Significant light leakage, few light botches on sides/corners - defective?

Well, I did like I promised. I returned my 2 ipad2 units to Best Buy yesterday, and picked up 2 iPad1 units. The guy was shocked I was doing that, but after a long discussion, he totally understood my situation. I've held on to these 2 units since March 11th. They were horrible. And I've watched this thread since then, and nothing has gotten any better for about 99% of the people on here. I loved my IP1, so getting 2 more wasn't a problem. I can wait for iP3 or maybe something better, later. But I can tell you this - I did not find this forum randomly. I was setting up my iP2 to match my older iP1 (before selling it) and noticed my screen was horribly gray, and the battery was dying very quickly. Then I went looking for others with similar problems, and found this thread. So I've watched, posted, read, waited..almost too long. But managed to find these 2 iP1 units at a store about 1.5 hours from home. It was worth the drive. And with the $ I got back for the exchange, I bought nice accessories. Today I got the new iP1's all synced up, got my InvisibleShields on them, and they are simply PERFECT.
It is THAT perfection I EXPECTED of with the iP2, as I assume most of you on here do.
I'm quite happy with my decision to revert back to iP1 (on iOS 4.2.1) which will do pretty much everything but iMovie. IF I update to iOS 4.3, then iMovie will work, too. I could care less about the camera at this point...especially when they are LESS than 1MP!
My screens are perfect, clear, bright, and the apps all work flawlessly, and the battery...so far still at 100%.... whereas the iP2's I had would have been down to about 70-80% by now. NO THANKS.
I can't confirm this part...but other posts out there have folks complaining that iOS 4.3 is a battery hog. Maybe that was an issue. I don't know. I can tell you this, however, that when I tried to restore of the iP2 units, iTunes wiped it, then attempted to install 4.3.1, but 3 times failed with errors. Had I kept it...how would I have restored it anyway???
If it wasn't one thing with those units, it was 12 others.

Very happy with my exchange. Good luck, folks. 🙂

I received my new Black 64gb WiFi only iPad2 today. To say I was apprehensive about getting one with all the Light Bleed issues is an understatement. I am anal about things, always have been. So I knew if I got one that was bad, it would be going back in a heartbeat.

I opened it, and took it in a dark room and turned it on. It had some light bleed, not as horrible as I see others experiencing.

I took my iPad 1 and did a comparison, it had what I thought was some too, but not blotches like I see in your photos, more a very faint glow near the bezel if I hold it at different angles, but not looking straight on.

Cranked the brightness up to FULL MAX on both, and yes, the iPad 2 had very faint areas of bleed, maybe 4 spots. Again, I never use the device like this.

So I figure I will be the guinea pig, and try the idea I have had all along.

1. I picked the brightest wallpaper on the device.
2. I set it to not auto lock.
3. I put it face up on a nice padded surface, with the protective film still on it.
4. I set 8 lbs. of books on it (I weighed them), with the one on the screen just 1/8 less wide than the screen.
5. I left it on for almost 4 hours and went away.

When I came back, it was warm from the screen being on with the bright wallpaper. Not hot, just warm.

I did the same test. It looks identical to my iPad 1 now. The question now, is will it revert back? I am thinking of leaving the books on overnight, with the unit off.

I can’t tell you how happy I am at this point. No dead pixels (yet), no bleed (as of now). It may revert back, I don’t know, but I will sleep well tonight knowing it’s a keeper.

Do this at your own risk. I am not telling anyone to do this, but for me, it was better to try it than start returning units.

If it reverts back, I will probably open a case online, but wait until apple sorts it out. Going to keep my iPad 1 for another week or so, but I have a line of friends wanting it 🙂

If light bleed is being caused by too much pressure on the screen Im not sure I understand how leaving it under a pile of heavy books would help ! I've now had three units in my possession all of which have exhibited the issue. The last I checked instore and I walked away with a refund.

Message was edited by: Iborguk

Message was edited by: Iborguk

Iborguk wrote:
If light bleed is being caused by too much pressure on the screen Im not sure I understand how leaving it under a pile of heavy books would help ! I've now had three units in my possession all of which have exhibited the issue. The last I checked instore and I walked away with a refund.

Not sure what to tell you. I was already for a battle with Apple. So far, the only issue I ran into was my Wi-Fi wouldn't let me log in after the 4.3.1 update, but resetting network took care of that.

I'll re-check the light bleed tomorrow, but I just checked again and it's not there. Maybe it was the fact I left it on and it got warm, and the books had nothing to do with it, but something make it right. I'm not an Apple Engineer.

Fair enough although again the issue appears to be with the amount of pressure being applied around the screen edge and not temperature or time. This issue won't heal up.

I'd try the books idea but seeing as the iPad is splitting open around the edges already, I can't see that method helping maters.

It won't make any difference.

I don't really believe that this will work...
But I'm trying it anyway. 😀
What do I have to lose? Maybe people that claim it gets better after a couple of weeks have a point, and this will just speed up the process.
In the end, if it doesn't work, it just means a swap in a few weeks anyway.

I had the first generation iPAD and now the second generation. Both have some bleed but it is only really noticable when in a dark room under certain screen conditions that hardly ever happen in practical use. My wife uses the first generation and I use the new one. Love both of them. I think it is an individual preference. If ours were really bad we would exchange them but they are fine for what we use them for.

I am on my 2nd IPad 2 now and still have the same problems. I took the second one back today and had an interesting talk with the 'Genius' about the problem, he didn't even look at the iPad which tells me they know there is a problem and they think its a bad batch. Was advised to wait a few weeks until a new batch comes in and then exchange it.

It could be a fob off but I hope it wasn't . All credit to apple they do have a good policy when it comes to faulty goods, its just a pity this seems to be with the launch of most new products.

Don't think I will be waiting in line for 7 hours for the next one!

I got my 16gb Wifi 2 weeks ago on launch day and was disappointed to find it had significant light bleed - I made an appointment at Apple Glasgow and the genius acknowledged the problem and swapped it with a new one, but this had the same issue. The new replacement was just as bad and had a dead pixel. They swapped this on Monday but unfortunately it also has really bad light bleed. I decided to give it one last shot, made a genius appointment today only to be told that this was now considered "within spec" and that any light bleed "was a result of the new, thinner glass"????

This light bleed problem is an issue (try watching a movie at 50% brightness) - I don't see why I should accept a sub-standard product and pay a premium price. They gave me a refund and I will wait and see what Apple do.

I was hoping to not hear those two words in this thread. That may be exactly what I needed to hear to go buy an iPad 1 at a discount and sit this version out.

Picked up my white 64gb 3g iPad 2 here in the uk today and took it into a dark room at default brightness and it has significant light leakage however with the brightness turned down how I normally use it the light leakage in a dark room is minimal. I am not bothering to exchange it because all the current batches have it and it may be inspec I shall wait to see what apple do if anything to address this issue.

In addition I would like to say the issue does not bother me in the slightest I will just be ****** if apple decide it's not alright and manage to fix the issue somehow in future batches and leave me with this one but I have a years warranty so am not concerned. My unit has it pretty bad when viewing at default brightness in a dark room with a black background so I know what people are complaining about but I do think people are over reacting, just enjoy the unit the screen is not that bad really.

You will be angry if Apple resolve an issue you are happy with?

You are not concerned but you think people are overreacting? You know what people are complaining about but they should just enjoy the screen as is.

Why are you posting any of this?

I think you are confused.

Message was edited by: cheshireuk