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

The Genius member told me that Apple create the brown box replacements for specific issues and as general replacements. The come in a brown box with no cables or anything, just an ipad in its protective packaging. Now, from what I understand (it was never made fully clear while at Apple) these are refurbishments.... the Genius did explain that a refurb is basically the insides are refused (so the mainboard, CPU, memory, wifi, modem etc etc) and they stick it in a new case with a new screen.... they may as well be new to be fair!

I'm not 100% what the replacements will be but I heavily suspect they will be refurbs. Apple will NOT give you a retail unit if they have no refurbishments in store (in the UK anyway!) I asked that question. They will order you one in and it will take a cpl of days......

Hope that helps!

just beneath the writing on the back and just noticed another just above the apple symbol as if pushed along a desk, probably been refurbed at some point but frankly at this point i am just really, really pleased to get a perfect non bleeding screen!!!

@biscuitdunker.... snap! Just below the writing! ****, who cares man, like you said I could live with that ALL day long... the screen was the real killer! Like i said I have a snap-around-case so I dont ever see the back :-)

Enjoy the leak free experiance!!!!!

Anybody know the state of the LCDs on the iPad 2s they just started selling here in Japan? I'm hoping they are from the newer batch and are either Samsung or after LG did their fix.

doug

Can't we all just get along? You guys are escalating this discussion to the point of "flaming". What is the point? Why don't we all just ignore the mean talk. This is what grownups do. Mean people suck.

i have some light leaks on mine. i went to the apple store at valley fair (near headquarters) and confirmed it. they gave me a replacement in a brown box but genius bar checked it and the brown box, still wrapped in new, had a leak that was even worst. i decided to keep mine for now and will go back in after a few weeks to replace it.

Is the problem solved?

Still have the most recent iPad 2 on stores this light leak problem?

Update for everyone. I picked up my iPad 2 exchange at a NYC Apple Store today (they had to order one for me...took about 4 business days). It's a BIG improvement in terms of light leak. There's still two very small areas of leakage on the left-hand edge, but they're really very small. My original unit had spots of leakage that extended nearly an inch in from bezel. This is more like an 1/8 of an inch, and it's in fewer spots. I think I can live with this. While the leakage bothered me on the original one, this one really doesn't.

The Genius did pull the replacement out of a brown non-retail box, but it had the same plastic wrap you see in the retail boxes. Although I can't be sure, I don't think it's a refurb. There's absolutely no cosmetic damage anywhere and the serial number follows the same syntax as my original retail unit. When I've had iPhones replaced in the past, the serial number followed a different form than the retail units, indicating that they were refurbs.

Another interesting thing: When I brought my iPad 2 to the Genius Bar for the issue, they didn't even try to see it for themselves. I just described it to the genius and she ordered me a replacement right away. The reason she listed on the paperwork was: unit has light leak. So, I think it's safe to say this is a known issue.

I got a new iPad 2 wifi+3g white 32GB today at my neighborhood electronics store here in Shinkoiwa, Tokyo.

It was the only one left. I sort of wanted the black (mainly because that's what I was used to I think), but was really undecided, and sort of liked the white too (like my original iPhone 3G), so I went for it.

I asked the SoftBank person (the carrier here) if she knew about the light leak problem, and she said she had read about it, but said there have been zero reports of that problem with any of the models shipped to Japan. Sales here were delayed until the last couple of weeks because of the 3/11 earthquake. At any rate, she said if I wasn't happy with the screen after opening the box and setting it up I didn't have to take it.

I'm happy to report everything seems perfect. The screen is brighter than on my iPad 1 in a side-to-side comparison with the same brightness settings. Is that other peoples' experiences as well?

I tried as I might to duplicate conditions showing light leakage and could not detect anything like - either at the store or after I brought it home.

At the store, I went to http://www.theipadguide.com/content/ipad-dead-pixel-test-how/7171269 and saved the 5 images, and looked at them carefully in Photos (expanded, no border), and probably drove the salesperson to distraction by spending a great deal of time on all the colors trying to find dead pixels. They are all ok. In green, I thought I saw a dead pixel (at the same location where I had dead pixels in my first two iPad 1s before I exchanged them), but only at a certain angle, and when I tried to show it to her it had disappeared.

I spent like another 15 minutes trying to find it again and it wasn't there. And when I got home I looked again with green and white and all the other colors and couldn't find it. So I hope that isn't a potentially "flickering" pixel, but all looks fine so far.

I haven't transferred anything over yet, but all seems fine with the screen at least.

I believe it is noticeably faster than the iPad 1. There was noticeably less lag when saving the same 5 images to Photos from a web page on the iPad 2 compared to trying the same thing just now on my iPad 1. And switching to Settings was noticeably quicker too.

So so far so good.

doug

Hi all I was woundering if any of you had any yellow tint to the screen ?

I bought my first ipad2 3 weeks ago with BLB and my 2nd unit had no BLB at all but had a jack problem so wating on my third ipad 2 but what i did notice in the shop that my ipad 2 had a slighty darker picture to the display models and they did look alot whiter. I never noticed this at home becasue i was using the ipad 2 on its own but just putting it up to the others in the shop mad mine liik dirty ?

the thing is the bottem half of the screen seemd just as white as theres but about 70% top have of the screen looked dirty and even the apple genius spoted this to and said that couldbe clased as a problem as well.

has anyone had this problems as well as the BLB on there units and have you took yours back becasue of it ?

thanks

You guys are extremely lucky to have replacement units in your countries. Here in Portugal the average waiting time is 30 days after the order so I guess if I take my iPad2 for replacement (which as lots of Light Leaking as you can see from the pictures) I guess it will take an eternity to have a new one (and probably with the same issue). What a disappointment.......

Yep, I've just gone there to exchange it today. itstill has light leaeage problem. They opened 2 brown boxes and 1 retail box.

Regardless of what Apple might want you to accept, UK consumer law is very clear. If you bought a brand new iPad from them and it has a fault they are required to provide you a brand new replacement.

It's not optional, it's your statuary right.

@Martin_UK The consumer law is the same here in Portugal I believe with one difference : the waranty is always 2 years.

My issue is that due to shortage of supply , the average waiting time for an iPad2 here in Portugal is 30 days.

What bothers me is going to the shop present the faulty unit , they recognize the defect , but they do not have any new replacing unit so I will have to wait 15 to 30 days which is ridiculous.

The problem is so many people on here are willing to accept what a retailer says rather than assert their rights. And that's fine, but posting statements about what X's policy may or may not be potentially misleads others into thinking they have to accept something they don't.

That and many US posters - who seem to revel in having no rights - love to drown out anyone who suggests there's an alternative to accepting whatever you're given.

Apple sell refurbished units for less than a new unit, there's no requirement for anyone in the UK (nor I suspect anywhere in the EU) to pay for a brand new iPad and end up with a cheaper refurbished one.