Apple may be focused on the iPhone 13, Watch Series 7, and iPad mini right now, but lawyers are focusing their attention on reports of unexplained cracked screens on M1 MacBooks.
As 9To5Mac reports, Apple is facing a new class-action lawsuit claiming the displays on both the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro are cracking. The cracks apparently occur under normal use when opening or closing the laptops, or they just appear, only to be noticed the next time an owner returns to their MacBook.
So far, Apple is denying there's a problem and instead claims the cracks are due to accidental damage by the user. That doesn't fit with the reports from MacBook owners, though, with a 14-page thread on the Apple Communities website regarding screen cracks for "no apparent reason," and a similar thread appeared on Reddit nine months ago suggesting this isn't a new problem.
Apple has apparently repaired or replaced some laptops for free, but the majority of repairs required payment, so the inevitable has happened—the law firm Bursor & Fisher has filed a class-action lawsuit in California (5:21-cv-07109, Almeida v. Apple, Inc.) and will no doubt be seeking more MacBook owners to join the action.
Bursor & Fisher is actually the second law firm to take an interest in this problem, but the first one to take action. Migiaccio & Rathod LLP is also investigating, but it's unclear if that will continue now a class-action lawsuit has been filed elsewhere.
If this all sound very familiar, it's probably because of "flexgate." When Apple launched the Touch Bar generation of MacBook Pro back in 2016, it made a terrible internal design decision. The display was connected to its base using a very thin and flimsy ribbon cable, which was also wrapped around a hinge and got pulled tight when the laptop was opened. Ultimately, the cable failed and cost owners $600 to repair. Apple quietly fixed the problem, and it may do the same this time, but it can't avoid the legal action.