Chris Welch, The Verge:
Apple has confirmed to The Verge that some of its 2018 iPad Pros are shipping with a very slight bend in the aluminum chassis. But according to the company, this is a side effect of the device’s manufacturing process and shouldn’t worsen over time or negatively affect the flagship iPad’s performance in any practical way. Apple does not consider it to be a defect.
The bend is the result of a cooling process involving the iPad Pro’s metal and plastic components during manufacturing, according to Apple.
And:
My 11-inch iPad Pro showed a bit of a curve after two weeks. Apple asked if I would send it their way so the engineering team could take a look. But the replacement 11-inch iPad Pro I received at Apple’s Downtown Brooklyn store exhibited a very slight bend in the aluminum as soon as I took off the wrapper.
And:
Those who are annoyed by the bend shouldn’t have any trouble exchanging or returning their iPad Pro at the Apple Store or other retailers within the 14-day return window. But it’s not clear if swaps will be permitted outside that policy.
Tricky. Is this really normal? Look at the image in the linked article. Certainly seems like a manufacturing defect to me.
Past as prologue, can’t help but imagine a lawsuit brewing somewhere.
Apple says it’s a very slight bend. That image is not a slight bend. One of these things is not correct.
Nobody can convince me that a tablet being anything less than perfectly straight from the factory is acceptable. In fact I’m trying to think of any other product made of aluminum and/or glass where a bend in a straight segment would be ok with the consumer. I can’t think of one.
One question is whether returning say an iPhone with the trade-in program with this sort of bend would trigger a damaged item charge for a customer.
If you bought a Smart Keyboard Folio and it doesn’t fit properly because the iPad is curved, it seems to be a problem. The pictures people keep posting seem like that would be the case here. I agree with DM. Somewhere lawyers are tooling up to sue. And it doesn’t look like anyone feels sympathy to Apple’s position here.
No, if Apple’s stated position is it isn’t a defect. But I don’t think that’s anybody’s objection here 😉
How straight is “perfectly” straight?
Straight enough for one person to not notice any bend?
Straight to a tenth of a micron per meter?
Nothing you can buy is “perfectly” straight – at some level even a Flat Reference Surface is “not straight”.
(“Not noticeable to most users” is a decent metric, but … not “perfectly straight”.)
“Accessories don’t fit” is not alleged in that article, but I suspect Apple would accept “your keyboard won’t fit because this thing was bent out of the box” as … a defect worthy of replacement.
“Too bent to fit accessories” IS a tolerable grounds for suit, if they won’t replace it, in a way unlike the weakness of “I don’t like that it looks bent”.
Yeah, that’s what I’d have thought. If the photos people are circulating to illustrate the problem are misleading then that’s… a different problem. Apple might actually be right that the curved iPads are so minutely curved that it’s a nonissue.
Manufacturing irregularities are normal, but are they acceptable? Recall the iPhone 5 required careful matching of slightly differing parts to get that precision body. This slowed down assembly to the point of causing shortages. Those shortages could have been avoided if Apple found it acceptable to ship less than perfect iPhones.
If you can’t figure out that your iPad is bent in 14 days you shouldn’t be returning it for being bent.
Ok we can split hairs here if you want. But since this is a consumer product, I would say “perfectly straight” means that when a human looks at it with the naked eye, it’s not bent. I think that would fit the expectations of just about everyone buying one.
To the question of if the bend is normal, depends who it benefits. If ignoring a bend benefits Apple, then yes. If it doesn’t then no.
I once had an iPhone 6+ with a cracked screen. When I went to get it fixed, they said ok. Then they looked closely and there was a bend in the case, less severe than this and almost imperceptible to the naked eye, and said it was ineligible for a screen repair and I had to get a new phone. I took it to a 3rd party repair shop and it was good as new.