I was a launch customer of the iPhone 5 in black. Like many it seemed to get the tiny, tiny scratches on the chamfered bezel that glinted sliver almost overnight. Within weeks it had dozens and it grew daily. I keep the phone naked and although I am careful with it (I don't keep anything else with it in my pocket etc.) I certainly set it down on tables and in cup holders etc. My phone is a tool and I accept scratches. I never considered returning the phone and the scratches were visible mostly to me if I cared to look, but there was no doubt the phone scratched way more than the glass on the iPhone 4. I just assumed that the easily scratched nature of the iPhone 5 was a design characteristic.
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago... I had to have my phone replaced because 2 pieces of dust got inside the camera lens (that is a story for another thread and indeed you can find it ) and so i got a brand new, scratch free iPhone 5 in black. Here I am 3 weeks later and despite being harder than ever on my iPhone the darn thing doesn't have a mark. There is NO QUESTION now in my that my launch iPhone had a flawed coating. I never believed the rumors etc. but clearly my new phone is made of much tougher stuff, the difference is night and day. Will it scratch... I am sure at some point it will, but something was wrong with my launch iPhone.
So is there a point? I am not sure other than anytime Apple switches to a new form factor the folks at Foxconn need time to learn how to make it and so it seems the launch phones always suffer from some kind of build quality issue until the kinks are fixed. The iPhone 5 is much more scratch resistant than the launch batch would have you believe...
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago... I had to have my phone replaced because 2 pieces of dust got inside the camera lens (that is a story for another thread and indeed you can find it ) and so i got a brand new, scratch free iPhone 5 in black. Here I am 3 weeks later and despite being harder than ever on my iPhone the darn thing doesn't have a mark. There is NO QUESTION now in my that my launch iPhone had a flawed coating. I never believed the rumors etc. but clearly my new phone is made of much tougher stuff, the difference is night and day. Will it scratch... I am sure at some point it will, but something was wrong with my launch iPhone.
So is there a point? I am not sure other than anytime Apple switches to a new form factor the folks at Foxconn need time to learn how to make it and so it seems the launch phones always suffer from some kind of build quality issue until the kinks are fixed. The iPhone 5 is much more scratch resistant than the launch batch would have you believe...