Significant light leakage, few light botches on sides/corners - defective?
Actually I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but thought I'd share my experience here. Very disappointing, but certainly completely usable until I can exchange.
Hoping it's one of those strange manufacturing things where it "needs to settle," but I doubt it.
Note that I have an iPad 1 also, and it definitely doesn't have this problem.
Correct, there are no formal figures per se but there is also no comment by Apple...other than their employees admitting that Apple knows about the problem and who are taking iPad 2s back or exchanging them, often without even looking at them. I have had two personally with light-leak so bad I didn't NEED to do the test to see. The test only confirmed and upset me more as eight splotches of light all around my screen randomly in not "in spec". Also, there are HUNDREDS of pages, in multiple forums, of people with this issue.
The most glaring thing I have seen is one individual who works with hundreds of iPads as a part of his job and his comments were that a bit of light-leak happens but what he is seeing on EVERY iPad 2 that he has seen (over hundreds as of when he posted) ALL have the light-leak issue. He directly compared the issue with the iPad 1 and said that what he is seeing on the iPad 2 is much worse.
No "figures" other than endless streams of people having this happen to them. One thing that helps Apple is that you have to at least watch a movie in the dark to see this happen as you will not see it on a non-dark screen in normal lighting. Some think this means all is well and that is fine. If they are happy then all the better. However, there are many who are not OK with significant light-leak and I would say that every Apple employee I have spoken to on this agrees. They have all said "it is not normal" and it "is a warrantable (is that a word) issue". They have all said, "Apple knows and is working on it".
i took another chance on ipad2 today at the apple store in glasgow, went through the purchase procedure and turned on to the connect to itunes screen and then yet again light leak, cellophane stayed on and an instant refund, thats seven separate ipads i have had in my hands since launch day on 25th of march and all seven have had this issue to an unacceptable degree. I had an ipad 1 with no problems, its a much better product, immaculately designed and rock solid, ipad 2 feels cheap and rushed to market. so disappointing.
Many of these forums with "hundreds of pages" are the same people posting repeatedly. Also, the vast majority of people who don't have problems don't post about their non-problem, resulting in highly skewed data. Any product manufactured in large scale will have some defective units. To say that it's "all" or even "most" without any supporting data is jumping to conclusions.
I've seen a number of iPad 2s, none of them with any sort of light leakage. Should I infer from that that none of them have the problem?
Meg, please know that I am not wanting to be argumentative. I work in the "device" industry so I have taken a particular interest in this issue. The threads are not all repeats by the same person. There are new, and very upset, people posting every day. Remember, it isn't that easy to even get an iPad 2 right now. Imagine if they were readily available what these hundreds of pages would be.
Yes, statistically I can agree with you but that is why I gave the example of the person that works with them for a living. His comments were.. worked with hundreds of iPad 1s - no significant light-leak issue...working with hundreds of iPad 2s and ALL have significant light-leak issue.
I am typing this on a first generation Intel iMac running Snow Leopard like a champ.. I am used to Apple making VERY good quality and long-lasting products. The iPad 2 I received and the ones many are posting about are not of that same level of quality. Heck, my screen looked like it was about to come up in addition to the light-leak issue.
And I'm certainly not denying there is a problem with some iPad 2s. I also work in a "device" industry. Note that I wasn't responding to you initially. Whether the failure rate is higher than average is going to be almost impossible to determine by the average person. My quarrel is with the notion that this problem affects all or even most iPads. That's obviously not the case. I have yet to see a major Apple product release in the last ten years that didn't have an issue that some people reacted to this way.
I understand that when it's your iPad that's defective, it can be hard to maintain perspective. I would be upset, too. Fortunately, mine and none of the ones purchased by my many friends and aquaintances I've talked into buying them have this problem. The people (and I don't mean you), who feed into the notion that all iPads are defective aren't helping anyone.
Agreed, it does make it harder to be objective when both of the ones I had both had the issue. I likely have one on hold for me today so we will see if I go 3 for 3. I HOPE I do not as I just want one without flashlights on the screen when watching movies but if I do.. I may be being more objective than it seems.
The iPad 32GB white I picked up the 27th of March here in the UK has the issue bad. I still kept my iPad 1 and the screen has no problems in this respect when comparing. I am awaiting a replacement, have this logged with the company and they're just waiting for more stock (like everybody else I guess). The trouble is, I just bought Apple Care for it but haven't activated yet as I'm waiting for the new unit which will of course have a different S/N. Not sure what to do with that at the moment.
Well, this is my first post about this problem. I just received my first iPad 2 and sadly it has a significant light leakage issue. I've scheduled a genius bar appointment for tomorrow. I'll post back results.
On the phone, tech support dodged my question about the likelihood of getting one without the problem. They would only recommend a genius bar appointment, saying they'd get me a new one.
I placed my iPad 2 pre-order at 2300 HST on March 11th, it shipped out on the 17th and I took delivery of it on the 23rd. I was pretty confident that I was going to receive it with a certain degree of light leak after having read all of the posts from people who received theirs early on. Mines exhibited it in the upper right hand corner and at the bottom near the home button (portrait mode). I prompted initiated an AppleCare case the following evening and mailed it back the day after I received my box. I received my second replacement this morning and it didn't shock me that yet again, I would receive a replacement with the light leak. I finally decided that while it is fun to be an early adopter, my recent experiences with Apple products have been disappointing. Since tomorrow is my last day of the 14-day return policy, I called and initiated a "Return for Refund" instead of "Return for Replacement." I will definitely buy an iPad 2 as I have several accessories that were purchased along with it. I think it's a safe bet to wait a couple of months until a new production batch is shipped or when shipping times are reduced even further to say 3-5 business days instead of the current "2-3 weeks." I will continue following this thread to see when people are receiving stock of iPad 2s that aren't exhibiting the issue. For now, I will have to use my first generation iPad until that time comes.
Good luck to all and thank you for sharing your experiences!
I am in France and here also much are touched by problems of screen. Apple enormously disappointed me for the ipad 2. Worst it is than there are much more touched ipad 2 which one does not think it. visit one of these forums if you can read french :
Well, I took it back today and the 3rd iPad 2 had the issue again, only worse, so bad the genius told me to wait a month for new iPad 2's, when the issue is fixed, or get a refund, I took the latter and may wait or I may get a MBP instead... so disappointing, it's such a great tablet too.
