I received my shinny, new iPad 2 yesterday. When I turned it on I immediately saw yellowish discolorations along the top, right, and bottom edges. The discoloration at the top right corner is the worse and is about the size of my thumb. I tweeted about the problem to see if others have seen the same issue. A friend pointed me to this site which describes the problem and shows a picture of the discoloration.
So apparently this is a problem with the new iPad 2, but I don’t think it’s a major problem. Nor do I think it’s a problem with iPad 2 only. Here’s why.
It seems that many iPads will show some slight discoloration when displaying an all black screen with full brightness while in the dark. I see this on my first generation iPads, so this is not a new problem with the iPad 2. And I don’t see this as a major problem because under normal use you do not see the discoloration. I have used my first generation iPads (I have two of them) for nearly a year, and I have never noticed this problem. I can only see it when I display an all black screen with full brightness while in the dark, which is not a normal use case scenario.
With that said, the problem with my new iPad 2 is different. Yes, it’s the same yellowish discoloration, but in my particular case the discoloration is noticeable when using the iPad under normal conditions. The discoloration is visible on my device when running apps with black backgrounds (such as Kindle and Instapaper) with the brightness set to a low level while sitting in a room with natural daytime light. This is why I have asked Apple for a replacement. I wouldn’t care about the discoloration if it wasn’t noticeable under normal use, but for my particular device it is noticeable under normal use.
So before you panic and think you have a defective iPad 2 because you can see some discoloration when looking at an all black screen with full brightness while in the dark, see if the discoloration is noticeable under normal conditions. I’m willing to bet your iPad is perfectly fine.