"Maximum altitude: tested up to 16,400 feet (5000 meters)"
Does anyone know how or where they do this testing? Seems quite bothersome to do.
Does anyone know how or where they do this testing? Seems quite bothersome to do.
Not saying this is where they were tested (I have no idea), just pointing out that these altitudes are not necessarily far from major metropolitan areas and international airports.
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, has its Llano de Chajnantor observatory at 5,100m (16,700 ft), in the Atacama Desert. Low humidity is a major concern for electronics due to static buildup and discharges.
Not sure how much Apple kit they use.
Basically there's two issues affecting electronic chipsets at high altitude : air density and cosmic rays.
The reduction of the air density can mess with the cooling system.
Cosmic rays contain radioactive particles which can cause soft failures to occur in solid state electronics.
EDIT : Found an interesting paper about it with more details : https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6046/529f05a65e182ac9323ef8...
Lower air density -> less heat transfer, so components run hotter.
Air pressure may affect disk drives and other sealed / fluid-dynamic systems.
Capacitors and other electronics might possibly be affected.
Apparently displays and printers (liquid ink) are strongly affected.
Arcing increases with elevation.
https://highaltitudelife.com/electronics.htm