most ipads are OK.

I will not debate my comments with you. I will only say, there is CLEARLY and display issue and those with these display should get them addressed and not be told by you and others they are imagining, ocd or too picky.

 

[sinser]

Lets be clear...most dont know they have a poor quality display and Apple is counting on that ...

Notice, Apple have said nothing about screen quality?

Obviously the generic customer, does not read forums like this, does not check the display on a black screen in a dark room, does not test if the display does look a little pinkish under the sun, does not look for dead pixels using a looper and so on. The generic customer will notice a defect only if it's something really obvious and in doing so will mostly enjoy his/her device. That's ok, I wish I was the same, since I was STUPID enough to return my perfect iPad for some highly insignificant backlight bleed. Apple will never ever tell something about display quality, because otherwise that would attract like a magnet a lot of really picky people, and because the perceived display is something highy subjective. If I recall there was a guy on this forum and on youtube who returned something like 20 iPads because they looked pink on a highly tilted dark screen in a dark room, claiming that this was a defect while it's just normal LCD tech.

 

[slimjim.dj]

Sounds like you have a duff unit!

I have a perfect screen on mine and I love it very much!

 

[Capt T]

The vast majority of people don't have any problem with their new iPads because they're not perceptive or discerning enough to notice or care about the type of (relatively minor) inconsistencies a lot of people on this forum have been posting about since March.

Just take one of those "perfectly fine" iPads and hand it to someone who's really particular, and they will be able to find the 1/3 of the screen that's tinted a bit more to yellow than the rest of the screen, or the small bit of backlight bleeding coming from one corner, or the overall color temperature of the screen vs. the iPad 2 or iPhone, or the slight difference in weight or heat or what have you -- little things the owner doesn't see.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong. The millions of people who are perfectly fine with their iPads, that's great. The people who notice the little problems, they're not wrong, those problems do really exist to a varying degree on all new iPads -- of course, some units are closer to ideal than others. They aren't extremely unlucky people who just happen to get 10 "bad" iPads in a row while the vast majority of people get "perfect" ones on the first try. It's just that the vast majority of people don't have very particular standards of quality.

I am very perceptive and discerning...no issue with my iPad. I also shoot infrared photos...so I would most definitely notice multi hues if there where any. In addition I use the iPad as a portfolio, which means IF it had any of the issues, that only a very small percentage of the people who have bought them have had, I would exchange it.

By telling those of us with perfectly good iPads that we are wrong and couldn't possibly have a good one, you are just as bad as those who say you couldn't possibly have a bad one.

What I find interesting is that if people are saying they have good ones, that a few (not all) instead of realizing those of us with good ones are vindication for those with issues to take it back. In other words there are good ones or why keep trying to exchange them...just return it. If you don't feel there are any good ones, then by all means don't keep the product. Save yourself the headache and find something else to get or get the iPad2 if you feel that is the better choice.

But just because you have a bad one does not mean I do. And the fact that I have a good one, without any of the issues seen posted on this forum, as well as the other millions of people out there not complaining, means that if you do have issues, you should exchange it for a good one. Pretty simple. Sucks that some got a bad one.

 

[mcsenerd]

Once again, and I won't get into the pedantic nonsense going on here... I think most forum users issue is the fact that yes, it's human nature to piss and moan way more than to effuse with praise, but there are an inordinate amount of "these" types of posts here on macrumors. It's a forum housekeeping issue in my opinion. Make one thread...hell, make it a sticky...that has a poll that has: My new iPad has... 1) yellow screen 2) uneven backlighting 3) backlight bleed 4) dead/stuck pixel/s 5) combination of above 6) all of the above 7) none of the above. And peeps could be free to post their very serious and life jeapordizing issues to their heart's content in the body of said thread, but we don't need thread #10,000 on the same stinkin topic with all of the same semantics going into each one...it serves no useful,purpose other than to sow discontent.

 

[spiderman0616]

I know several people with iPad 3's now, including a bunch of people at work, and nobody I know has any noticeable screen flaws, tint problems, etc. I don't doubt that there are iPads with problems. What I do doubt is that you can get 10 in a row that are all bad. I think once you start returning Apple stuff, it's virtually impossible to be happy with any subsequent units. So just be careful about getting into that viscious return cycle. I have done it before myself and have always regretted it.

 

[seadragon]

Once again, and I won't get into the pedantic nonsense going on here... I think most forum users issue is the fact that yes, it's human nature to piss and moan way more than to effuse with praise, but there are an inordinate amount of "these" types of posts here on macrumors. It's a forum housekeeping issue in my opinion. Make one thread...hell, make it a sticky...that has a poll that has: My new iPad has... 1) yellow screen 2) uneven backlighting 3) backlight bleed 4) dead/stuck pixel/s 5) combination of above 6) all of the above 7) none of the above. And peeps could be free to post their very serious and life jeapordizing issues to their heart's content in the body of said thread, but we don't need thread #10,000 on the same stinkin topic with all of the same semantics going into each one...it serves no useful,purpose other than to sow discontent.

Then you'd have to do the same with the "happy", "everything is fine" threads as well. Throw them all into one thread.

While I understand your point, using this logic, the forum would consist solely of 5 stickied threads with 10,000 posts in each. Hardly any better IMO.

 

[mcsenerd]

Then you'd have to do the same with the "happy", "everything is fine" threads as well. Throw them all into one thread.

While I understand your point, using this logic, the forum would consist solely of 5 stickied threads with 10,000 posts in each. Hardly any better IMO.

