I'm Pissed Off With the iPhone 3G's Shoddy Build Quality

[css1323]

On the iPhone that I'm on now, there's two areas between the screen and the metal where the backlight from the screen comes through.

I've noticed this with my iPhone 3G as well.

It's as if the sides weren't sealed properly. I also see a really small crack where the backlight leaks through on the left. I'm just worried that lint or water could seep into it. But still, it really is quite small.

Also, because of this small little crack, if you move your fingers towards the opposite side of the iPhone, you'll feel a the sharp edge towards the end of the touchscreen.

One of the 4th generation iPods I got my mom had this problem too. Towards the edge of the iPod, you could feel with your fingers the sharp metal edge because it wasn't aligned properly with the whole case. A small issue, but annoying nonetheless. I expected better.

The silent/ring switch wobbles when it's set to silent.

I found this really minor. As long as it stays in its spot, it should be fine.

 

[ttech10]

I hope it's a isolated issue, (no offence to acelson).
I'm happy that it's cheaper now, but it would be a shame if that's at the expense of build quality.
Anyways, I'll find out for myself, when I decide to buy a 3G in a month or two(after O2 sort themselves out and all this backlog has been cleared).
I was gonna sell my original iPhone, but now I'll probably keep it, unlock and jailbreak it.

"At $174.33, the BOM and manufacturing cost of the new iPhone is markedly less than the $227 that iSuppli estimated for the first-generation, 8Gbyte 2G iPhone in June 2007."

Well it's definitely cheaper to build. I get mine tomorrow so hopefully I don't have any problems. I'm not expecting any though.

 

[marksman]

If I hold my new iPhone upside down and look at it in a mirror I can see a picture of Satan as plain as day.

Definitely going to return it.

 

[cmufan]

Only problem that Im having with mine is that the sides have the screen light coming out and my synching goes VERY VERY SLOW. Like it is all screwed up... iTunes tries to backup my iPhone on my computer and I left it going like that for about 3 hours, and it was at about 10%. Installing apps takes forever, I think its a problem with the phone...

 

[ripkord]

Ahh the same old thing:

Pre-release of Apple product:

"OMG Apple are like so cool, wow check this out, j00 got owned blackberry losers!"

Post-release of Apple product:

"OMG why no *feature A*, cant believe it doesnt have the *feature B* that was never announced but constantly rumoured. Man why is the *hardware component* so crappy in build quality.

Dont get me wrong, I like Apple as much as most of you but there will be problems... theres always problems! I don't understand why you guys are expecting everything to be perfect - its not like the iPhone was without its flaws! Bottom line is Apple is a company trying to make a profit like anyone else - and in an attempt to broaden their phone market have made the iPhone cheaper... Now I'm not gonna go down the zealot route of BOYCOTT THE BUDGET PHONE! All I'm saying is ... well ... you guys can be a bit ... um... picky... *Dons aspestos vest*

To the OP: Its unfortunate that you have had a few QC issues with your phone but unlike other companies Apple will probably come through for you if there are legitimate defects...

 

[nomad01]

The silver trim and black back doesn't match up too well in one area of the left side, causing a bit of a rough area on mine. Not a show stopper, but "fit & finish" - not so good!

I had this problem on two gen 1 iPhones but thankfully the new 3G one seems to be okay... fingers crossed.

 

[phorcys]

So far, my new 3g 16gb seems great. I didn't own an iphone before this one but I've been an early adopter on an array of gadgets and know that comes with some risks and inconveniences. It's also only going to last 2 years, give or take. Then it's on to the next phone for most people. That doesn't mean it shouldn't work right, but it's going to be scratched within a week no matter what so small issues don't phase me much.

 

[panhoong]

I received my 16GB iPhone 3G today (which I pre-ordered for the upgrade on 7 July) and I also had a few defects:

1. One dead pixel right in the middle of the screen
2. Dust between the glass and the screen
3. Chipping on the bottom part of the bezel between the bezel and the glass.

The chipping was most annoying and worrying because I could feel the chipping and it looked like it will rust in the future.

I called O2 customer services and the lady said since they did have some stock, she would arrange a person to pick up the phone and replace it with a new one on the spot. She said it would be no later than Monday, hopefully by Friday. She also arranged to have the pick up changed from my home address to my office.

