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iPhone SE camera rattle

MithrandirFIAE said:
So, @gim, it would be cool if you can provide us with an update. :)
Click to expand...

I just got back from my appointment at the local Apple store, so here's my update!

When I arrived at the store and told the "check-in"-guy that I'm here because the camera of my iPhone rattles, he promptly answered: "Thats completely normal. I mean we can take a look at it, but I can't assure you that we are able to do anything about that."

Great.

After waiting 30 minutes, a genius finally approached me. We compared my phone to two other SEs. The first one was gold, and the rattle was noticeably quieter. The second one was space gray, just like mine, and the rattle was obviously louder than the first one and identical to mine. Coincidence? However, the genius ultimately agreed that my rattle is loud, but said it's still within the range of tolerance. He said they could replace it, but there was no 64GB SE in stock and it's not unlikely that my replacement SE would also rattle.

That's it. I'm pondering. I mean my SE rattles when I put it on the table, it rattles when I hit the keys in the lower left corner, it occasionally rattles when vibrating, and it rattles when I use it to navigate due to the vibrations of the car. So it practically rattles all the time.

There are 3 options for me now.
1. Play the lottery and replace it until I get a quieter rattle.
2. Return the SE and wait for the iPhone 7.
3. Try to live with it.

I'm leaning towards the second option, although I love the size of the SE.
 
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gim said:
There are 3 options for me now.
1. Play the lottery and replace it until I get a quieter rattle.
2. Return the SE and wait for the iPhone 7.
3. Try to live with it.

I'm leaning towards the second option, although I love the size of the SE.
Click to expand...

Spin the wheel! Go for #1, then go for #2 if it's the same. Although you could #3 by way of getting a case to quieten things down.
 
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@gim

I feel with you. Sad to hear that it's the usual "Hey, it's perfectly fine! Enjoy!"-thingy.

From my point of view, I THINK I could live with it. My "old" Lumia 930 (I guess it's also called "Icon" in some countries) had ratteling buttons all over it, not a problem at all. I learned that the 950 has the same issue. At some point in time, you simply don't hear it any more.

But somehow I always had in my mind that iPhones are, you know, perfect. Perfect in quality, in duaribilty. Now, reality got me, and it seems to me that iPhones, at the end, are just ordinary smartphones. Expensive, ordinary smartphones. With a great OS, though.

Unfortunately, nothing gets me back to Android, as Google really screwed my experience up with updates going wild and killing the battery in literaly no time.
I love Windows 10 Mobile, but obviously, there are few apps in the store, and they are far away from being updated regularly.
So I came to iOS - had a iPhone 4 for a few weeks, just to try. It instantly had me. And I was really, really, looking forward to get the SE. And it seems to me that I'm still one of the lucky ones: Sleep mode button is ok, no yellow screen - but the lens issue bugs me.

Maybe I will just let it go - but the next iPhone won't be an instabuy. I will consider carefully what my next phone will be. Maybe I should just build my own: http://lifehacker.com/build-your-own-phone-using-a-raspberry-pi-1567627858 ;)

@Barrierfreeman

For the first few days, I didn't notice that my phone has this issue. I guess I found the right case for people who would like to "ignore" the ratteling issue: http://www.amazon.com/SUPCASE-Full-body-Holster-Protector-Compatible/dp/B01CKE327G/ - with this case, ratteling wasn't a thing. But so was design and handling. ;)
 
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FWIW, every single iPhone I've ever owned has had a slight rattle coming from the camera lens. It's only noticeable when shaking the phone vigorously. In the video posted above, the rattle does seem much more extreme - although, I do remember some iPhones I've owned or used in the past having a louder rattle than usual. Seems as if each phone has a different level...but otherwise, it's completely normal.
 
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I was checking the SE in the store the other day, they had 2 on the shelve, the first one (space grey) had this rattling noise, but don’t know if its from the camera or the lock\power button, the second one (rose gold) didnt had this. The home button felt good on both of them, and about the yellow screen i didnt know this problem existing, so i didnt check it… next time i will.

If thats the case, before im getting SE, i should check it in store for these problems.

PS - the rattle noise on my 4s is the most annoying thing ever, spacial when I’m putting the phone on a table or hard surface.
 
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@geta: About your PS: Exactly that. On normal operation, I don't hear the rattling. It's basically non-existing. But EVERY time I put the phone on a hard surface, I can hear it loud and clear. Even in noisy office environments. That's really annoying.

My colleague was laughing at me, stating that's "normal" and I shouldn't be so anal. Well, he always puts his phone on a pillow, so... yeah. And he came up with the nearly-expected "keep in mind that this is an entry phone" argumentation. Ouch.

