I've had the phone for 3 1/2 days now and my screen is broken. I should have kept the phone in my right pocket in my car since I realized that the phone sometimes slides out of my wool pants since it's so slippery without the bumper case providing friction. Anyway, as I stepped out of my car I heard my phone land on the ground about 1 1/2 feet from my seat. The phone slipped out of my pocket as I was getting out of my car.
Yes, accidental damage and my fault, but why hell wasn't the case available at launch? I made an appointment at the apple store and they said $229 for a replacement. Interestingly, the guy just to my left had a broken iphone 5 screen as well, caused by a guy walking into him.
Also, since this glass screen is much thinner than the previous iphone 4, isn't it more fragile as well? So more fragile phone and no apple approved cases.
To be fair, as is the case with any phone, you should be able to use the iPhone 5 without a case. If it were imperative that it had one, Apple should supply one with the phone.
None of my 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S phones have had cases. They've been used and abused in the same way as any other mobile phone I've owned going right back to the Motorola Dynatac and Nokias of their day. They've lived in my pockets, cubby holes in cars, have dropped on concrete, Tarmac and hard floors but apart from a few resulting marks and scratches as you would expectant, I have never actually broken an iPhone in any way as a result.
All of those phones have actually looked and felt in my hands as if they would stand up to a fair bit of abuse, in spite of the glass components.
But actually just thinking about it, and holding it in my hand as I type this, I guess it stands to reason that if the 5 is longer and thinner but the same width as the 4, and some of those parts in the 4 that were made of steel are now made of aluminium in the 5, that's could have a few effects on potential overall strength?
A longer screen means more glass area, so a greater chance of breakage. That's just an indisputable given.
The weaker aluminium compared to steel means other components including the glass are taking the stresses that steel would in the 4.
I'm just wondering if Apple have in part at least deliberately designed the 5 to make us think "hmmm...this does feel in the hand like it needs a case", or at least were happy when it did look/feel like that in the hand.
(That's not an anti-Apple comment before the fanatical factions start hammering out their usual neurosis in response.....It's just business and to an extent would be understandable if it were the erm....case....Pardon the pun).
To me, as an owner of one, the 5 does feel potentially more fragile than previous iphones.
It's possible Apple have got pretty sick of spending fortunes repairing internal components under warranty broken through phones being dropped.