Looks like I will have a few days of stress-free use even without the InvisibleShield which is waiting on my desk to be used. Hope that the replacement won't have any issues. The original iPhone was perfect and I didn't have any issues with it, but I had replaced my first generation MacBook 5 times due to a range of defects after defects.

Did anyone else have their defective iPhone 3G replaced by someone coming to pick up the phone and give you the replacement on the spot? Did they check the phone? The call centre lady did say it's just a courier person coming to pick up and hand me the new one, but I can't 100% believe her...

 

[xploit]

It is a bit disturbing as this trend to cheap mass production also has shown up in some other Apple products.

You know I really like Apple products and its precisely because of this that I am critical. I guess im hoping Apple pays attention to sites likes these. I have called the 3G budget and broke. To me it is because it is no where near the standard of the original. That is a fact. If you remove 3g and gps then the better phone is even more obvious. Lots of posters here will call you a troll for posting negative 3G comments but on closer look these posters are under 20yrs old. Apple has clearly gone after the mass market with this 3G and im ok with that provided they give us a proper high end iphone.

X-

 

[nparmelee]

Both of ours are good, 16GB, one black and one white. We didn't have any problems with the first two gen 1 phones we had either.

 

[coolant113]

I have a perfect iphone 3g not one problem with it

 

[meagain]

My first phone: bad light leak, very very pale/pissy display.

Bought husbands phone: Great display, almost 1" narrow light leak.

Swapped my first phone at same time (had to wait 1.5 hours in the store to see a genious)... This phone has a big dimple in the center back case as well as a pale display. Then they ran out of phones so I have the dimple pale phone.

And these are nearly impossible to exchange due to no stock or not knowing when they 'will' get stock.

Now what? Husband's phone is perfect except for the Light leak.
Is there any way we can fix those?

 

[dantay]

I just returned my first iPhone 8GB it had a chip in the glass a twisted bezel seal and a few specs of dust under the glass......there was also light leakage out the left hand side and a sharp edge that side. The new one is perfect....fit and finish night to day better.....no yellow cast on screen.....no light leakage and zero dust....none at all. I'm really pleased I was sure i'd get something worse but its perfect. For anyone having probs and not happy return it.....there are some perfect units out there. FYI mine was a replacement unit in a brown box on its own. Hope you all get iPhones your happy with

 

[dccorona]

Is it possible to get an iPhone 3G without defects? On the first iPhone 3G I got, before I exchanged it in-store, there were two scratches on the top left of the aluminum and minor scratches all around. There was probably more, but I didn't really look too much. I exchanged that because of the scratches and screen that was yellower than the demo models. On the iPhone that I'm on now, there's two areas between the screen and the metal where the backlight from the screen comes through. There's even a minor, but decent sized, scratch on the metal on the top left. The Apple logo looks a little chipped off in the case, under the top plastic layer. There's also an almost unnoticeable crack under the top plastic layer. Turning over from either side I either see a chipped off Apple logo or "glowing metal". I thought I would bare with it and try not to get stuck in an exchange cycle, but I'm starting to get pissed off by these inconsistencies.

Keep in mind, I didn't cause any of these problems, there were all there from the moment that I opened up the box. Does anybody else have build quality defects on their new iPhone 3Gs? I didn't think that I'd take it back at first, but I can't stand the shoddy build quality on mine, and I'd expect that it'll be hard to find one that's almost perfect...

Update:

Here's a few more things that aren't too big of a deal, but are still notable...:

A little glow from the screen's backlight is noticeable from the top speaker.

There's one dead pixel on the screen (not too big of a deal at all, they usually go away)

The silent/ring switch wobbles when it's set to silent.

Mine is flawless
and im pretty sure most of the other 1 MILLION that were sold in the first 3 days are too.

first of all, Apple says that the yellow tint was done ON PURPOSE to give the screen a more natural look than the old iPhone, which had a blue tint. you didnt notice that blue tint because you didnt have another version to compare it to. ever think that the 3g iPhones screen is right, and its your old one that is wrong?

secondly, just because you and lots of others on here have problems with your hardware, doesnt mean that the build quality is "shoddy"

every manufacturing process has a failure rate. I bet most of the people with problems come here to complain, making it look like its happening everywhere. Even if you found 10,000 people with issues, and I bet you can't, thats still a 1% rate of failure on the manufacturing/packaging. That is GOOD. No, GREAT. Only 1% of the iPhones made have to be returned.

thats a pretty good percentage

 

[NDimichino]

When I picked up the display model in the Apple store it just felt so much cheaper because it was so light.

