Is the iPhone 3G build quality really that bad?

[Indy21]

Pretty sure he means he's owned a lot of phones, not a lot of iPhones.

My 3G is also perfect, but I feel for the people who are having troubles. Having actual failure numbers versus other phones, though, would be more helpful to potential buyers than personal anecdotes.

Yea, I'd like to see that as well.

 

[Neebee]

If the cracked cases is any indication then I would say, I believe so.

 

[j5045096]

If the cracked cases is any indication then I would say, I believe so.

I got an 8gb black on launch day and it has had zero flaws...and I am the kind of guy who breaks phones like nobody's business. Never had a problem with the switch etc. - all in all it's been a great phone.

 

[TheSpaz]

If I have to replace my iPhone 3G a 5th time, I'm going back to the first Gen iPhone for a peace of mind.

I don't really feel like explaining my story but, I went through too many iPhone 3Gs for build quality issues such as:

Scan lines on the screen (all 3 iPhones)
Light leak (2 iPhones)
2 Cracks (1 iPhone)
Misaligned Chrome Bezel (1 iPhone)

My 4th iPhone is PERFECT and I do not want to give it up. Also, I love how this iPhone does not have those annoying scan lines/interlaced lines on the screen when you move it. The 1st gen didn't suffer from this and now my 3G doesn't as well... whew.

 

[Indy21]

If I have to replace my iPhone 3G a 5th time, I'm going back to the first Gen iPhone for a peace of mind.

I don't really feel like explaining my story but, I went through too many iPhone 3Gs for build quality issues such as:

Scan lines on the screen (all 3 iPhones)
Light leak (2 iPhones)
2 Cracks (1 iPhone)
Misaligned Chrome Bezel (1 iPhone)

My 4th iPhone is PERFECT and I do not want to give it up. Also, I love how this iPhone does not have those annoying scan lines/interlaced lines on the screen when you move it. The 1st gen didn't suffer from this and now my 3G doesn't as well... whew.

Wow! You're on your 4th! Unreal!

I wonder how many other people have had to replace their iphones more than once.

 

[nfl46]

No, not at all.

 

[patdesignsinc]

If I have to replace my iPhone 3G a 5th time, I'm going back to the first Gen iPhone for a peace of mind.

I don't really feel like explaining my story but, I went through too many iPhone 3Gs for build quality issues such as:

Scan lines on the screen (all 3 iPhones)
Light leak (2 iPhones)
2 Cracks (1 iPhone)
Misaligned Chrome Bezel (1 iPhone)

My 4th iPhone is PERFECT and I do not want to give it up. Also, I love how this iPhone does not have those annoying scan lines/interlaced lines on the screen when you move it. The 1st gen didn't suffer from this and now my 3G doesn't as well... whew.

Regarding the misaligned chrome bezel... did they replace it? I have that same thing going on.

 

[TheSpaz]

Regarding the misaligned chrome bezel... did they replace it? I have that same thing going on.

Yes. They replaced it immediately with no questions asked. The sharp edge annoyed the crap out of me. I'd get it replaced if I were you. Good luck. Also, look closely at the replacement before you leave the store. I looked at 2 others before they gave me a perfect one.

 

[craig1410]

Yes it really is that bad. Have a good read HERE. As a design Engineer in electronics for a decade I have not seen a top tier company put out anything with this many design flaws internally. It's pathetic to say the least. I have a brand new iMac, and a brand new iPhone that replaced the last gens which I had from previous purchase. I'm always taking it up the yang for Apple and defending them, but this time no amount of fanboy BS can stop me from giving apple a big ripping over this last design. It is absolutely HORRIBLE. Sure the 3g does what it is supposed to do so from a performance standpoint I have no issues with it. It's the build quality, and design that make it the piece of disaster that it is.

The 2g was such a good design from anyone in the electrical fields standpoint. Soldered contacts, weather proof connectors, rigid metal frame construction....... the list could go on forever.

The 3g has a twisting plastic "unibody", no frame. This would be ok IF they hadn't put everything on the motherboard on pressure tabs. This is a piece of metal bent over in a v shape and the pressure of it laying against the v compressing it to the board is all that makes the connection.

So #1- it's not a solid connection. with the plastic frame it twists on the motherboard as the phone flexes. This causes connection issues and all the critical components are in the phone on this design.

#2- it's an open air contact with no plug surrounding it. The contacts are copper/brass and will corrode quickly with the temperature changes of winter and the higher chance of crystals freezing in the air and settling on the open contacts causing connection issues through the winter as it goes along. Another instance however that can happen at ANY time is walking from a cold air condition environment into a hot environment which causes colder items to condensate. Remember when your glasses fog coming out of a cold room into a hot room? That condensation on the contacts of the phone will begin to attract corrosion. On the 2g, the plugs are REAL PLUGS that self seal from the elements.

#3- The entire motherboard of the 3g is one piece. If a single component fails, you have to replace the whole board. The 2g was a 2 piece design separating the phone side from the flash side.

#4- The plastic gets scratched on your phone, you can't replace the back piece like you can on a 2g for a couple bucks. The 3g backing (unibody) IS the mount for everything. Cosmetic issues? It'll cost you $125 for a new back off ebay and then you have to determine if you are up to building the phone from scratch into the new backing. On the 2g, you'd have spent 20 mins swapping the backplate.

#5- as covered the 3g mounts everything to the backplate, which is why we see many more "iphone needs service" screens coming up than on the 2g. Shocks and impacts go directly to the motherboard that is mounted to the plastic, flexing frame. There is a glass component on the 3g phone that will crack in half and render the entire motherboard useless if the phone is dropped. This single component will render the phone dead..... but then again this is a one piece motherboard.... Any single component can kill the phone. On the 2g if the comm board goes out, you just drop signal.... the phone still functions, plus a simple comm board swap won't even affect your HD or anything on it.

Seriously, I could write until my fingers bleed about the 3g phone. I've been a design engineer for a decade. Worked to design aftermarket electronics in Lexus automobiles, I've done about all anyone can do in the field for establishment. I've seen a lot of things, but nothing like how far Apple lost uality with the 3g release. There are just so many steps backwards on this phone. You told apple you wanted a battery that wasn't soldered in so they gave you one that wasn't soldered in....... too bad they stuck it under the motherboard!!!! You have to completely dissasemble the phone and removed every-single-component to get to the battery to replace it........ well, all you said was you wanted a battery that wasn't soldered in.

Geez, did you spend all those years at college/university and not learn how to chill out?

I've been designing electronic circuits for 3 decades (yes really...) and one thing I've learned in all that time is that if it ain't broke then don't fix it!

A recent report on reliability of the iPhone 3G versus the Blackberry and the Palm shows that the iPhone wins hands down. Apple have sold millions of these things and they all have at least a one year warranty - don't you think that Apple would have implemented a few engineering changes if they found they had major reliability issues? According to the reliability report I saw, the only thing which could be done to improve reliability was to attach the phone to the user's hand to stop them dropping it! That was one of the single biggest causes of failure!

Maybe the iPhone 3G isn't as well built as the iPhone but it comes with a warranty and if a major design flaw surfaces then Apple will come under a lot of pressure to perform out of warranty repairs as they have done with other products. The last thing you want to do is pi$$ off a customer who is approaching then end of their 18 or 24 month contract period - that's a sure way to make them buy a competing product next time.

Oh, almost forgot - to answer the OP's question, No the iPhone 3G's build quality is pretty good as far as I am concerned.

Cheers,
Craig.