Nice try, but I'd reason that it's fair to say that a vast number of those threads were in direct response to the "oh noes, Apple and iPads sux" threads... Didn't say it's a perfect idea (there are none), but there's zero "good" that's going to come of these threads...whatever "side" you are on...

 

[kaielement]

Probably tons more people who got good iPads. You only see the post about the bad ones so that's why it seems more of a problem then it probably is. If all the people who got a perfectly good iPad made a thread about it really wouldn't seem like a problem and the forum would be really boring just saying.

 

[falconer.]

By telling those of us with perfectly good iPads that we are wrong and couldn't possibly have a good one, you are just as bad as those who say you couldn't possibly have a bad one. [...] But just because you have a bad one does not mean I do. [...]

I don't buy the premise that most iPads out there are either obviously "good" or obviously "bad". It can't be true. Some rare units actually are outliers like that, sure. But I'd say most units exist much closer to each other on the spectrum. They all have slight variance and none will truly be "perfect" -- remember each unit is essentially handmade, not assembled by machines -- and they might exhibit different types of minor imperfections, but none of that amounts to an actual problem for the vast majority of iPad buyers.

I bought one new iPad back in March and kept it because I was satisfied with it, but that doesn't mean it's "perfect". After visiting websites like this one, I became aware of the many minor issues that can affect iPad screens (the most common being a slightly different color temperature, some color variance, and minimal backlight bleeding), and I've seen those minor issues show up -- sometimes barely -- on my iPad and, yes, every other iPad I've seen outside the bright lights of the Apple Store. But it's not really significant on most iPads, it's not enough to make me dissatisfied with the product in general.

 

[seadragon]

Nice try, but I'd reason that it's fair to say that a vast number of those threads were in direct response to the "oh noes, Apple and iPads sux" threads... Didn't say it's a perfect idea (there are none), but there's zero "good" that's going to come of these threads...whatever "side" you are on...

Well, to me its sort of like sweeping all the problems under the rug, or in this case into one thread. That's just how I see it.

I also believe that most people that are complaining are not promoting "Apple and iPad sux", but are just frustrated because they want a good iPad. That's it. Some are long time Apple customers that are disappointed with the, rather uncharacteristic for Apple, bad quality of these screens.

As to what "good" these threads do, I'm not sure that can ever be determined. Whether there is a perceived benefit from any thread in the forum is subjective at best.

Again, this is just my 2 cents.

 

[falconer.]

This is not a knock against anybody, I think the complaints are valid, but I guarantee you if you take somebody who has returned a bunch of iPads in search of a "perfect" one, becoming more and more aware of the most minor display issues each time, and you let that person examine any of the iPads claimed to be "perfect", they'd find at least one minor issue with every one of them. This does not mean any of those iPads should be called "bad" units. It just means every individual unit varies slightly.

 

[Geekbabe]

The vast majority of people don't have any problem with their new iPads because they're not perceptive or discerning enough to notice or care about the type of (relatively minor) inconsistencies a lot of people on this forum have been posting about since March.

Hold the phone here! I've never said anything rude or insulting about people returning their ipads because they've noticed defects. I take great offense to the idea that I'm not "perceptive or discerning enough" to figure out if a screen is defective or not!

People want their opinions of Apple's newest product to be respected & believed? then maybe they should give some respect to the opinions of others. Basically telling people like me that we're ignorant or too stupid to notice problems does nothing to garner support for the idea that millions of these ipads are defective & should be recalled.

 

[falconer.]

Basically telling people like me that we're ignorant or too stupid to notice problems does nothing to garner support for the idea that millions of these ipads are defective & should be recalled.

You misread me. I said I'm not knocking anybody. I think the majority of iPads are not defective. I think the slight variance between different units is real, but it's within Apple's specification. I also think these slight variances make no difference to almost everybody in normal daily use of the iPad.

What I'm saying is that the people returning iPad after iPad because they see minor inconsistencies are never going to be satisfied, because there are no truly "perfect" units with 100% consistency in color temperature and backlight across the entire screen. Maybe some units are 96% of the way to ideal, others are 98%, whatever. Like I said, the iPad is essentially a handmade product. Every single unit will vary to a minor extent.

EDIT: Let me add an example. Some guy in another thread said he looked at his iPad closely and there was a little bit of normal backlight bleeding, not enough to bother him, so he's satisfied. If that same iPad ended up in the hands of someone extremely particular, they would've returned it to the store in no time.

 

[Capt T]

I don't buy the premise that most iPads out there are either obviously "good" or obviously "bad". It can't be true. Some rare units actually are outliers like that, sure. But I'd say most units exist much closer to each other on the spectrum. They all have slight variance and none will truly be "perfect" -- remember each unit is essentially handmade, not assembled by machines -- and they might exhibit different types of minor imperfections, but none of that amounts to an actual problem for the vast majority of iPad buyers.

I bought one new iPad back in March and kept it because I was satisfied with it, but that doesn't mean it's "perfect". After visiting websites like this one, I became aware of the many minor issues that can affect iPad screens (the most common being a slightly different color temperature, some color variance, and minimal backlight bleeding), and I've seen those minor issues show up -- sometimes barely -- on my iPad and, yes, every other iPad I've seen outside the bright lights of the Apple Store. But it's not really significant on most iPads, it's not enough to make me dissatisfied with the product in general.

Didnt say perfect...Said perfectly good...not much is perfect in this world, which is what makes it an interesting place.

As to the color temp variance(but still uniform on any given screen), that is not an issue...that is a by product of using different screens from different manufactures, and they are calibrated differently...same as light bulbs. Some people prefer a warmer color temp, some cooler...that is not an issue, as long as it is uniform across the screen. That being said, would be nice if we could calibrate the screen like with our computers.