I don’t think it is the anodisation process — it’s glass isn’t it?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Other iPhone 17 Pro Scratchgate
- Thread starter captrlp
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Same. I’ve noticed in my somewhat local Apple Store that there’s 2 police officers standing right by the one I looked at and an Apple employee at every table. You can’t stand there for very long before you’re approached by one (employee). I do know that I bought an esr branded and very thin MagSafe car charger years ago that scratched the coating off of my benks aramid case. Apples aren’t sharp though.
This guy took a knife and did some prison move knifing on it and it scratched 😳 The he sledge hammered it. 😂 Youtube is useless.
The Ceramic Shield on the Pros already shows scratches, along with scuffs on the aluminum, while the Airs have scuffs on the Ceramic Shield as well. It seems like the trade-off is that the more shatter-resistant the glass becomes, the more prone it is to scratches.
I'm not disputing anything anyone has said so far so as not to cause offence, and I don't know enough about manufacturing to discuss where Apple may/not have gone wrong. I will say that so far (I collected my 17PM on Saturday) it's had the same day to day use my 15PM did, and it's been out of a case as much as it's been in. I wireless charge overnight. Granted, it is only 3 days later, but I'm not seeing any marks or scratches. I've always been careful with my iPhones and I'll treat this one the same way. I do remember having a similar issue with my 14PM though. I had the Apple clear case for it, but by December (after receiving in October), taking it in and out of the clear case had scratched the band so much that I called AC. I expressed my disappointment and my concern that it looked rubbish after just a few months. They replaced it and I went to silicone cases. Interestingly, and I didn't know this at the time, the guy on the AC support line told me that the Apple clear cases aren't designed to be taken off frequently, hence them being so snug. I like using my phone caseless at home and at the weekends, hence the decision to go silicone.
I don't usually upgrade yearly, but I went to the 15PM the next year for that reason. Saying that, I did get some of the colour wearing off on that, but not in the same way as the 14PM. I'll just see how I get on with this one. I wonder if if anything will come of it if it becomes a massive issue...
I don't usually upgrade yearly, but I went to the 15PM the next year for that reason. Saying that, I did get some of the colour wearing off on that, but not in the same way as the 14PM. I'll just see how I get on with this one. I wonder if if anything will come of it if it becomes a massive issue...
Right..? It's not as if anyone's spending their hard earned money on these... /s
I think they are white solely because Apple logo on the phone is not centered in relation to MagSafe magnets now lol
Seems to me like CeramicShield version that they used for the back (different coating than they did on the screen) is a flop.
The observations in this article match what I saw at two different Apple stores in the DC area this weekend. The backs of iPhones are indeed getting scratched. The cause looks to be the custom MagSafe pucks Apple uses for displaying the phones. These have a metal ring around the edge for some reason and these are all mangled and deformed after years of customers taking phones off and slamming them back on.
The sharp edges from the metal are what is scratching the Ceramic Shield on the back of the Air and Pro phones. It’s most visible on the darker colorways. But it is definitely happening to all of them.
I think a few things are simultaneously true:
The sharp edges from the metal are what is scratching the Ceramic Shield on the back of the Air and Pro phones. It’s most visible on the darker colorways. But it is definitely happening to all of them.
I think a few things are simultaneously true:
- The Ceramic Shield 1 on the back of these iPhones is less resistant to scratching than whatever glass Apple used on the back of the iPhone 11 Pro-16 Pro. This matches our anecdotal experience with recent iPhones with Ceramic Shield 1 on their screens (12-16). They seemed to scratch very easily (often with no identifiable cause). Not surprising a back panel (which comes into contact with way more things) made out of the same material would be susceptible too.
- Apple never claimed this glass was more scratch resistant. Apple claimed it was significantly more resistant to shattering when dropped. Early tests appear to bear that out.
- The damage we are seeing on the demo phones is cosmetic. It won’t affect how the phone works in any way. You as a regular user are less likely to pick up marks as quickly since you are likely not using a MagSafe charger that has a mangled metal ring around the edge. But it’s still going to happen eventually if you don’t put your phone straight into a case.
While in an Apple store at the weekend waiting I watched people interacting with the new iPhones and as an estimate the phones were removed and put back on the stand every 1-2 minutes and also swivelled from portrait to landscape regularly. This amount of usage is probably over 3 years of usage for me. Equally, with your own phone you're likely to be more careful. This combined with the Apple stands as shown is going to create an accelerated wear demonstration.
Looking at some iPhones in another retailer who used a different stand there didn't appear to be any marking. The real wear risk is probably the sharp edges of the plateau sadly and these could have largely been avoided with a more bevelled edge.
I wouldn't say it's all that mysterious. Dust accumulates on all surfaces and then you have metal against glass, and if people don't align it carefully / perfectly...
When I was at the store, some two retards who were doing the rounds at the same time didn't manage to put any iPhone back on the Magsafe charger properly. Every iPhone either fell off or was on the edge, I even fixed a few of their "alignments" before I left. People are idiots, but that doesn't excuse Apple putting out a design that scratches on Day 1 if you aren't super careful with it. There are no people with knives, it's just morons not taking any precaution with the stuff that isn't theirs, but still, the phones shouldn't scratch this much or this early. It's not like people became morons recently, this has always been the case, but only this generation of iPhones is this badly scuffed.
It isn't. Do you think people at Apple stores give the slightest **** if they scratch the **** out of it? I guarantee there are people there actively trying to scratch it and mess it up, just to see if they can.
This is inaccurate. I stopped into the Apple Store at Mall of America Friday afternoon and there were indeed scuffs/ scratches already on the display units of the Pro devices. You're an outlier here if you truly didn't see any scuffs/ scratches on them because everyone I touched had them
I think he gets off on bickering back and forth honestly. It’s not about if he’s wrong or right, he just likes the engagement.
Ignore him. He's adding nothing to the conversation and just being your typical troll.
A little voice of reason! Thank you for that sir 👍
The Apple Store employee scratched the camera plate of my iPhone while putting on the screen protector. I’m sending it back this week and buying a new one 