And if the reviewers would have dropped the phone they would have said
"While attaining more durability due to the aluminum backing piece, the handset sent to us cracked after being dropped by one of our employees"
...this would have spurred a 20+ page thread about how fragile the new iphone is and bla bla bla...
I'm not sure why the fascination with over-analyzing naturally occurring events.
Something that gets used is going to show wear. Heck, you can scratch your car and add swirl marks to the paint while you wash it if you're not careful. You think you're taking care of your car and really you're adding micro-scratches that appear as "swirls" or "spiderweb" like marks.
Not to mention, I'm sure many of these reviewers are not nearly as careful with these devices as most of us will be. They are supposed to USE the thing, pass it around, let their coworker use it, bla bla bla... all while knowing that they will be sending it back to Apple (or wherever) when they're done with it. Would we really want a review from a place who did less than that? I wouldn't. I want to know how it holds up to their tests/handling. If they sit there with white gloves on (like some of us will with our own devices), is that really conducive to a *good* review?
In keeping with the automotive analogy, it's like when BMW (or GM, Honda, toyota, kia, whoever) sends a new car to Motor Trend or Car and driver for them to review. Do they drive the speed limit on the expressway taking corners slowly and applying brakes lightly? No. They push it. They take turns with it. They scrutinize it. Then they hand the keys back over to the manufacturer.
I think if you want a more concrete conclusion at this point in time (prior to getting our grubby mits on it ourselves) the real question is more of the legitimacy of the reviewer. How far did they push the phones that they had in their posession? Did they take them home? Let their kids play with them? Throw them in pockets with change, keys, pocket knives, etc? Drop them? Pass them around to all employees?
How were these things treated during the review process and how does that compare to the way you will treat your phone when you get it? That's the question/answer that will justify the hysteria.
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Tell that to the person who offers you $50 for your jacked up phone because you didn't take good care of it..
...yeah but if they all suffer from the same issue, it won't matter as much in the used market.
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slashgear is the second. they mention that the chamfered edge despite using 'kid gloves' seems to scratch easily.
This puts my last lenghty post more into perspective (for me). My point was that we are not sure exactly how these things were treated. The point still holds some validity as we don't know what their definition of "kid gloves" is. I'm sure most people on here would say that I treat my phone with "kid gloves" every day. To me, that's normal use. My wife says she's very careful with her phone and she would probably classify herself a step below "kid gloves" yet the battle scars on that thing speak otherwise.
