iPad Air : taping on its glass is louder than before?

I can CONFIRM this. I have owned ALL generations of iPad and I have all of them on my table except the 1st Gen. Here are my Observations:

>>>iPad 1, 2, 3, 4 Does NOT have this "fragile thin" glass feel.<<<

1. Non Air iPads all feel solid. Original poster gave a very good description of the feel. You feel alot of vibration on the second finger when you type with another finger.
2. There is a HOLLOW feel when you tap on the iPad Air. Feels like there is a GAP in between the screen and glass.
3. You can DISTORT the lcd graphics with a stronger tap on screen which almost never happened on original iPads.

I believe that this is due to a thinner glass being used to minimize the unit thickness to absolute minimum. I have NO reason to believe this thinner glass is weaker. I certainly hope it isn't. ONE friend of mine broke her screen today. I will be much more cautious. It DOES give an INFERIOR feel when you touch and interact with the screen. the iPAD Air is lighter and holds much more comfortably in my hands.

I guess that's the compromise that we have to make. Don't break your screen!🙂

Normally I wouldn't care about the sound and feel of a touchscreen device as long as it works well, but I have two points of contention:

1. Apple specifically designs products to be pleasant to hold and touch as well as to use. That is why I switched form Android tablets to my iPad. If I had wanted cheap plastic feel I would have bought a Samsung tablet.
2. I used to be able to use my iPad as a serving tray without having to worry about scratching it. I would set a coffee cup or plate of food on it without worry of damaging it. Now that it's made of plastic that takes away some of the functionality, so it now takes up more table space.

sunjohn wrote:

The sound is 2-3x louder than the sound of my previous iPad 1 and iPad 3, and the pitch is higher. It almost sounds as if my iPad Air was hollow.

This would seem quite normal, because the device's physical size is smaller. A smaller device/smaller piece of glass resonates at a higher frequency than a larger device/larger piece of glass does.

sunjohn wrote:

It really feels like my Air's construction is of much lower quality than those of my previous iPad, and it seems more fragile, too.

It could be that you're just too "used to" the previous iPad. And when something is lighter in weight, it may give the illusion that it's of lower quality or build.

Not having seen nor handled the iPad Air first-hand, I can't really comment much more on what it feels like to use it. What I can say is that you will get used to it. Consider yourself fortunate to have one and enjoy your new iPad Air! 🙂

sunjohn wrote:

turn the screen off and place it so you have some geometric (straight) shapes reflecting on the glass. put your finger : the reflexion distorts even with a very light pression.

if you have an older iPad, try with it : you have to press much more to see the same effect

That's a good test and going by that alone, it would *appear* that the glass may either be thinner or more flexible in it's physical properties (maybe a different fomulation of Gorilla Glass). I think these are all necessary evils involved with getting the device to fit the "Air" name (1 US pound). People want thin and light...that's what they're getting here.

Previous Gen iPads did not have to live up to the "Air" aspect of being an iPad. The 3rd gen and 4th gen are plenty light and thin enough for me. If I ever do end up getting an Air, I'll bet I'll get used to it very quickly, then pick up an older iPad and wonder how I ever tolerated that immense size and weight. Would anyone like to buy an old iPad Tank?

I was about to post the same question. To me, the iPad Air feels cheap because of the thinner glass that flexes when you tap it. I'm going to return mine to the Apple Store tomorrow and buy a 4th generation iPad online. Also I much prefer iOS 6 to 7. I'm surely in the minority here, but I have been really dissapointed with Apple post-Steve Jobs. 😟

I think the glass is thinner than my ipad 3.

When i pressed the air little bit hard than normal touch, I could actually touch the LCD, which distorted the picture.

It's like touching your old LCD screen. The color disperses from where you pressed.

I tried it on my ipad 3. But it was much harder. I could only do it in the center.

But with ipad air, you could pretty much press anywhere hard and you get that distorted lcd image.

I was very disappointed with the glass thinckness.

I think apple should have kept the original glass thickness at least..

I am all for IO6 too, the steve job era.

I kept all my ipads and iphones in my family still in io6.

Until i buy a new product from apple, i don't see myself using io7.

io7 doesn't look much diff than android, so i am even looking to switch when all my apple product dies.

The glass is thinner and mine also sounds very "drummy". I use mine in bed late at night and it makes a lot of tapping noise. Steve Jobs would have never let this one past.

I also wish I had iOS 6, but I'm not at the point where I would return it just yet.

If you press moderately hard on the screen, you can see the "liquid rainbow" effect from the LCD flexing. They made the glass too thin. Steve would be sad to see how quickly the quality of Apple products has deteriorated.

How thin is too thin? In the quest for "thinness", sacrifices have to be made. How much thinner do the masses want these devices anyways before they start to feel fragile? For myself personally, the iPad 3 &amp; 4 are the perfect size/weight/strength. Maybe after I get an Air and use one for a period of time, I may change my mind.

You can still have thin without the drumming noise. Just pack the battery right up against the back of the screen.

Some manufacturers are bonding the glass to the active surface of the screen too which would help.

Matty Chang wrote:

You can still have thin without the drumming noise. Just pack the battery right up against the back of the screen.

Yes, that's one way. But I believe the battery is already crammed up against the back of the screen. Just looking at teardown shots (ifixit.com), there is virtually zero free space inside an iPad already. However Apple is reducing the overall thickness of the unit, they seem to be doing so by reducing thickness in the aluminum back and maybe the glass. Also likely thinning out the battery as well. It's pretty much anyones guess as to what exactly is going on in the thinning process. Reducing thickness by reducing mass is inevitably going to make for a "cheaper" feel. Like I mentioned, people want thin buy going *too* thin is going to affect the overall feel of the unit...there's no getting around that.

I do totaly agree on your commend on the Hollow sound and feel of the ipad air

I was using an ipad1 before the air but after unpack and the frist use of it, i was dissapointed with it

For me the extra weight was no problem for the ipad....

"I have the same issue. I don't like the feel and sound of the glass."

"The Air's display is 1.8mm thick and the touchscreen uses a cyclo olephin polymer film sensor rather than the thicker (and cheaper) glass sensor previously used"

( http://www.zdnet.com/ipad-air-teardown-how-fewer-leds-iphone-components-helped-a pple-slash-costs-7000022862/ )

I also preferred the sound & feel of the iPad 4's touchscreen. From the beginning I felt like the iPad Air was flimsy and feels cheaper overall, mainly because of the screen tapping sounding hollow and the touchscreen bending upon pressure. In my opinion it is not related to the device's overall weight, because the iPhone 5(s/c) also got lighter & thinner compared to the 4(s), yet didn't feel cheaper / less sturdy.

So the touchscreen's sound & feel is a bit of a disappointment, but I am still overall happy that the device got so much lighter (especially when reading ebooks), however, an additional 10g for a harder touchscreen surface wouldn't have hurt me either. I am a bit worried about the screen's scratch sensitivity now :/