iPad Pro 12.9 Screen Light Bleed

LadyDi102 wrote:

I'm on my 3rd device and I'm one of those people who companies hate to see coming ;-)

Congratulations on the result you have obtained; it would be wonderful if people who companies did not hate to see coming were also provided fair service :-)

Affected here too over the past 12 months after the initial 18 months of owning a 12,9 2nd gen that has lived all its life atop a desktop stand along a bt keyboard - appeared suddenly and not spreading much and I have become used to this far from perfection APPLE DESIGN HARDWARE DEFECT - decided not to pursue replacement with some unknown history refurbished unit (if a warranty claim was accepted after all) since I have babied the battery for long term ownership. Also, it seems it is a matter of time before this light bleeding issue appears to a replacement unit too, per reports of users that have gotten a replacement. Not the first time I get not that perfect hardware from Apple at a perfect item price. If only I had a proper alternative...

Had the same issue with my 2nd gen IPad Pro 12.9 and after getting a new one from Apple the second unit started bleeding just 4 months after being replaced and on top of that the screen would randomly freeze. When brought back to Apple they were unwilling to replace it and now I’m considering a lawsuit.

In my experience, it continues until it is across the entire left (vertical) side of the screen, becoming considerably distracting. It is also evident to me at all brightness levels. Dark wallpaper helps markedly. Apps that display with light backgrounds are something everyone will have to suffer with.

Hi romeo2903,

Backlight level varies depending on room light conditions, from around 20% up to 100% in daylight conditions - my 12,9 practically always lives on stand on a mini-desk in our tiny home/living/sleeping space ( a laptop would be too bulky and noisy with its fans ). I have accepted this still small issue as “normality”.

I understand that there is a weak spot around the backlight edges where the lamination layers tend to delaminate due to everyday mechanical stresses and even the tiniest misalignment of these layers causes uneven light distribution, brighter close to the leds.

My screen had been 100% ok during the first 18 months of ownership and then my issue developed suddenly and fully in about 2 months and has been stable during the past 11 months. I contacted the local service center, they said “sent it so we can decide at our discretion” but since the best I could hope would be a refurbished unit of unknown history (probably displaying a similar flaw over time), I decided to keep my babied unit despite this flaw - if I ever spent that much on any Apple imperfect perfect product, it will take much convincing to ever do that again. Maybe until this unit dies there will be a proper Android alternative but until then this unit stays.

I hope yours fare better but if I was moving mine around I would expect the flaw to get worse over time - it is a weak point.

A PATCH APPLE COULD APPLY would be 5% crop of the displayed screen so the issue would be invisible inside a small black margin around the visible part of the working screen but they shall never do that, accepting their design was flawed, since this would raise a legal compensation storm, nevermind Samsung’s mocking ads (one company with even worse mishap record pointing fingers instead of just shutting up).

Thank you myaka for giving answer for my question.

Is it okay to ask more questions, I still worry that it may fully block or affects the whole screen and lost the only device i use for my online class.

1. Did you notice any horizontal progress with the issue.

2. Did you notice that there are times that some affected areas flicker?

Questions are what this site is for :-) The problem appears to be confined to the left (held vertically) margin -- no horizontal progress for me or reported by anyone thus far. I have not observed flicker, nor do I believe any others have reported flicker (in this thread). I doubt that you have reason to worry that this will render your iPad unusable. It will likely make its use annoying at times, but not unusable.

Thank for your response SpectrumAmiga6128. I greatly appreciate it.

I ask those because I'm worried that It wont last until I was able to buy a new replacement and maybe managing the brightness might help decrease the progress of this problem. Im still a student and this is my only device use for my online class. I just want to estimate how long it will last usable.

Anyway, i read and watch some informations from technicians and user who encounter this problem. Most of them said that this issue mostly related to the backlight circuit, either the backlight coil or the filter thing.

I am an (obsolete) electronics guy and I believe this is a mechanical stress issue: I had a 3GS disintegrate due to battery swelling and the backlight light dispersion structure had disintegrated as well so I saw that it is a sandwich of plastic white foils, I guess with microstructures on their surface - if forces affect their inbetween distances I expect backlight hot/dark spots appear instead of uniform white, the way you can experience on an LCD monitor/TV with side illumination if you apply slight pressure directly on the screen. I guess the ipad structure is a bit less rigid around the edges and mechanical (thermal?) stresses accumulate over time causing the issue. Hard plastic cases may make the issue more pronounced. When I acquired the ipad I also got a high quality case, used it for a few days and then removed it for good as I found the 12,9 too big to haul around - since then it rests on a stand on the desk. The issue appeared about 12 months after I last used the case so I cannot see a direct connection to its past use but mechanical stress can accumulate in materials like hard plastic and aluminium.

...which brings up an ironical situation: using a case to protect a device damages the device.

It's an interesting idea, but a question remains: wouldn't the effect show on multiple sides, not only the left vertical?

This is certainly not an uncommon issue. At least 2-3 of my iPads have had this issue and I’ve either had them replaced or the misfortune of being just a few weeks out of warranty for something that was clearly a display defect.

They shall never do that - too embarrassing to admit failure, nevermind the legal/compensation can of worms following such admittance. It is the 4th different product I have from them paid at perfect price with not that perfect performance (worst case was a very lightly used iPad 4 that did not power on ever again, one morning 6 months after warranty coverage without any reason whatsoever).

I really hope the expected microled iPads will make this problem a thing of the past for good.

Since this is a user helping fellow users site, simply provided by Apple, there is no such thing as “Apple … open[ning] a new category for all iPads experiencing light bleed”, myaka and SpectrumAmiga6128.

Hence, of course, SpectrumAmiga6128, there is, likewise, no “admission”, of any kind, on Apple’s part.

@Halliday, since this is a user helping fellow users site, simply provided by Apple, I am pretty sure they do lurk around listening to what their user base talks about. Also, verifying/knowing that other people experience the same design failure that (usually) does not affect usability is big help on its own accord.

And, yes, I am sure they know they screwed up partly because of threads like this.

And I want them to know that they still enjoy my $ only because there is still no viable alternative to the iPad ecosystem. If this changes and they carry on such mishaps paid at perfect product price, I (and family) may just move out of their ecosystem.

While there may be some information “gleaning” going on, here, by Apple, SpectrumAmiga6128, there is absolutely no guarantee.

Besides. If people only complain, here, and don’t avail themselves of the proper Feedback channels, it demonstrates, to Apple (assuming there is information “gleaning” going on, here, by Apple), that the people involved are not as serious, but simply want to be seen as complaining.

Of course, whether you take advantage of the proper Feedback channels, or not, is entirely up to you.