Here's why every little Apple issue gets blown out of proportion

Every phone maker can face a degree of backlash from the tech community at some point. For example, Xiaomi is known for putting ads in its apps, which understandably doesn't please its users.

And in late 2018 Google released an unbelievably laggy, barely-usable tablet – the base Pixel Slate. Who would've expected that from the giant?

Samsung's phones have had some major issues too on occasion, from the crease of its Galaxy Fold developing cracks to some of the Korean giant's smartphones even catching on fire.

Those are all significant problems that have caused backlash and criticism from concerned fans, as well as criticism from those who just plain don't like the companies involved.

But any backlash those phone makers receive seems minor in comparison to the backlash Apple appears to get after even the smallest of issues its products may have. Why would that be? Well, there's a rational explanation for everything...

The expectations are high for what's essentially a status symbol company

There's no denying that Apple has managed to establish itself as a status symbol company, meaning its products are seen by many as signs of high social standing. In turn, people can choose to buy the latest iPhone 13 or Apple Watch Series 7 as a means of showcasing their social status, more so than for how useful and technologically impressive those gadgets are.

We're not here to judge, though, as everyone has the freedom to be who they want, and whether that includes following fashion or tech trends is up to the individual. Plus, many Apple users legitimately enjoy the Cupertino company's products with no ulterior motives to buy them other than their convenience and premium quality.

But, there are those who don't see Apple in such a positive light, don't consider its products worthy of such symbolism and positive descriptions, or simply find iPhones and iPads too expensive and overhyped for what they are.

Naturally, those same people may tend to react negatively towards anything related to the trillion dollar company. And they will definitely not let any issues an Apple product may have slide under anyone's radar.

"It costs a lot, so why isn't it flawless?"

Although Apple has moved away from only offering expensive products, with the iPhone SE 2 and 10.2-inch iPad currently being two examples of great value for the money, the Cupertino company's more premium devices can still be seen as quite expensive for what they are.

And indeed, in some countries even the base iPhone 13, which starts at $799 in the US, can cost well over $1,000. And for that kind of money, people tend to expect perfection. But perfection is arguably not a reasonable expectation for anything, whether it's a tech product or not.

If you've played a triple-A video game recently, you may have noticed how even some of the most hyped up titles can feature bugs ranging from minor to excessive and game-breaking.

None of that should be ignored, of course, nor should it be acceptable, but that's the world we currently find ourselves in. Resulting criticism is understandable, especially considering that triple-A games usually cost at least $60.

The point is – expensive, flagship things can have problems, and that's realistically to be expected nowadays. Not saying it's okay, or we shouldn't criticize, not at all. But again, some companies do get heavier criticism than others, and in the smartphone world, the top criticized one would be Apple.

Of course, everyone has their valid reasons to criticize or defend the products and companies they're passionate about.

But let's look directly at the most recent cases where Apple received a good deal of backlash, and see whether it was well deserved or blown out of proportion.

Recent examples of Apple products getting criticized over arguably minor things

Apple's latest and smallest iPad – the 2021 iPad mini – received backlash for having a "jelly scrolling" effect issue, which we were able to replicate for our review. It's real. When you use the tablet in portrait mode and scroll quickly, the image on the screen can start distorting a bit, as if half of the screen can barely catch up with the other half.

Now, Apple's answer to the criticism it received for this was that it happens on all LCD displays, not just the LCD display of the new iPad mini. And that's technically true. But, the jelly scrolling effect isn't nearly as visible on most other tablets and phones with LCD screens, especially the flagship ones.

And the iPad mini can be considered a flagship product by some, as it starts at $500 and can cost as much as $800 if you get it with more storage and cellular connectivity.

Now, we could argue that for its $400 starting price, this iPad is unrivaled in the small tablet market, considering its top-of-the-line performance, premium build, quality stereo speakers, Apple Pencil support and the fact that it can run all the iPadOS pro apps and games you may want, without breaking much of a sweat.

With that in mind, the jelly scrolling issue starts looking like a small nuisance on an otherwise very solid small iPad. And I can't help but feel like if Samsung or Google made this tablet, there would be minimal to zero backlash in regards to the jelly scrolling.

At the same time, the fact that we have such an issue on a premium tablet, and Apple's somewhat arrogant answer to criticism, suggesting both denial to take responsibility and that nothing will be done to fix it, would of course frustrate some people. A negative reaction is completely understandable, at least to a degree.



Another recent Apple controversy surrounded its premium 2021 iPad Pro 12.9-inch tablet, which has a mini-LED display for the first time on an iPad.

This iPad's mini-LED display technology was expected to rival the clean pitch blacks of OLED screens, but what happened was, people quickly started pointing out that the iPad exhibits a "glowing" effect when viewing bright shapes on a black background, even if very faint and hard to notice in most conditions.

Of course, that was enough to cause an outcry, as the expectations for mini-LED were high prior to the 2021 iPad Pro's release.

We already made an article explaining the mini-LED iPad Pro display issues, but long story short, this is once again a normal side effect for the particular display technology. And in this case, we're really talking about something so minor and insignificant that I didn't notice it while using the iPad in question, or even after stretching to look for it. I asked several people if they could see any glowing and they didn't either.

After some really in-depth testing against a few OLED tablets from Samsung that I had at hand, I finally started noticing a very faint glowing effect on both the iPad and the Samsung tablets, despite the fact that they're using different display technologies and nobody ever complained about it on Samsung's tablets. In any case, I found it extremely insignificant of an issue on both the mini-LED and OLED tablets.

So was this backlash against Apple well deserved also? How many people who criticized it actually used the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, noticed any glowing and were legitimately bothered by it? Or was it just a case of a hate hype train?

Well, at least we know that the next iPad Pro models might switch to OLED, so technically, Apple will fix this "problem", or more accurately, won't let it be an issue for anyone in the future.

Of course, there's been plenty of other, older cases we could go over, such as when Apple was criticized for removing the headphone jack, then all other flagship phone makers did the same. Or the whole iPhone "bendgate" thing from 2014, that oddly focused just on Apple's iPhone, despite the fact that many phones and tablets at the time were easy to bend, and some are even today.

In conclusion

It does seem that a good number of smartphone enthusiasts' high expectations and negative reactions are almost exclusively aimed at Apple of all flagship smartphone makers.