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iPad Pro If Apple were to use Stainless Steel for the frame and Titanium for the back panel would that be enough to prevent bending?

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DBZmusicboy01

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Sep 30, 2011
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Aren’t both very powerful metals?
I want an iPad Pro or even iPad Ultra if it existed if it means having NOKIA levels of durability.
 
Pretty sure the current Pros are pretty durable, I haven't seen any bend test or "bendgates" for it online.
 
I believe that would be wildly expensive. The amount of titanium in the iPhone Pros is estimated to be between about $10 and $40, but that’s just for the outer layer of the band (fused with aluminum) on the edge of the phone. To have the entire back of an 11” and 13” iPad be titanium would require significantly more material.
 
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It’s not the material that makes the biggest difference, it’s the thickness of the sides that would give it significant more strength if you would double that.
Titanium in the back doesn’t make a noticeable difference in the resistance against bending but is a bad conductor of heat (so it would throttle much more) and stainless steel sides would give a marginal better strength against beding. But only marginal because of the thinnest part around the area where the pencil charges.

Look at Panasonic toughbook range. They use an ultra light weight magnesium alloy that is injection molded (awesome technique btw) and is incredibly strong because of the ridges and thickness of the sides (not of the material that is only a few mm thick at most places).
 
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Can't say I've ever felt that my iPad would bend, but I only use it to draw. I'm not sure what you would be doing that you'd be worried about bending, though
 
I'm on my 4th iPad (13" M4 Pro). I did manage to bend my 3rd one (A first gen 11" Pro).

It was on the sofa under a thin blanket. I wasn't aware of it being there and I sat on it full force. It had a slight wrinkle on the bottom of the frame by the SIM card slot., but it was just cosmetic. The iPad still runs fine today.
 
In most day to day use cases, I don't see why there is a need to be concerned about bending. There are cases for more rugged uses that would help prevent bending. It just seems like an extra cost and manufacturing process that isn't really a solving an issue that isn't really experienced by most people who use it normally.
 
TokyoKiller said:
In most day to day use cases, I don't see why there is a need to be concerned about bending. There are cases for more rugged uses that would help prevent bending. It just seems like an extra cost and manufacturing process that isn't really a solving an issue that isn't really experienced by most people who use it normally.
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Pretty much this.

Bending isn't an issue for the majority of users so additional expense applied across the entire production output to mitigate an issue for the minority is not something a manufacturer is going to want to do. For users that are subject to additional risks there are other mitigations that the users can take - cases, insurance, AppleCare+ etc. for which the expense does not affect the rest of the product's user base, just the individual user.
 
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You want to use carbon fiber if you want the stiffest iPad Pro possible. It reduces the weight of the iPad too.
 
alecgold said:
It’s not the material that makes the biggest difference, it’s the thickness of the sides that would give it significant more strength if you would double that.
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I agree, though I don't know if the thickness would need to be doubled. I repaired many Powerbooks and Macbooks starting from the first models through about 2008. Even the models whose housing was mostly plastic would break mostly at the points where the plastic was thinnest, and at the inner corner of sharp right-angle bends, which should have been molded as smooth curves instead. It was rare for the thicker areas of plastic to break. The same usually held true for the metal internal frames, though sometimes they would break at odd locations right in the middle of a length, since they were often made of some awful pot metal. Nearly all these issues were resolved when Apple began making Macbook housings out of milled aluminum.

Hinge mounting points, on the body of the housing of the plastic Powerbooks and early Macbooks, were a particularly common point of breakage, because for years Apple didn't design them strongly enough to withstand the stresses of opening and closing the display lid for years--these mounting points had tiny nubbins of plastic, including those containing the threaded metal ferrules for the mounting screws, to hold the metal hinges in place, and sharp right-angle bends in some locations on these plastic mounting points, and while the metal hinges usually held up, their plastic mounting points for them often cracked at these weaker areas and fell apart over time. If these mounting points had been made with thicker plastic and no sharp right-angle bends, far fewer would have broken.
 
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DBZmusicboy01 said:
Aren’t both very powerful metals?
I want an iPad Pro or even iPad Ultra if it existed if it means having NOKIA levels of durability.
Click to expand...
They are, especially steel, but it would be very very heavy.
XboxEvolved said:
Pretty sure the current Pros are pretty durable, I haven't seen any bend test or "bendgates" for it online.
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There is a thread on this very forum about one customer with a bend iPad M4.
 
Hopefully it’s better than the iPad Air 2. The number of times I’ve had to flatten it out again! Still works after all these years though, so I can’t complain too much.

If I’m going to shell out $1700 for an iPad though, I’m going to want it to be more robust than my Air 2!
 
Bungaree.Chubbins said:
Hopefully it’s better than the iPad Air 2. The number of times I’ve had to flatten it out again! Still works after all these years though, so I can’t complain too much.

