GRID Studio is a famous Chinese brand known for creating frames of classic Apple products, such as the original iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Apple Watch. By disassembling them, the company makes a beautiful frame with all the hardware pieces of these devices.
In one of their latest creations, GRID announced the Apple Badge Collection featuring 80 pins that show Apple’s greatest and most controversial releases over these past 40 years. From the Apple 1 in 1976 to the 2022 Studio Display, the company offers customized pins that tell the story of Apple computers, iPods, iPhones, and Apple Watch models over the decades.
In the description of the product, GRID highlights what’s behind this product: “As an Apple fan, it’s a pleasure for me to collect these iconic Apple products, but some of them are almost unavailable in the market, so we thought of another way to express our love for Apple products.”
With a four series of collector frames of Apple’s iconic product badge, GRID selected the ones with “disruptive, important, and unique looking designs” so “tech lover with a blank wall or extra shelf space” could add this “pleasing piece of art to fill” their room.
The company sent one of these four series over to BGR. Below, you’ll find the impressions of the latest frame available from the company.
Apple Badge Collection by GRID offers time travel through the Cupertino firm releases
GRID shows the products’ names, release dates, and prices when they were released. For the iPhones, the company adds the chips they had, and for some iPod and Mac models, you can see their original wallpaper.
For me, it’s really nice seeing the iPod Classic 5, which was my first Apple product. More than that, having the pins of some of the products I only saw by watching TV shows back in the early 2000s is really something.
While GRID offers premium quality with the pins behind a plastic cover and wooden frame, I noticed a few inconsistencies between the newer Apple releases. For example, the first-gen Apple TV 4K is there, but the Siri Remote is the newer one, not the black model announced in 2017.
GRID also pays tribute to the M1 MacBook Pro release – marking the transition from Intel to Apple’s custom chips – but the MacBook pin is the 2021 model with a notch. Another issue is with the 2019 MacBook Pro pin. It feels like GRID is highlighting the introduction of the Touch Bar – which first appeared in 2016 – but it’s, in fact, displaying the last 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro.
In my opinion, this MacBook was Apple trying to redeem itself by bringing back the scissor-style keyboard and a physical ESC button. However, the ultimate apology letter would come in 2021.
Although it’s not up to me to decide which product should make the cut, as GRID didn’t add any AirPods or HomePod models, it’s still a journey back in time with some of Apple’s most iconic releases – even if some of Apple core fans will see these inconsistencies.
The GRID Apple Badge Collection is 32.7×24.8×1.85 in (83x63x4.7cm) and currently costs $499. Users can also choose between the iPhone x iPad Badge Collection, the iPod Badge Collection, or the Mac Badge Collection, which costs less.
GRID offers worldwide shipping, and the box is securely wrapped so the frame won’t get damaged.
