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Space Gray iPhone 5S. Boring?

R

Radiating

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 29, 2011
1,018
7
CBillups1 said:
incorrect

bought mine after that date from tmobile, so did my brother, and my buddy. all of us got black/slate

mine is scratched and dinged up like a mofo and i havent even done much to it. so yea..

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mine has a dent in the back and i havent dropped it. DEAD SRS

most random and weirdest thing ever :confused:
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The wear and tear issue was with normal use. Apple didn't start making the phone out of adamantium and diamond so it could resist heavy dings and dents. You are the kind of person who needs to be using a lifeproof case.

The iPhone 5 can resist light scratches, where as before it couldn't. My screen protector is covered in scratches, my back is clean.
 
ET iPhone Home

ET iPhone Home

macrumors 68040
Oct 5, 2011
3,823
529
Orange County, California USA
Radiating said:
Image


Reminds me of this:

Image

Image

Except it's even more boring because there's no blue:

Image

The gray iPhone 5 doesn't seem to be thought of as very attractive even by Apple's web guys, the back is actually hidden in pictures or they only provide high contrast close ups in any of the photos.
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Hey Thanks. I agree. It doesn't look nice at all. It would've been nice if it was all uniformly space gray. The contrast looks like you bought that space gray back plate from an accessory shop to change the color of your iPhone. Same way I think of the Gold too, but I'd have to see it (Gold) in person to consider it. The 5S looks best in white. If I were to get one, I'd get it on that color.
 
blairh

blairh

macrumors 603
Dec 11, 2007
5,834
4,129
Radiating said:
The wear and tear issue was with normal use. Apple didn't start making the phone out of adamantium and diamond so it could resist heavy dings and dents. You are the kind of person who needs to be using a lifeproof case.

The iPhone 5 can resist light scratches, where as before it couldn't. My screen protector is covered in scratches, my back is clean.
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You never linked your alleged article when I asked you to before. I don't believe for a second that Apple changed the anodizing process with the slate iPhone in 2013. The reason they went 'space grey' is because they know internally that the slate model scuffed like crazy on its edges and couldn't change that.
 
M

MN7119

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2011
486
564
Tell me about lack of innovation when you launch a gold iphone which the front is white and you offer a case to cover the gold color. Thus, if you buy the gold version and add a case nobody will no if you have the white or gold version.:confused:
 
Z

zamudiovsky

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2012
219
1
I would have to see it in person, but from pictures I can tell you that I prefer by a lot, A LOT) the iPhone 5 Slate, which is the one I currently have. The black borders made it look amazing, but I guess apple had too many complaints about the black border being scratched too easily :(
 
I

insane79

macrumors 6502
Aug 20, 2008
276
1
Radiating said:
Again Apple fixed the slate scuffing issue in May 2013. The space gray one will have the exact same scuff resistance as the old model. The only way they can improve durability is by adding texture which improves the bonding surface, the space gray model has the same texture on the glossy bits as the May 2013 Slate revision which means there is no improvement.

I looked into the materials science behind this in the middle of this year for a technical article I wrote about the issue.
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hmmmn interesting, any link you got regarding apple fixed the issue in may 2013? can't find that info anywhere on the web :confused:

Thanks.
 
T

TC03

macrumors 65816
Aug 17, 2008
1,272
356
Grey edges give a better contrast with the black front.

Screen-Shot-2013-09-10-at-2.15.36-PM.png


Looks like the iPhone 4 color setting.
 
msb3079

msb3079

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2010
742
19
collingswood. nj
I've owned a 2002 Maxima, 2004 G35 Coupe, 2008 G37 Coupe and 2012 370Z all in a similar gray to this "space gray"... that being said, I don't like this space gray. I love the slate on the iPhone 5. It's perfect. I thought it was amazing the first time I saw it. It makes the phone look even sleeker than it even is. Now we will see the gray edges when looking at the screen... and the too high of a contrast in the back. I can't believe there is no black anymore and it's the main reason I won't be upgrading. Hopefully it's back for the 6.
 
C

Clarkish

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2011
19
2
While I think the white looks the best, I'm not sure if I could do it. I'll prpb get the space grey just by default. It still looks pretty good.
 
N

nitromac

macrumors 6502
Jul 29, 2012
282
13
US
Really liked the 5's slate black. The offset blue/green tone was very cool looking. Space gray is little boring so I'm going with white like my current 4S.
 
R

Radiating

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 29, 2011
1,018
7
Fry-man22 said:
Link? I found nothing about this in a quick Google...
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Nobody actually reported on this because nobody cares when Apple does something right and everybody likes to see big companies fail.

You can verify it yourself though. Just ask Apple to pull an out of warranty replacement and compare it to an old slate iPhone or their store models. If you looks closely you will see that the chamfer, the word "iPhone" and the Apple logo will not be black like the original but dark teal.

Essentially what Apple's problem was, was that they actually took a solid block of aluminium with two surface finishes, a polished finish and a matte finish then anodized the entire surface. The flaw was that the aluminium oxide (a material that is basically what most people know as "Ruby's" second in hardness to diamond) didn't bond very well with the polished surface. So what Apple did is they added an intermediate step where they actually created more of a satin finish on the entire device likely by glass blasting the entire phone before it was anodized.

If you look at a newer slate iPhone 5 in the light the Apple logo blends in more and has a worse contrast than the older ones, you can barley see the Apple logo on newer slate iPhones in most cases.
 
R

RichardC300

macrumors 65816
Sep 27, 2012
1,240
103
Radiating said:
Nobody actually reported on this because nobody cares when Apple does something right and everybody likes to see big companies fail.

You can verify it yourself though. Just ask Apple to pull an out of warranty replacement and compare it to an old slate iPhone or their store models. If you looks closely you will see that the chamfer, the word "iPhone" and the Apple logo will not be black like the original but dark teal.

Essentially what Apple's problem was, was that they actually took a solid block of aluminium with two surface finishes, a polished finish and a matte finish then anodized the entire surface. The flaw was that the aluminium oxide (a material that is basically what most people know as "Ruby's" second in hardness to diamond) didn't bond very well with the polished surface. So what Apple did is they added an intermediate step where they actually created more of a satin finish on the entire device likely by glass blasting the entire phone before it was anodized.

If you look at a newer slate iPhone 5 in the light the Apple logo blends in more and has a worse contrast than the older ones, you can barley see the Apple logo on newer slate iPhones in most cases.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I'm trying to figure out if mine are one of the updated slate enclosures. I received a warranty replacement back in June. I just looked at my current slate iPhone 5, and it has almost black chamfer edges. I swear my launch day slate 5 had lighter colored, possibly a dark teal as you describe, chamfer edges.
 
L

LithePanther

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2011
445
1
Im shocked so many people like the slate color. I couldn't stand it. It was sooo ugly that it became the first iPhone I ever bought in white. Now I'm kind of glad because I love the white but I couldn't believe that they launched such an awful-looking device.
 
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