If I’m going to shell out $1700 for an iPad though, I’m going to want it to be more robust than my Air 2!
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If you bent an Air 2, you probably should be more careful with your iPad 🤔
 
What might work would be a material that could flex a little but rebound. Too much and the glass breaks, of course. I would try carbon fiber.
 
alecgold said:
It’s not the material that makes the biggest difference, it’s the thickness of the sides that would give it significant more strength if you would double that.
Titanium in the back doesn’t make a noticeable difference in the resistance against bending but is a bad conductor of heat (so it would throttle much more) and stainless steel sides would give a marginal better strength against beding. But only marginal because of the thinnest part around the area where the pencil charges.
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Exactly right. Consider this: paper vs. aluminum, which is harder to bend?

Break out any thick piece(s) of paper vs. a piece of aluminum FOIL. Pit phone book (stack of paper) rip vs. aluminum foil rip.

In general, thicker metal will be stronger than thinner metal. Even tin can be harder to bend as it thickens.

If you want to engineer anti-bend, make it thicker and build in structures to shift bending pressures. Of course, as you add more metal and metal structures, you are making the "thing" HEAVIER. If you want "lighter," you are probably thinning metal, making the "thing" more fragile vs. bending pressures. Pick your poison.
 
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I hold mine without any case and pretty firmly, because the 13” is quite difficult to hold with only one hand. No bending. I believe that most people who have it bend probably lie on it for a long period of time, then try to claim insurance.
Apple used to make exceptions for cases like these and replace the device, but with people doing it all the time, it probably is going to become a rare occurrence now.

I don’t believe they’ll ever be where the iPhones are at in terms of durability because that would make them too heavy and Apple seems to be trying to make the 13” as light as possible.

Make sure to use a case or lay it on a flat surface if you’re drawing on it!
 
Appleminded said:
I hold mine without any case and pretty firmly, because the 13” is quite difficult to hold with only one hand. No bending. I believe that most people who have it bend probably lie on it for a long period of time, then try to claim insurance.
Apple used to make exceptions for cases like these and replace the device, but with people doing it all the time, it probably is going to become a rare occurrence now.

I don’t believe they’ll ever be where the iPhones are at in terms of durability because that would make them too heavy and Apple seems to be trying to make the 13” as light as possible.

Make sure to use a case or lay it on a flat surface if you’re drawing on it!
Click to expand...

I really wish the 13" was as solid as everyone seems to think it is. Mine has been in a case since new 5 months ago. It usually just sits upright on the folded case. I've never dropped it. I've never put it in a bag, and it has rarely left my home. Still somehow it is bent enough that when my FaceID failed Apple refused to repair it under warranty. I had absolutely no idea it was bent (nor did the Apple Genius when I checked it in for repair). It was only noticed by the service tech when it was sent out to an Apple repair center. And when returned I can see the bend by looking closely.

I really wanted to believe the M4 13" is strong, but it just is not.

If I were a professional photographer, film industry worker, or someone doing work in a warehouse or a factory there is no way I would allow this device to be used in that environment unless I could afford for it to be disposable or account for the downtime and costs of running to the Apple Store for replacements under Apple Care. Again, mine was in a full front/back case and still somehow is bent.
 
MK500 said:
I really wish the 13" was as solid as everyone seems to think it is. Mine has been in a case since new 5 months ago. It usually just sits upright on the folded case. I've never dropped it. I've never put it in a bag, and it has rarely left my home. Still somehow it is bent enough that when my FaceID failed Apple refused to repair it under warranty. I had absolutely no idea it was bent (nor did the Apple Genius when I checked it in for repair). It was only noticed by the service tech when it was sent out to an Apple repair center. And when returned I can see the bend by looking closely.

I really wanted to believe the M4 13" is strong, but it just is not.

If I were a professional photographer, film industry worker, or someone doing work in a warehouse or a factory there is no way I would allow this device to be used in that environment unless I could afford for it to be disposable or account for the downtime and costs of running to the Apple Store for replacements under Apple Care. Again, mine was in a full front/back case and still somehow is bent.
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But others of us have had very different experiences with the 13. I use mine a lot, more so now that I leave the laptop at home and take the 13.
 
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sparksd said:
But others of us have had very different experiences with the 13. I use mine a lot, more so now that I leave the laptop at home and take the 13.
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I totally respect that everyone has their own experiences. And I've had many Apple products in the 38 years since my first Macintosh II that I've had zero problems with, and others have said were problematic. If my FaceID hadn't suddenly failed out of the blue I would probably be saying it seems fine. I would have never noticed the bend. Because before this, after watching teardowns and reviews of the internals of the new M4 models, I also believed Apple had resolved the structural deficiencies. That's why I took the risk and spent almost $2K on it. 🤷‍♂️
 
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