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iPhone 5 screen scratches easier than I thought

People are very naive sometimes. "It's gorilla glass 2! It will never scratch!"

Yeah, okay.

Do you know anything about the Mohs hardness scale? First of all, keys are made of what? Brass? Aluminum? Steel? An alloy of these? All of these metals fall below glass on the scale. Glass is anywhere from 5.5 to around a 7 for the hardest glasses. Any material higher than that will scratch glass.

There are plenty of "impurities" that can contaminate a super soft cloth. Dirt, dust, whatever - can have trace amounts of minerals that are all harder than glass. They will scratch glass. And it will MOST DEFINITELY scratch your oleophobic coating.

My initial post was just a warning to be careful. The materials can still scratch. And, interestingly enough, did you ever notice that Apple opted to make the camera lens cover out of SAPPHIRE? Why would they do such a thing? Because it's a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale. It's very hard to scratch, which keeps your pictures looking nice.

So, until they make the iPhone's "glass" out of Sapphire or Diamond, yes, your phone can be scratched.

/End science lesson

I'll also add that initially I was confused as to how a key wouldn't scratch glass, but after researching further it's pretty clear. It's all about the hardness.
 
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I too have a few very faint lines on the front screen. I can only see them if under a direct light source and in a certain angle. Otherwise it won't affect normal usage at all, in fact it's hard to find it unless you have the perfect lighting and you are focusing on searching. Though I do admit these scratches are caused by my own small testing by putting it face down on the floor and moving a bit...sounds absolutely horrific and crazy isn't it? :p

One reason I would be that crazy to hurt my iPhone like that is because I know from ifixit that the screen of iPhone 5 is MUCH easier to be replaced. Buying a spare LCD component is not cheap per se of course, but it is good to KNOW that if the screen get really banged up for usage I can simply buy one and install it in 15 min. $60 for a new spare screen after a year of usage seems acceptable for me.

On a side note I want to point out that the two lean back glasses are much more scratch susceptible, it generated more and easier seen scratches in my stupid "test" mentioned above. I think the back glasses are of lower quality. And since you can't swap or repair them without taking ALL the inside parts out and put them into a NEW aluminum body, it's more "permanent" in a sense compared to the front glass.

Speaking of the glass's toughness, it seems that both Apple and Corning has never stated officially that iPhone 5 is using gorilla glass (2). Even Corning's official website "our customers" page has NO Apple mentioned in it.

Btw I have a iPhone 4 before and it got scratched with a 1cm very thin scratch despite I put a screen protector as soon as I got it.
 
How can I tell if the coating on my iphone is defective or any productions misconduct for that matter.
:confused:
 
I was playing Fruit Ninja and my finger went right through the back of the phone.

Apple's QC has really gone downhill.
 
gloss said:
I was playing Fruit Ninja and my finger went right through the back of the phone.

Apple's QC has really gone downhill.
Click to expand...

I was playing temple run, getting a really good high score. There was a sharp left coming up and I was in the zone. I quickly swiped left and the whole screen flew off and the game ended. I was livid. I will be contacting the developer of temple run and demand they add points to my stats.
 
I dropped mine on concrete it bounced off the corner and landed screen down. 2 corners are dinged up but the screen is still flawless surprisingly.
 
Damn, why didn't you warn us earlier?

large_378.jpg
 
ndpitch said:
People are very naive sometimes. "It's gorilla glass 2! It will never scratch!"

Yeah, okay.

Do you know anything about the Mohs hardness scale? First of all, keys are made of what? Brass? Aluminum? Steel? An alloy of these? All of these metals fall below glass on the scale. Glass is anywhere from 5.5 to around a 7 for the hardest glasses. Any material higher than that will scratch glass.

There are plenty of "impurities" that can contaminate a super soft cloth. Dirt, dust, whatever - can have trace amounts of minerals that are all harder than glass. They will scratch glass. And it will MOST DEFINITELY scratch your oleophobic coating.

My initial post was just a warning to be careful. The materials can still scratch. And, interestingly enough, did you ever notice that Apple opted to make the camera lens cover out of SAPPHIRE? Why would they do such a thing? Because it's a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale. It's very hard to scratch, which keeps your pictures looking nice.

