Space Gray is lovely if you can find one without any imperfections. I went through 3 before I settled on silver. Most of the defects were on the camera bump and the rest were on the corners of the screen bezel. There were also several paint imperfections. Little silver dots where the paint didn’t adhere properly. I realized it was impossible to find one without out any defects. Even my 2018 iPad Pro had a small chip on the camera bump. Everything else was perfect so I decided just to ignore it. It’s really a shame, but my ocd will never allow me to settle for anything less than perfect.
Silver with the black bezel is a throwback to the OG iPad. It feels more true to form than Space Gray. You can’t beat a classic!
I've had my SG Pro for about a week, and been debating whether to exchange it to assuage my OCD. Mine has no dents, but a blemish on the antenna band, and a AFAICT, a single speck in the anodizing. Nothing else obviously stands out, but I've only halfheartedly looked more closely, in case I find more. Relatively minor, as I've seen worse posted
here (which would leave no question), but still a bit annoying. Something like that, on the
front and not capable of being hidden by a case, would be insta-return.
The process of setting it up, pre-caseified, only reinforced my disdain for camera bumps, even more so on a tablet. Phones are at greater rick of damage, so it's more likely they'll live in cases, but for a tablet, not as much. It's stupid to think that simply laying down a naked iPad on a table might damage the bump, never mind the camera lenses, sapphire or not.
My first one was a Space Grey and it came out of the box with a few paint chips in the corners on the front, all of which revealed a bright Silver underneath. Returned it and had to exchange a few Silver ones due to other defects before getting a perfect one. Though none of the Silver ones I returned had any paint issues like the Space Grey.
I definitely recommend the Silver for this reason alone.
What kind of defects do the silver ones exhibit?
As I have my old SG Air 1 on the table in front of me, it's remarkable that none of the anodizing of the edges exposed by its case show any signs of wear, even the part subjected constant contact with the clasp of the cover flap, over countless open/close cycles. The chamfered edges do have a few nicks, but the buttons, as well as the area around the Lightning/headphone ports show no wear and tear, resistant to normal button presses and inserting cables by feel. That version of the bazillion Space Grays Apple has produced had held up well.
Defects happen, and these are minor cosmetic flaws, but it's disappointing to see Apple's QC is perhaps more inconsistent. These are premium, not-inexpensive devices.
I don't want to fall into a trap of repeated exchanges, especially with the risk that replacements might be even worse, and with silver being less likely to be in stock during these times of high demand, maybe it's best to just think of mine as having a birthmark, and leave it be. It doesn't have any dead pixels (the mostly white new setup screen helps in checking for that) and didn't come warped out of the box, so the truly important stuff is OK.
