Are these iPhone problems exagerated?

[songbirdsound]

I'm looking to buy my first iPhone (32gb 3GS) but you go over to Apple's Support Discussions and the freakin sky is falling. What worries me the most are all these reports about people returning phones with yellow screens 5 or 6 times, and getting back phones with varying degrees of yellow screens!

Since that place may not be a real-life snapshot of the current situation, I wanted to find out what people are saying here. Did the majority of people get perfectly good iPhones with nice screens and a good battery?

Thanks.

 

[mavis]

My screen is pretty warm compared to my color-calibrated/profiled iMac (I use a Spyder2Pro colorimeter about once a month) but it's just a phone. Not a big deal, I think.

 

[chdwil]

I'm looking to buy my first iPhone (32gb 3GS) but you go over to Apple's Support Discussions and the freakin sky is falling. What worries me the most are all these reports about people returning phones with yellow screens 5 or 6 times, and getting back phones with varying degrees of yellow screens!

Since that place may not be a real-life snapshot of the current situation, I wanted to find out what people are saying here. Did the majority of people get perfectly good iPhones with nice screens and a good battery?

Thanks.

I got mine on day one and have had zero issues. Very happy with the upgrade from the 3 g. The video feature alone was worth it to me, I have a two year old and recording him has been a blast.

 

[rfrankl]

Mine is perfect. I have had each generation iPhone and haven't had problems with any of them. I am sure that most people don't either. It's just the people with problems that seem to post. And then you have the people who damage the phone themselves but want to find a way for Apple to give them a new one. The phone still works but they just can't look at the scratch they created.

 

[songbirdsound]

My screen is pretty warm compared to my color-calibrated/profiled iMac (I use a Spyder2Pro colorimeter about once a month) but it's just a phone. Not a big deal, I think.

Yeah, and what's weird is that people are saying that after multiple exchanges, they get back multiple shades of yellow. Even some get a white to yellow gradient thing. I swear it's split 50/50 between people who say 0 probs and the other that hate the yellow screen or the battery gets too hot.

 

[Diane2boys]

,

 

[natebookpro]

Knock on wood I got a good one. I had the 2G, the 3G, and now the 3GS. I dont think I ever had any problems with my 2G and I exchanged my 3G once after about 7 or 8 months because it was getting all kinds of cracks shooting out from the silent switch. Overall I would say they are pretty good phones. I wont lie I do miss my 2G though, I have been eyeing them on ebay recently.

 

[natebookpro]

Yeah it's more than a phone and that's why I got it, but it isn't a diamond either....lol

I think that sums it up better than anything I have heard since they came out.

 

[dread]

I just exchanged my phone yesterday because my service was horrible. The apple guy held my phone next to his and he was getting 4-5 bars on his 3g and I was getting 3-4. Unfortunately, the phone they gave got 2-3 bars and the screen is so yellow my wife thought I had notes open when I was looking at email. I am pissed off.

 

[samcraig]

what you have on message boards is a tiny fraction of the owners - and these are usually more towards the die-hards and negative posts because people don't often come onto these discussions to see how amazing their phone is - they come to see what the problems are or what other people are experiencing (if they have issues or if it's common, etc)

In other words - while I wouldn't discount opinions, I'd put them in their proper perspective.

50 people on here ranting and raving versus the over million who currently now own the 3gs.

 

[abijnk]

but you go over to Apple's Support Discussions and the freakin sky is falling.

It important to consider the audience here. The only people who are going to go on support forums are the ones who need support. You can't judge the general population of iPhone by support forums. That would be like going to an AA meeting, seeing all the alcoholics telling their troubles, and assuming all people are alcoholics. People don't go to AA meetings who aren't alcoholics, and likewise people don't post on support forums who don't need support.

 

[songbirdsound]

It important to consider the audience here. The only people who are going to go on support forums are the ones who need support. You can't judge the general population of iPhone by support forums. That would be like going to an AA meeting, seeing all the alcoholics telling their troubles, and assuming all people are alcoholics. People don't go to AA meetings who aren't alcoholics, and likewise people don't post on support forums who don't need support.

Good analogy. Now where's my damn vodka...

