Well I ended up doing two exchanges in one day, three returns in total.
When I picked up the new iPad Pro I immediately noticed there was a significant dent or scuff in one corner, mild discoloration on the aluminum that wouldn’t wipe off, and the plastic dock for the Apple Pencil was scuffed. I immediately went back to the store and had it swapped. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it.
With the second unit, an Apple employee decided to give me a student discount (that I didn’t know about) and just gave it to me on a whim, I’m very thankful for that, it was so out of the blue. I didn’t even have the acceptance letter he asked to see, told him I had no proof to show it so I didn’t bother to go forward with the discount, but he gave it to me anyway. Apple is so nice. +++1
Anyway, I took another inspection with the second unit in the car and saw blue goo in the USB-C, not sure if it has always been there for every unit I’ve had, but I’ll ignore that. There’s a black mark on the antenna, I managed to rub most off, but it’s still there... I’ll probably try using a magic eraser to get it off.
The SIM tray is also not flush, but whatever, at least it’s not scuffed... kinda. Something I’ve been noticing with these units is that I can see where they insert the drill to cut the SIM slot (or whatever it is), I can always see a nicked spot or a dot somewhere in the edge. Some have it worse than others.
I just got home and was able to shine light on it, and this unit does indeed have the annoying bulge.
I’ll be trying my best to not give in to temptation and look for any uneven backlighting or uniformity issues. I’m just going to keep it, and I’m going to contact Apple and tell them everything. Hopefully they can do something about it, but I doubt they will. I love this iPad Pro too much.
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Goo at the bottom, flowing down the side.
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Discounted! Got $63 extra. Thinking about getting the leather Apple Watch strap with this!
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Rippled iPad Pro.