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3G - Cracks in Plastic Housing
- Thread starter dogheadboy
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I've heard one or two people say their black iPhones are cracking but have only seen pictures of white ones.
It's very possible for this to only effect white models. We don't know production methods, materials used etc. Maybe it has something to do with the paint, or something they do before they paint it. Who knows..
I just examined my 16GB black with great detail and there are no cracks. Until I see a black one with cracks I think it's safe to say this is an issue with the white model.
I just examined my 16GB black with great detail and there are no cracks. Until I see a black one with cracks I think it's safe to say this is an issue with the white model.
I check my black 16GB every day, very carefully for cracks, and have yet to find any.
I've got an appointment with Apple tomorrow at 1:30 to get an exchange for my 16GB white due to cracks and it crashing anytime I watch video or play games for more than 30 minutes. I'm seriously considering insisting that they give me a black one even though I love the look of the white.
The plastic molds are simply dyed white or black. I can't imagine that they are any different other than color.
I love the people posting "I must be lucky, mine has no cracks" or "No cracks on mine". Do you realize the people who have the cracks now were saying the same thing a few days or hours earlier? 
I don't have a camera with me, so I am going to quote thedarkhorse's picture.
Got mine on launch day and 18 days later I have a crack in the same spot.
Not near as "catastrophic" as the above picture but it's there.
And the phone has not been dropped. It's been babied in a case since before I even walked out of the store with it. Guess I need to make an appointment to swap it out.
Got mine on launch day and 18 days later I have a crack in the same spot.
Not near as "catastrophic" as the above picture but it's there.
And the phone has not been dropped. It's been babied in a case since before I even walked out of the store with it. Guess I need to make an appointment to swap it out.
i have this exact same problem
tiny little cracks around the case of my white iphone, they are very visible near the power switch and headphone jack
tiny little cracks around the case of my white iphone, they are very visible near the power switch and headphone jack
I'm gonna have to say this is a bad batch or misuse, like carrying in a pocket naked. It's a plastic phone. 1st gen spoiled you. Take it easy.
I'm pretty sure that's what the phone was designed for, not to be put in an ugly case. If it was designed to be put in a case, Apple would have provided one with it.
+1
these posts kill me - if normal use (i.e. - carrying in a pocket, NOT dropping it, etc.) result in damage then it's a bad design or problematic batch... plain and simple.
If I have to envelope it in 6" of padded foam to carry it around and float it in a negative-gravity levitation tank when not in use to avoid damage then it should be so specified in the manual...
Steve Jobs is not God. He doesn't just say 'let the cracks be gone!', and they vanish. There is also no evidence of him being a pedophile.
I see no reason why someone should be expected to treat the 3G differently just because it is plastic. I've carried my first gen in naked in my jeans in one pocket and a naked plastic blackberry in the other pocket every day for over a year. I baby the iPhone and I treat the blackberry like crap (often keys and coins in the same pocket as the BB). The blackberry doesn't have any cracks or even any scratches in the plastic. This simply comes down to shoddy manufacturing/materials.
The plastic is not dyed. These are injection molded parts, the color is in the actual plastic or resins that are used. These crack could effect only one color they may only effect a certain batch of a color it will take time for Apple to figure this out. These could be caused by mold temp, pressure differences, raw material composition, cooling time and temps. It also could be an assembly issue, or a design issue, or even a dimensional issue. Apple is doing the right thing they are replacing them, this way they can determine what the problem is. I've worked in automotive assembly for years as a quality/reliability engineer and this real isn't an uncommon defect in new plastic parts.
As far as raw material the black and white raw material can come from completely different place.
These backs almost look and act like a thermosetting plastic like Bakelite which are extremely hard but also brittle.
I've gone through a bunch of plastic trade mags and haven't found anything on who or what the backs are actually manufactured out of.
Something is dyed at some point. It's all about pigmentation of the materials. Shrug.
The pigments are either in the raw plastic or the resins they just don't make molds then dye the product coming out. So the raw black material could come from a supplier in India and the raw white material could come from China, or they could come from the same plant, the composition of the batches even if made in the same plant could also be different. So your comment about not seeing how it could only effect one color is wrong, it could effect one color or both, or just a batch of one and not the other. The whites could be made with different mold, and have different dimensional tolerances than the blacks which could cause stresses during manufacture that causes the cases to crack. Until apple gets a good sample back and analysis what is causing the problem all these senarios are just speculation.