Earlier this week, Apple reportedly acknowledged some iPad Pros to ship with a slight bend in the body and said it won’t be replacing them. In an email obtained by 9to5Mac, the company’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio doubled down on the position, stating the device “meets or exceeds all of Apple’s high quality standards of design and precision manufacturing.”
According to Riccio, the new iPad Pro has a flatness specification of up to “400 microns” and is “tighter than previous generations Ipad Pros,” which means essentially nothing to most people. Basically, Apple is saying that the iPad Pro has less than one millimeter of variance allowed for the flatness of the device, and that level shouldn’t change over the course of the lifetime of the product. The company also said that any slight variation within that range won’t affect the performance of the tablet at all.
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Apple’s response amounts to saying that the bending is a non-issue, which is unlikely to be a satisfying answer for folks who are bothered by the bend. It’d be one thing if the issue was the result of wear and tear, but the devices are reportedly coming out of the box with the bend. Owners of newly opened bent iPad Pros could attempt to take advantage of Apple’s return policy and trade in the device until they get a sufficiently flat one.
It’d be nice if Apple willingly addressed the problem rather than dismissing it some people say, especially since the company would probably like to avoid another iPhone 6-style bending controversy. Apple is expected to comment further on the issue very soon. Engadget reached out to for that info and will update if we hear back from the company.