So, until they make the iPhone's "glass" out of Sapphire or Diamond, yes, your phone can be scratched.

/End science lesson

I'll also add that initially I was confused as to how a key wouldn't scratch glass, but after researching further it's pretty clear. It's all about the hardness.
Click to expand...

I understand that and already knew it from year 10 science but how do you manage to get glass or sapphire or diamond filings in your cleaning cloth...It's pretty unlikely.
 
My phone was in the car cradle for navigation, and the cradle fell off the windshield causing the phone to land face-down on the center console. It was a pretty good drop and made a thump, and I thought that it would be scratched for sure from the sound it made.

Luckily it came out unharmed.
 
gloss said:
I was playing Fruit Ninja and my finger went right through the back of the phone.

Apple's QC has really gone downhill.
Click to expand...

That reminds me when I was playing Angry Birds and as I was swiping to release one of the birds my nail had cracked the screen... Apple will be replacing my phone, absolutely ridiculous......
 
Random 995K said:
I understand that and already knew it from year 10 science but how do you manage to get glass or sapphire or diamond filings in your cleaning cloth...It's pretty unlikely.
Click to expand...

Sand. Glass is made from sand. Sand is just broken rock which is very commonly made from silicon dioxide or quartz. Quartz is harder than gorilla glass. Dust can just be finer sand.

Blow off dust first before wiping hard with a cleaning cloth. Same with camera lenses or eyeglasses.

Sapphire is harder than quartz.
 
viewfly said:
sand. Glass is made from sand. Sand is just broken rock which is very commonly made from silicon dioxide or quartz. Quartz is harder than gorilla glass. Dust can just be finer sand.

Blow off dust first before wiping hard with a cleaning cloth. Same with camera lenses or eyeglasses.

Sapphire is harder than quartz.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Moac said:
How can I tell if the coating on my iphone is defective or any productions misconduct for that matter.
:confused:
Click to expand...

At this point in time, I'm sure you iPhone screen has no issues. Just use it as normal. Don't go looking for problems just because you read about it on an online forum.

*You're not going to have a perfect phone. There is always going to be something "off".
 
mplenhart said:
Guy at work came over at the end of the day to show me his iPhone 5 screen. There were small scratches on the right side that went from fledge to about 1/3 of the way towards the middle. I used my nail to check them and they were definitely scratches. He said he hasn't dropped or scraped it across anything and I have no reason not to believe him.

I have used and abused my naked iPhone 4 for two years and never had a scratch on the screen. The steel band and back yes but never the screen.

Maybe he just got a bad phone, but it seems pretty strange for only having it a week.
Click to expand...

my iPhone 4s was nekkid for over a year .... Used my TShirt and back pocket every day. iPhone 5? Less than half a month of usage and it's got 2 scratches on the screen. Absolutely terrible. I'm extremely careful with my phones too.
 
I just bought my first iphone (iPhone 5). I have scratched the screen twice now with my ID Badge holder. The IDbadge holder is made if cheap pot metals like those used for paper clips (very soft). In theory it's parts shoudl all be lower on the Mohs scale. The "Glass" that iphone 5's are made of is VERY VERY soft. I have friends with 4S's that never used a screen protector and never had a problem.

I am only guessing and speculating, but I wonder if it has something to do with the new single-unit screen and digitizer in one combination.

I don't know how you make "glass" this soft, but it scratches as easily as my plastic screened Droid's.
 
I had an EVO Shift for almost two years with Gorilla Glass. Not one scratch and I abused it. Had my iPhone 5 for about 6 weeks before I noticed my first scratch. Bought an invisible shield and put it behind me. I don't understand though, why Apple doesn't use the same Gorilla Glass as everyone else :confused:
 
My iPhone 5 glass is holding up as good as my 4, 4S,3Gs and 3G phones have. I don't see any difference so far. No screen protections used on my 4 or 4S. And none on the 5. Keep the phone in my front pants pocket or in my winter coat. But I don't let it rub against metal ID badges, sand etc. a little caution goes a long way. Regardless of Mohs scales.

And the iPhone uses the same Corning gorilla glass as others, made in Kentucky USA.
 
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