Important clarification. We do not have physical Apple stores here either. Premium resellers used to charge premiums of 300+€ for phones a few years backi don't think apple does, it's the resellers. i know this was happening in russia during the times of the 5s, and as there aren't any official apple stores in russia, i'm assuming it wasn't apple's doing.
The problem is that this different process is thought to end up in making the phone more resistant and that is my concern:
Now having the unit in hand, it does seem quite fragile to me, at least comparing to the iPhone 7 I come from. I'm used to Apple's aluminum but I do not know what to expect with this, and thus I ended up buying a clear Magsafe case after getting the phone (and I hate cases)
