Apple is still trying to explain why the new iPad Pro can get a little bendy

As much as we'd all like to leave 2018 firmly in the past where it belongs, Apple can't seem to shake one pesky problem from the prior year: bendgate.

The company has delivered yet another explanation for the slight bend some users have noted in the latest generation of iPad Pro. The trouble started in November, shortly after the tablet launched, when a video of someone easily folding a Pro in half went viral.

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Apple addressed the situation in mid-December, noting that the warping people had noticed was a product of the device's manufacturing process — but it's not a defect. A few days after that, an Apple exec responded to a customer support request with a more involved explanation.

The same email noted that a more official, public response would be coming. It never surfaced, not even after Mashable reached out for comment, but it's important to note that all of this unfolded just a couple days before Christmas.

Now, just a few days into the new year, Apple's most detailed explanation yet is available, in the form of a support doc posted on the company's website.

The issue, according to Apple, relates specifically to LTE-capable models of iPad Pro. The process of building cellular bands into each unit is what leaves them prone to a slight bending. Though the doc also notes that Apple's "flatness specification," which dictates how much of a bend is acceptable, is smaller than it's ever been.

There's a bit of a mental leap required here: the flatness specification may be smaller than ever before, but iPad flatness hasn't ever really been an issue until now. 

The support doc ends with Apple reiterating its standard 14-day return policy for products purchased directly from the company. In other words: this is still a non-issue in Apple's eyes.

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