I'm wondering if there is a case I could reduce the "impact" when putting the phone on the table. Afaik, the original Apple case is quite soft, right? Maybe I should try this one. Atm, I'm using a SPIGEN iPhone 5s Ultra Hybrid case.
 
geta said:
I was checking the SE in the store the other day, they had 2 on the shelve, the first one (space grey) had this rattling noise, but don’t know if its from the camera or the lock\power button, the second one (rose gold) didnt had this. The home button felt good on both of them, and about the yellow screen i didnt know this problem existing, so i didnt check it… next time i will.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your observations. It's weird because the space gray I tested in the Apple store did also rattle, while the gold SE didn't.

MithrandirFIAE said:
@geta: About your PS: Exactly that. On normal operation, I don't hear the rattling. It's basically non-existing. But EVERY time I put the phone on a hard surface, I can hear it loud and clear. Even in noisy office environments. That's really annoying.

My colleague was laughing at me, stating that's "normal" and I shouldn't be so anal. Well, he always puts his phone on a pillow, so... yeah. And he came up with the nearly-expected "keep in mind that this is an entry phone" argumentation. Ouch.

I'm wondering if there is a case I could reduce the "impact" when putting the phone on the table. Afaik, the original Apple case is quite soft, right? Maybe I should try this one. Atm, I'm using a SPIGEN iPhone 5s Ultra Hybrid case.
Click to expand...

The original Apple case doesn't help at all, at least the leather one ;(
 
gim said:
The original Apple case doesn't help at all, at least the leather one ;(
Click to expand...

:\

gim said:
Thanks for sharing your observations. It's weird because the space gray I tested in the Apple store did also rattle, while the gold SE didn't.
Click to expand...

That's strange. I wonder if they are building some batches with slightly different parts from different vendors, like they do with the processor. That would explain why, for example, all "golden" iPhones don't have this issue, and many of the gray have it at the moment. Just thinking.
 
I thought I was the only one. my two 5s and 6s+ has never acted this way. definitely not my buttons as I had them held down worth gaffer's tape. I've accessoried it out too much right after picking it up from the store to go back and return it now. plus, i'm just too lazy at this point.
 
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A follow-up: the noise didn't cease to annoy the hell out of me. So I made a Genius appointment for today and after only 2-3 minutes of showing the noise to different Geniuses I got a perfectly fine new SE. Now I'm finally happy with my new phone and I'll use probably use it until the next huge iPhone upgrade, presumably the 8 next year!

cortez31 said:
I don't notice the rattle during normal usage, but the rattling is really annoying when the phone is vibrating in horizontal position. It sounds really cheap, as if something was broken. The noise goes away when I flip the phone into a vertical position. I made a video of it:


Is that normal, or do I have to return it for a new one?
Click to expand...
 
Mine SE had also the annoying rattling sound (same as in cortez31´s video) so I made a Genius appointment. After some discussion they exchanged my SE. The problem was that the new one was even worse! I already recognized that in the store but the SE in 64GB in space gray was out of stock. They told me to make a new appointment in a couple of days. One week later I was back in the store. This time the rattling sound was so loud that there was no discussion at all. They offered me an exchange of the phone or a replacement of the vibe motor kit. I decided to go for the replacement of the modul. After two hours I got my phone back and luckily the rattling sound was completely gone. The problem was neither the cam nor the sleep/wake button. It definitely was the vibe motor. Maybe that information helps someone.
 
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tester09 said:
The problem was neither the cam nor the sleep/wake button. It definitely was the vibe motor. Maybe that information helps someone.
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after holding all buttons down and shaking around, I still didn't think it could be the camera based on videos of how it sits in the phone. I figured it had to be something else. i'm so tempted to open mine up.
 
gim said:
Before I start: I absolutely know that every camera in almost every phone rattles to some extent because of the loose autofocus lens.

My story: The first SE I got had a terrible yellow tinted screen, so I called Apple and they replaced it. But the camera of my replacement SE just rattles so loud, it's absurd. It not only rattles when I tap on the back of the phone, which I would consider as normal, it even rattles when I'm typing, especially when hitting the lower left keys. Additionally it rattles every time I put it on the table.

Sorry but is this normal? I am so glad that my replacement doesn't have a yellow screen, and now I am confronted with this rattle, which basically makes me feel like using a cheap toy or something like that. I am fairly sure that my first, yellow tinted SE didn't rattle THAT loud. The noise is even there when the camera is active.

