Despite having a slight bend right out of the box, Apple says the iPad Pro “meets or exceeds” its quality standards

Earlier last week, several customers who bought the 2018 iPad Pro noticed that their iPads seemed to have a slight curve right out of the box. Apple said that the bend is not a cause for concern.

Instead, Apple say the slight bend is a side effect in the iPad Pro’s manufacturing process (apparently during the cooling down process of the metal and plastic components) and, the bend is not expected to worsen over time or affect the iPad’s performance in any way. Essentially, Apple doesn’t consider the slightly deformed iPads as defective.

Not happy with the response from Apple saying that the matter is not a manufacturing issue, a customer raised his concerns via email straight to Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook.

While he didn’t get a reply from Cook, the customer got a response from Apple’s VP of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio:

“Relative to the issue you referenced regarding the new iPad Pro, its unibody design meets or exceeds all of Apple’s high quality standards of design and precision manufacturing. We’ve carefully engineered it and every part of the manufacturing process is precisely measured and controlled.

Our current specification for iPad Pro flatness is up to 400 microns which is even tighter than previous generations. This 400 micron variance is less than half a millimeter (or the width of fewer than four sheets of paper at most) and this level of flatness won’t change during normal use over the lifetime of the product. Note, these slight variations do not affect the function of the device in any way.

Again, thanks for reaching out and I hope the above explanation addresses your concerns.”

In the email Riccio also said that Apple will be reaching out to the media to issue an official statement on the matter. At the time of writing, we have not received any word that Apple has made a statement directly addressing the matter.

While I can appreciate the precision and tight tolerances in Apple’s manufacturing process, having an iPad Pro that is noticeably curved when it should be virtually flat, is a cause of concern especially when you consider the iPad Pro is the most expensive iPad Apple has ever sold.

The 2018 iPad Pro starts from RM3,499 for the 11-inch 64GB WiFi version and goes all the way up to RM8,199 for the 12.5-inch variant with 1TB of storage and 4G LTE support options included and that’s excluding the Pencil and Smart Keyboard Folio – which I would argue are essential accessories if you want to make the most out of the iPad Pro.

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