Even with the theft cable attached to it it was so much lighter than my first gen, which I guess is good. But it just felt like any other plastic phone.

 

[newyorksole]

When I picked up the display model in the Apple store it just felt so much cheaper because it was so light.

Even with the theft cable attached to it it was so much lighter than my first gen, which I guess is good. But it just felt like any other plastic phone.

That is the EXACT way I felt yesterday. I picked it up and it felt very light and cheap. But it also felt kind of easier to hold compared to the original. Holding the original it feels very sturdy and is very slick. I'll get used to the feel of the new phone though.

 

[meagain]

FYI mine was a replacement unit in a brown box on its own. Hope you all get iPhones your happy with

What? Brown box? ??

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

My wife and I each got one on Saturday morning (I got black, she got white). Both are perfect. No scratches, no yellow tint, nothing wrong at all.

 

[DanielJvdBerg]

Hahahahaha I have a perfect iPhone in my hands.Not one single fault. I even got hit by a truck on launch day, iPhone flew outta my hand onto the streets, still perfect, remarkeble! Good luck others who imo have bad luck here in holland i ding see one faulthy iPhone.

 

[meagain]

Both are perfect.

Are the displays the exact same? Whites, blacks, wallpaper details, text, saturation, etc? If so - it's a miracle. My husband's and mine are very different. But all better than our old iPhones by far.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

yeah, me too..

-Dead pixels
-dust under screen
-poor built case
-piss yellow tint
-terrible 3G coverage...

If I chase and get one now, chances that I'll be having one or more of these problems...

I'll be waiting couple of months...

LOL. wait longer. LOL

 

[daneoni]

When I picked up the display model in the Apple store it just felt so much cheaper because it was so light.

Even with the theft cable attached to it it was so much lighter than my first gen, which I guess is good. But it just felt like any other plastic phone.

That is the EXACT way I felt yesterday. I picked it up and it felt very light and cheap. But it also felt kind of easier to hold compared to the original. Holding the original it feels very sturdy and is very slick. I'll get used to the feel of the new phone though.

Amen, when i lifted my iPhone EDGE from the box the first time i unboxed it i could immediately feel the heft, it felt very solid like it was cut out of a steel block. Even my friends when they got hold of it were like "wow its actually quite 'beefy'"

With the 3G iPhone however it felt like a fisher price toy albeit a very pretty/slick one. Its a good phone...a very good phone but i think iPhone 1 takes the cake in terms of overall build quality.

One thing i don't like about both phone designs though is the chrome, it scratches easily and maybe Apple should have gone with a brush metal finish instead.

It costs apple $173 to make the phone in terms of raw hardware so they're probably saving a lot money with the 3G's design/materials

 

[marksman]

Amen, when i lifted my iPhone EDGE from the box the first time i unboxed it i could immediately feel the heft

Seeing as how the 3G phone only weighs 5 grams less than the original one you have some marvelously perceptive hands.

 

[marksman]

When I picked up the display model in the Apple store it just felt so much cheaper because it was so light.

Even with the theft cable attached to it it was so much lighter than my first gen, which I guess is good. But it just felt like any other plastic phone.

As I just noted it is NOT much lighter. It is 4.7 ounces compared to 4.8 ounces.

 

[panhoong]

1. One dead pixel right in the middle of the screen
2. Dust between the glass and the screen
3. Chipping on the bottom part of the bezel between the bezel and the glass.

I played with it last night and I found a few more problems with the phone...

- Small bump on the back, above the Apple logo - very annoying and visible
- Silent/Ringer switch does not work properly - need to move the switch up and down slightly when you put on silent...
- Back frame and bezel don't fit right on bottom part of phone

I wonder why mine has so many problems... I do hope my replacement just comes with the phone in a brown box. I would like to have a brand new out-of-box experience!