A number of M1 MacBook owners are complaining about the display on their machine cracking spontaneously under everyday use. It is unclear why this is happening, and Apple is also yet to acknowledge the issue.
The complaints have been pouring in from both M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro owners on Apple’s support forums and Reddit. Many users found the display of their M1 MacBook cracked the next time they opened it. The issue has been occurring since at least May this year.
CanadaM1 on Apple’s support forum:
On July 28th I closed my laptop to take the dog outside. I came back in and opened up the laptop and there was a crack. It was very confusing as I could not understand how this would have happened. Took the Mac to the apple store and was told right off the bat “I will tell you what you did here” and it was explained how I must have closed the lid on something. When I said that did not happen they said I must have pushed down on it or held it wrong. I have not abused or dropped this laptop. It should not be be so fragile that it can break and you have no idea why. I did a lot of research before buying this laptop and wish I had considered the fragility of this model. If you cannot afford to replace a $700 screen choose a different laptop or get the apple care because my screen broke through normal usage with no traumatic intendent.
User Clairefrombarnent:
My 17yr old daughter was at her desk, working on her MacBook Pro (M1 display) and shut it to take a break. When she went back to work, on opening the device she noticed that the bottom of the display was covered by flickering black and white lines and that there were also perpendicular coloured lines on the left hand side of the screen. I assumed that, (oh, the naivety 😕) as it is less than 5 months old and that it hadn’t been dropped, bashed, dinged or had anything spilled on it, this would be a case of taking it to our local apple store for a straight replacement. A call to Apple swiftly disabused me of any hope of a simple solution. The Apple guy stated that the laptop would need inspection and that ‘they’ll be able to tell if it has sustained accidental damage’. Well….short of a crystal ball, I assume this means that they will be likely to call the honesty of both me and my daughter into question and I am ready to go into battle. There are plenty of accounts on Reddit and other groups suggesting that this is a known design fault and, as such, Apple needs to bear the cost.
In some cases, Apple did replace the cracked display for free for affected customers, but in other cases, they were asked to pay for it.
Apple’s standard warranty does not cover any kind of physical damage. If you do have Apple Care+, Apple will replace the display on your M1 MacBook, albeit you’ll have to pay a service fee for that as well.
It is unclear why the displays on M1 MacBooks are cracking for no apparent reason for customers. If you own an M1 MacBook or MacBook Pro, you should avoid pressing directly on the screen or keeping anything on top of the lid to ensure the display does not go through any unwanted stress.