 

[mcdj]

While it's true that people who don't need support don't generally go to support forums, in the case of yellow screens, it could easily be a matter of many people not even noticing the screen is in fact yellow, or caring. The problem may be indeed widespread, but lots of (I'd venture most) people don't know enough to care.

These are the some of the same people who walk around with the brand label still on the sleeve of their wool suit jacket, and leave the sticker on the bezel of their LCD TV or on the front of their digital cameras. They're the same people who never even think to adjust the screen settings of their computer or TV. They have no idea that they're totally missing out on the Blu Ray experience by using the S-video cables from their previous DVD player with their new player. Their stereos have the left and right channels swapped and they have no idea. They shoot digital pictures with the default lower quality JPEG settings and don't care that the pictures are crap compared to what the camera is capable of. They leave the flash on for every picture...the Empire State Building blinks like a diamond necklace at night with all the tourists shooting flash pictures of Manhattan from 1200 feet in the sky. And on and on...

 

[songbirdsound]

While it's true that people who don't need support don't generally go to support forums, in the case of yellow screens, it could easily be a matter of many people not even noticing the screen is in fact yellow, or caring. The problem may be indeed widespread, but lots of (I'd venture most) people don't know enough to care.

These are the some of the same people who walk around with the brand label still on the sleeve of their wool suit jacket, and leave the sticker on the bezel of their LCD TV or on the front of their digital cameras. They're the same people who never even think to adjust the screen settings of their computer or TV. They have no idea that they're totally missing out on the Blu Ray experience by using the S-video cables from their previous DVD player with their new player. Their stereos have the left and right channels swapped and they have no idea. They shoot digital pictures with the default lower quality JPEG settings and don't care that the pictures are crap compared to what the camera is capable of. They leave the flash on for every picture...the Empire State Building blinks like a diamond necklace at night with all the tourists shooting flash pictures of Manhattan from 1200 feet in the sky. And on and on...

Yeah, that sheds a whole new (yellow) light on things. I'm gonna go to the Apple store today and check out the display models, although these never seem to have the yellow screen issue. I'll ask around and see if any returns have been made.

 

[samcraig]

These are the some of the same people who walk around with the brand label still on the sleeve of their wool suit jacket, and leave the sticker on the bezel of their LCD TV or on the front of their digital cameras. They're the same people who never even think to adjust the screen settings of their computer or TV. They have no idea that they're totally missing out on the Blu Ray experience by using the S-video cables from their previous DVD player with their new player. Their stereos have the left and right channels swapped and they have no idea. They shoot digital pictures with the default lower quality JPEG settings and don't care that the pictures are crap compared to what the camera is capable of. They leave the flash on for every picture...the Empire State Building blinks like a diamond necklace at night with all the tourists shooting flash pictures of Manhattan from 1200 feet in the sky. And on and on...

And I'd say that's VERY judgmental of you and would disagree. Some may indeed by like that. But I would venture a guess that a majority aren't.

Not everyone has had the first, 2nd and 3rd generation of iPhones. That doesn't mean they are ignorant or don't know how to use the device or even maximize it's abilities. Having a yellow(ish) screen might not be an issue for them because they do not have a frame of reference. That's not the same as the scenarios you listed which make the user sound like an idiot. By your scenarios, anyone that hasn't jailbroken their phone clearly doesn't know what they're doing because they aren't using the iphone as best they can.

As an aside - and only because you brought up the digital camera reference and I'll further it with devices in general.... Media and sales hype is truly interesting to watch.

People think they need things much more powerful than they would ever use them for. You don't need a 12 megapixel camera if all you plan to do is share photos on the web or print 4x6's which is a high percentage of the consumer market. Heck - to get a decent 8x10 you don't need more than a 6 megapixel camera. But that doesn't stop people from buying them over smaller megapixel cameras that actually have better color representation/saturation levels and better exposure settings manual or automatic.

With computers it's the same thing. A LOT of people aren't hard core gamers or video editors. Many need their computers for word, excel, accounting software and surfing the net. Yet they are constantly being told they need or should have computers that are 100x more powerful than they need

It's not that they won't benefit from having the better system and cost-wise it might not be a huge difference. But the bottom line is many consumers don't know what they actually need and go for overkill.