I tried to catch the rattle on video, you have to almost max out your volume to hear it. It's much more obvious in real life though. The rattle does not come from the loose sleep/wake button, the Apple leather case prevents that. Also note the extremely loud klick of the home button, sounds like a cheap computer mouse sometimes.

Thanks for posting your opinions regarding this (non?) issue.

Link to the video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1483363/IMG_0579.m4v
Click to expand...
gim said:
Before I start: I absolutely know that every camera in almost every phone rattles to some extent because of the loose autofocus lens.

My story: The first SE I got had a terrible yellow tinted screen, so I called Apple and they replaced it. But the camera of my replacement SE just rattles so loud, it's absurd. It not only rattles when I tap on the back of the phone, which I would consider as normal, it even rattles when I'm typing, especially when hitting the lower left keys. Additionally it rattles every time I put it on the table.

Sorry but is this normal? I am so glad that my replacement doesn't have a yellow screen, and now I am confronted with this rattle, which basically makes me feel like using a cheap toy or something like that. I am fairly sure that my first, yellow tinted SE didn't rattle THAT loud. The noise is even there when the camera is active.

I tried to catch the rattle on video, you have to almost max out your volume to hear it. It's much more obvious in real life though. The rattle does not come from the loose sleep/wake button, the Apple leather case prevents that. Also note the extremely loud klick of the home button, sounds like a cheap computer mouse sometimes.

Thanks for posting your opinions regarding this (non?) issue.

Link to the video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1483363/IMG_0579.m4v
Click to expand...
I have the same rattle coming from my iphone SE, not sure if it is the camera or something to do with wifi. My SE if if gently shake it it will go in and out of wifi to the carriers network. I also noticed that my wifi speeds are very slow on it even though my other apple devices are going much faster on the exact same network as the SE. Another example of the slow wifi is when I tried to do a backup, which on the SE was at times telling me it would take over 45 minutes to do so. As far as the camera is concerned, quality is very low and at times I have some blurry distortion on pictures. This blurry distortion disappears if I gently shake the phone. I reported all of this to apple support after the second phone I got was doing the exact same thing and they were no help at all. I was told that they had no phones to replace it with and to just take back to best buy and return. I did this just yesterday and while at best buy two other individuals came in to replace their SE with the exact same issues. The best buy employee actually had one SE model available and attempted to exchange it for my phone, but to no ones surprise it had the same rattle and issues as the three people trying to return their SE's. At this time I am without a phone and concerned that there appears to be many problems with a phone that has essentially been around for awhile. Maybe it's time to go android!?
 
My 5s had a bad rattle, and holding down the power button stopped it (mostly). Very small, slight something rattling in phone (probably camera) but mostly unable to hear unless listening for it.

The power button rattle is because the metal of the power button is knocking the metal casing. Unless there's a solid power button, it will rattle a little and it does sound cheap.

Anyways... happy you got a phone that works. iPhone lottery, yay.
 
well, I ordered a kit with the right pieces I'd need to open the 5s/SE, specifically. I don't have the right pentalobe sizes I'd need. it's being delivered to my home, but I'm away for business. i want to see exactly what's going on inside.

that reminds me.. I need to buy some powerball tickets, today.
 
tallazzPilipino said:
well, I ordered a kit with the right pieces I'd need to open the 5s/SE, specifically. I don't have the right pentalobe sizes I'd need. it's being delivered to my home, but I'm away for business. i want to see exactly what's going on inside.

that reminds me.. I need to buy some powerball tickets, today.
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:eek: Have fun! :D I wouldn't dare open up my phone... but if it's a backup and you have expendable cash, it sounds fun to figure exactly what is going on. Let us know what you find!
 
JM said:
:eek: Have fun! :D I wouldn't dare open up my phone... but if it's a backup and you have expendable cash, it sounds fun to figure exactly what is going on. Let us know what you find!
Click to expand...
I won't be back home for about another couple weeks to do this. no expendable cash, but I happen to pick up a second SE, so I guess you call it a backup.. haha. I'll open whichever sounds the worse. i hate the idea of doing it while still on warranty, but I'm just so curious to see for myself what's going on in there.
 
I had a 4s a longtime ago that I bought used and it had a noisy vibrate motor in it when I would get calls and texts but had real good battery life. I exchanged it at the Apple Store and the one they gave me was built good but the battery life it had was crap. I think sometimes you may be better off living with a few minor manufacturing variations.
 
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so I got my second SE delivered to me. it has two separate rattles. one is probably the vibrator motor, but it's very slight. the loud one is obviously the power button which wasn't an issue on my first SE. once I add my bumper to it, the power button rattle is a non-issue.

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