7 ms·
Impact at the edge of screen created microscopic crack. Thermal change caused the crack to spread. It happens all the time with vehicle windshields.
by peppertree 4y ago
Impact at the edge of screen created microscopic crack. Thermal change caused the crack to spread. It happens all the time with vehicle windshields.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoThen why hasn’t it happened for other macbooks? The corners of my 2012 are noticeably deformed from impacts and the screen is fine
- kayodelycaon 4y agoHell, the newer iPads flex a bit and we don’t have screens break constantly.
- monocasa 4y agoScreen glass breakage is very dependent on the shape and vector of the stress. Flexing is generally not that bad, nor are light impacts or scrapes on the front, but a remarkably tiny pressure on edge will cause a crack.
- kergonath 4y agoExactly. The surface treatment of these glasses make their faces very resistant to fracture, but the layer in the middle inside is much less tough. An impact on the side is really bad for this type of glass pane.
- peppertree 4y agoThe fracture pattern depends on the direction of impact. It's easily verifiable under a microscope. From the thread it sounds like Apple did indeed verify them with a microscope. However people are not always rational, especially when money is involved.
- minxomat 4y agoThe thread has 50 pages and 2000 votes, so I'd guess even if that is a factor, it wouldn't account for all of them.
- samatman 4y agoMaybe. Apple sold 30 million Macs last year. 2000 complaints would be 0.0067% of those.
- dereg 4y agoI don't think that means much. There were 1500 complaints about the original 12" Macbook's butterfly keyboard in the OG thread[1]. That keyboard went on to be recalled. [1] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7063425 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7063425
- samatman 4y ago...were? I just clicked it, both out of curiosity and spite (I had one of those damn keyboards), now there are more. Your counterexample means even less, since my numbers are based on measuring something useful. Besides which: what kind of case do you think you're making by pointing out that actual design/manufacture problems with Apple products show up in Apple forums? How else would it be?
- anakaine 4y agoIf you go through and read a few it becomes plain that there's a few themes emerging. Clean everything, lid closure. I find it a bit laughable that they can "verify it under a microscope". The glass is present under tension, and a weak point releasing that tension could very well cause local divoting at the origin of the crack as the pressure is released towards that point and microsharding occurs.
- thehappypm 4y agoIs the screen more slammable (for lack of a better word)? My HP has these two rubber stoppers that prevent the Screen from slamming the keyboard.
- pmontra 4y agoMy HP also has a piece of cloth to put on the keyboard before closing the lid. I always suspended by pressing the power button and disabled suspend by closing the lid, so it is natural for me to use that extra protection.
- asdff 4y agoMacs have always had that, but the newer ones have this issue where the screen hits the keyboard. Never happened with the older fatter models from a decade ago.
- jrmg 4y agoMy MacBook ten years ago quickly developed a very obvious, when off, imprint of the key shapes on its screen.
- asdff 4y agoMaybe it depended on use but I had this 2012 mbp that would be shoved into a backpack with heavy textbooks for 7 years before graduating to a lighter packing in the backpack. Never had issues, but the 2020 intel macbook air I bought that just sat on my desk during covid did develop those imprints within a few weeks it felt like.
- bliteben 4y agoWell as I recall 10 years ago we would use keyboard covers , and those caused imprints, but the keyboard alone never did. I cant imagine you could even use a keyboard cover today. Kind of just worse design all around on these laptops.
- bliteben 4y agoI have one of the last 16” intel macs and god I wish it was built like the 17” ones. Cleaning the screen terrifies me because the thing is so fragile. Not to mention how my previous screen had the coating get messed up from using glasses cleaner on it once.
- kergonath 4y ago> Then why hasn’t it happened for other macbooks? It most certainly has, but might not have been publicised. I remember some noise about iPhones screens failing in more or less exactly the same way ~10 years ago. These things are bound to happen regularly, but we don’t hear about it. Ion-exchange strengthened glass is resistant to microcracks, but even so fracture happens. > The corners of my 2012 are noticeably deformed from impacts and the screen is fine Glass is an interesting material. It can bend and deform in the right conditions, and shatter in others. Your experience would show that the screen is actually well designed (my 2015 MBP had also a deformed corner after having fallen open from a table; I was actually pleasantly surprised that the hinge survived).