I have plenty of friends that ONLY use their ipods for listening to music. They have anywhere from 40gig to 120gig ipods depending on when they bought it. Meanwhile, their entire CD collection is 5-10 gig.

Just a few added thoughts....

 

[spyda]

The only trouble I encountered with mine was the wifi. The wifi on the 3Gs produced slow speeds and would not even hit half of my actual throughput, whereas the 3G consistently hit near or closer to my actual connection speed. I've read of quite a few other people having this problem also, but then there are those who's wifi speed is perfect.

 

[badsetup]

Rattling noise in my versions

So I got the 3GS after launch day and thought everything was peachy until I was using the shake to shuffle and heard a rattle. Apple tech said that wasn't normal, so I went to the store today to exchange. Got a new phone, the rattle was worse, right out of the box. Went back again today, and got a 3rd replacement. This replacement isn't as worse as the second, but I still hear that rattle. I'm ready to give up now and just leave it be. I just don't understand why it makes this noise. I wish there was an explanation for this, I would be so content at this point just to know what it is and know it's not going to affect the phone in anyway.

Other than this mysterious rattle the phone is amazing, the speed, the new features really makes it feel like an upgrade. If you can live with a little rattle, the phone is 100% awesome. Hope this helps anyone out there trying to decide.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

Yes. No one without problems makes numerous threads to describe them and half of these problems were present on the 3G's, seriously the problems with the White case, was that really shocking?

 

[Michael CM1]

The problems always get magnified online. Maybe 1 million people have bought a 3GS and you'll see possibly 50 people who had that problem. They annoying part is how people will go on here and act as if we regular posters are free tech support and actually know something. If you're trying to find user experiences or neat tricks, we probably got it. If you think your battery is draining pretty quickly, take it to a Genius!

 

[Akira1980]

Over 1 million iPhone 3GS sold. If defect rate is 1%, then 10,000 iPhones will have problems. It sounds like a lot but think of it this way. You will have 99% chance of getting perfect iPhone without any problems. I say the odds are in your favor.

 

[pellets007]

So I got the 3GS after launch day and thought everything was peachy until I was using the shake to shuffle and heard a rattle. Apple tech said that wasn't normal, so I went to the store today to exchange. Got a new phone, the rattle was worse, right out of the box. Went back again today, and got a 3rd replacement. This replacement isn't as worse as the second, but I still hear that rattle. I'm ready to give up now and just leave it be. I just don't understand why it makes this noise. I wish there was an explanation for this, I would be so content at this point just to know what it is and know it's not going to affect the phone in anyway.

Other than this mysterious rattle the phone is amazing, the speed, the new features really makes it feel like an upgrade. If you can live with a little rattle, the phone is 100% awesome. Hope this helps anyone out there trying to decide.

The accelerometer?

The rattle is present on all of the phones. You shouldn't have gotten a replacement.

 

[tayshon]

I got mine on day one and have had zero issues. Very happy with the upgrade from the 3 g. The video feature alone was worth it to me..

+1 no problems here, me and hubby have one, IT'S PERFECT!!!!!!

 

[Shabbis]

The accelerometer?

The rattle is present on all of the phones. You shouldn't have gotten a replacement.

From what I have found reading several forums, it's the autofocus mechanism on the camera. Amazingly, it's the only moving part on the iPhone.

 

[milani]

OP: the only people who post on forums are people with problems. No one (or hardly anyone) comes onto a forum and says "this product is perfect." Most people just buy the device and enjoy a virtually problem free experience. The perspective that places like these forums provide is certainly skewed, so keep that in mind.

 

[mavis]

It's just the people with problems that seem to post. And then you have the people who damage the phone themselves but want to find a way for Apple to give them a new one. The phone still works but they just can't look at the scratch they created.

That about sums it up, I think. I've had my share of bad luck with the iPhone, and I haven't been shy about telling Apple (even got two emails from Steve Jobs last year about one of my problems) or the other members here at MR. But several of my friends with iPhones have never had their phones replaced at all - not once. So, it really comes down to luck of the draw. I think most people don't have any problems at all, but those that do are pretty vocal about it. In any case, Apple stands behind their products, so even if you do get a lemon, they'll take care of it.