Apple I-Pad

The Queen is NOT amused.  In fact, I’m pretty down-right Pi**ed (pardon the language).  After all the trouble I’ve had, I thought it pretty necessary to update all future China-Travelers to the dangers of buying/using Apple products here.

I don’t remember if I told you all this, but Lawrence the Laptop has had another revolt. He attempted going on strike via a broken LCD screen; I cut him off at the start via a nice HDMI connection to my television.  Unfortunately, he laughed in my face and promptly refused to work without the HDMI connection. No need to get into it, it was a whole thing.  

So last November, I bought an Ipad 2 during China’s version of Black Friday. I’ve had an I-Pod for several years, which lasted pretty well and I figured I’d give their tablet a try.  YES, I checked and it is a legit Apple I-Pad; had it tested by the real Apple Company in Zhengzhou (it’s on the apple website as a legit seller).

WRONG!  BAD! Stupid Olivia!  

Here’s Why. . . 

Price: 1800 RMB (approx. $300)

Review: The price was a little expensive for my tastes (almost all of Apple is), but I figured it was worth the bargain.  Apple products in China tend to run a bit pricier than products in America. Go figure given that they are literally produced about 10 miles away in the city I live in.  They have their own personal runway at the international airport they ship so many Apple products out of here. Yet we still get charge at least 50% again as much as American buyers.  So, I had to wait until 11/11, China’s Black Friday shopping day to pick one up from Hong Kong.  

Initial Purchase: Semi-Good; Semi-Problematic

Review: The first shipment I got was not too terrible.   It came with the charger, a cover, a screen protector, and ear plugs, pretty sweet all together.  The I-Pad itself was unmarked and undamaged, it seemed like everything would be okay.

It worked for about 2 hours, and then problems started.  The swiping part of the screen wasn’t working. It would stall up, like the screen was locked. You could go up about half an inch and down about half an inch, but otherwise nothing was happening. Buttons wouldn’t click, etc.  So we tried turning it on and off again (the answer to most issues), which revealed that the lock screen was not working either. Once again, I couldn’t swipe from the screen saver to the unlock screen. When I did finally get to the lock buttons, it froze and wouldn’t click them.  Tried a hard reset and several other options, nothing worked.  

So we called the seller and sent it back.  They kept it for about two weeks and finally sent me a new version.  This one seemed fine, so life moved on.

Use: Final Product

The final I-Pad I got worked fine soft-ware wise.  Sometimes it would randomly shut down songs or the internet would stop working, and none of the VPNs like it at all.  Otherwise, it was great and I was happy.

Hard-ware wise, the screen cracks like crazy. Literally, press to hard on the screen when punching a button and the whole screen cracked.  I put on a super duper safety case on it intended for toddlers, took it off and the whole edges were broken.  I asked the computer fix-it people and they said it sounds like I was sent a re-furbished model that had a cheap screen put on it.  The screen supposedly should not have cracked like that, but they verified the computer was really apple so they think the screen was just replaced with a cheapo version.  

I was not happy, especially knowing it takes 300 RMB to fix the screen. Furthermore, they admitted that if the top screen breaks the second lower screen there may be no fixing it at all?!?  0_0 Don’t you think that’s something they should have told me about before I bought the I-Pad?  I did a ton of research into I-Pads, I asked questions, and this never came up.  

ERROR: Blue Screen of Death

Anyways, along I go using  my ipad for about 5 months, when suddenly the screen goes blue and the whole thing just shuts off.  Black. Off, no charging, no connecting to the computer, no nothing.  Reset doesn’t work. Plugging it in to the computer doesn’t work. It is dead as a doornail for no apparent good reason.  No warning, that would be too nice. Just stops in the middle of a show.  Takes with it my calendar, contacts, messages, photos, videos, notes, everything. So off I go to the computer store to have it fixed.
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Tags: Apple, China, computer, Electronic, Foreigner, I-Pad, Life in China, Living Abroad, problems, recommendation, Review, Travel