- nice2meetu 4y agoDeformed corner here too! it was sitting precariously on a pile of papers on top of a set of plastic drawers on top of a standup desk which was half raised (where the printer lives, was silly I know). My daughter came in and bumped the table and my open MacBook fell directly on the corner of the screen. It has a dent there now but no other damage
- shadowfacts 4y agoYears ago, the screen of my 2012 rMBP had broken seemingly out of nowhere one time after I opened the lid. I knew someone who was carrying a couple pieces of paper stapled together inside the lid of their 2016-era MBP, and when they opened it, the staple had broken the glass. Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Glass breaks, it happens.
- no-s 4y ago> Thermal change caused the crack to spread. It happens all the time with vehicle windshields. This happened to my brother’s brand new Tesla. Tiny impact on the edge extended all the way across after a week in Tucson. Very sad, especially because the service was difficult (had to return to SoCal for repair). The next week around Tucson I looked for and spotted over a dozen Teslas with similar crack extensions. It’s probably safer for it to be flimsy. If it shatters it will become chunks and not shards. The Air screen is big enough to make killer shards...
- ProfessorLayton 4y agoCar windshields are laminated with plastic in the middle, precisely to prevent shards, and to not have it completely collapse in the event of an impact. The rest of the windows are tempered glass, also to prevent shards.
- jabbany 4y agoActually, windshield glass is designed to prefer cracking (and holding together) instead of shattering into chunks when it breaks like the side windows. Relevant video about this design: https://youtu.be/aAsUG-jbLlM?t=131 https://youtu.be/aAsUG-jbLlM?t=131 Computer screen glass is also usually laminated (though here the goal is to fuse the glass very closely to the LCD panel so there's no unsightly "air gap")
- cycomanic 4y agoThere used to be a science show on German television that always demonstrated interesting engineering science bits at prime TV hours (knoffhoff show). They demonstrated windscreen security glass by someone jumping on a large (2mx2m or more) sheet between two wooden blocks. It looked like someone jumping on a springboard. At the end another person tapped the side of the glass using a small hammer and the glass shattered into tiny little pieces. The jumping guy was still on it, but did not get cut because all pieces where dull shards. It really impressed my young self at the time.
- ashildr 4y ago
- kergonath 4y agoIndeed. That’s how glass works.
- hammock 4y ago> It happens all the time with vehicle windshields. Easy solution for windshields which avoids full replacement is to go and have somebody inject epoxy(? some sort of agent) into the crack which will prevent it from spreading larger
- Maursault 4y agoIt is possible many or most of the reported screen cracks are due entirely to thermal changes. The M1 MacBook displays are made of glass. Glass is a poor thermal conductor and rapid changes in temperature will create stress fractures in the glass that will eventually crack. When heated, thin glass begins to crack. Let's say, for argument's sake, the OP has their desk in front of a window. At night, temperatures go down, and in the morning, sunlight provided enough thermal change fast enough to cause a small crack, which expanded with stress. I'm not saying that is what happened, just that thermal stress can explain a lot. Voices can already be heard that Apple's product can't even handle sunlight. But it isn't sunlight, it is the delta-T over delta-t the change in temperature over time. Taking a device in thermal equilibrium of an air conditioned environment outside into a hot car will crack the glass with no impact event. Happened to me. I was holding an iPad in my hands in front of me, and I saw the glass crack, and I knew immediately what I did wrong. The change in temperature was too extreme and too fast.
- londons_explore 4y agoBut it's also possible to design glass which is pretty much immune to thermal stress cracking.... Perhaps Apple should have done so, knowing their users might expose their laptops to sunlight...
- vorpalhex 4y ago> Taking a device in thermal equilibrium of an air conditioned environment outside into a hot car will crack the glass with no impact event. The $1000+ device should be able to handle going outside
- namecheapTA 4y agoI'm sitting in a car with 150k miles on it, with the original windshield. It has one chip from when I followed a gravel truck too closely once. Sometimes I even take it to a carwash in the summer with a baking hot windshield. Sometime I turn on the heater in the winter while it's snowing. Amazingly, engineers have designed a glass product that is as heavy, thick, coated, whatever... To survive common usage for a decade.