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Scratches Appear on Early iPhone 4 Review Unit
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Apple said that this is as harder than sapphire. Sapphires and rubies are the mineral Corundum, meaning it should only be able to be scratched by diamonds, rhenium diboride, tantalum carbide, titanium diboride, boron, carborundum, tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, stishovite, and other corundum minerals such as ruby's and sapphires. I don't know how many people have this stuff in their pocket, so I question 1) If apple was lying when they said it was "harder than sapphire" and 2) How this person scratched it because in theory only very few substances should be able to. Look at it this way, in mohs scale of hardness, this glass should be 9/10, with a diamond being 10/10.
I think it's more like windows in terms of experience. You have a ton of programs for it, of varying quality (which includes some excellent ones that I'd like to see in the iOS, much like for a while not every good windows program had a OSX equivalent), and you can tweak every little thing. Even overclock the hardware. But in the end, it's not as smooth of an experience. To each his own, I guess. I hope eventually iOS will become as open as OSX, it's already as easy to program for.
Scraches? Too funny. It's Geology 101, folks: hardness. Anything harder than glass will scratch glass. Sand/dirt is often to blame - get a little bit of quartz in there, and your glass is toasted. But glass is pretty hard. Have at look at the windows in your house/apt or car; I bet they have very few actual scratches. Ever seen someone scraping a sticker off a window - with a steel putty knife? It won't scratch it, even if you lean on it with all your might. Most of the time, what appear to be scratches are actually residues left by another, softer object. Stuff gets scraped off the other surface and left on the glass. It can get pretty nicely fused, too, so it's hard to get off.
Anyway, the whole scratch thing is just kind of funny. People freak out about scratches, and in a panic they put ultra-fugly, plastic covers on their devices. And the covers are *super* easy to scratch. So they have an iPhone, in drag, with a sheezat load of scratches. Where's the logic?... Life messes things up. Hey, I look like crap compared to 20 years ago! ;-)
Madness.
Anyway, the whole scratch thing is just kind of funny. People freak out about scratches, and in a panic they put ultra-fugly, plastic covers on their devices. And the covers are *super* easy to scratch. So they have an iPhone, in drag, with a sheezat load of scratches. Where's the logic?... Life messes things up. Hey, I look like crap compared to 20 years ago! ;-)
Madness.
It is because all the pizza and tea stained fingers of everyone at Engadget would not leave the poor phone alone.
Lots of phones don't get scratches, because people don't use them. Poor iPhone 4 at Engadget, one phone for all those hungry writers, they hurt the precious thing.
ah, you beat me to it. Yes, you're absolutely on the money. My point is simply that even good old glass is not so easy to scratch. People just have to 1) either take care of their gadgets, or 2) deal with the basic reality of stuff getting damaged!
I didn't realize the Apple claimed their surface was harder than sapphire. That's quite a claim...
I have both as well and find the opposite.
You did mention brick which implies dimensions.
I have windows, OS X and android. Android does not remind me of either OS X or Windows 7 or Windows XP.
I agree with you that your thoughts about size are your opinion.
I am not even sure the raw power matters as much as the paradigm. Apple's walled garden suits me for a Mac Pro or Macbook Pro setting, and not at all for a handheld device. If software doesn't do what i want it isn't optimized. It is just not useful. Evo does what i want. Iphone's don't.
Yawn.
Assuming the glass is indeed harder than sapphire, I bet it's the oleophobic coating that gets scratched.
Otherwise, titanium carbide is not hard to find at all. It's on tons of industrial devices and even razors and knives.
Even given that the position on the Mohs scale is correct, I'd venture to guess that common materials found around the house will scratch the materials on top of the scale when enough force is involved - and simple become scratched themselves in the process as well.
I am sick of these overeactions to the overeactions. You guys are so clever for recognizing that stuff scratches. Thanks for your sarcasm. NOT. How does your medicine taste?
FYI, Apple used to use a lot of finishes that didn't scratch - the aluminum for example. That's where this anger stems from. They did a good job with the original iPhone, 3G and 3GS backing, but for this product, touted as revolutionary, you think they wouldve figured it out...
FYI, Apple used to use a lot of finishes that didn't scratch - the aluminum for example. That's where this anger stems from. They did a good job with the original iPhone, 3G and 3GS backing, but for this product, touted as revolutionary, you think they wouldve figured it out...
Like I said before, apple said it is even stronger than sapphire, and you can read a very in-depth explanation of what materials can scratch it. Sapphire has a hardness rating of 9, diamond has a rating of 10.
Why is everybody up in arms about scratches when the glass freaking shatters
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06/10/iphone-4s-screen-may-be-tough-but-dont-think-its-shatter-proof/
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06/10/iphone-4s-screen-may-be-tough-but-dont-think-its-shatter-proof/
There is no point in owning a case. Aesthetics aside. It serves no purpose.
1. The front of the iphone doesnt scratch..at least, none that I have seen in the last 18-24 months. So a plastic cover won't "prevent" anything.
2. The screens do shatter. Again, a plastic cover won't protect it from that type point applied force
3. I guess the cases may protect it if you drop it by absorbing shock...but a few mm of rubber don't do much at 2-5 feet.
4. The back of the iphone won't get scratched. But, back scratches don't change functionality. They change how the phone looks, but you have a cover on, so you won't see the back anyways.
5. 4 is really a theory in my experience, since every case I owned (rubber or plastic) on my 1G accumulated sand and dirt and rubbed it into the case, scratching the back a lot.
I guess if the point of the case is to prevent scratches on the back of the iphone, which don't do anything, while never seeing the pristine back because of the case, or if you like paying money for how something is designed, then sliding it into a relatively ugly rubber plastic bumper case, then cases DO have a point. IMO there is even more marketing hype about cases than actual phone capabilities.
It isn't windows on a phone like, (which on all the ones i have tried is just about the worst) but if you mean windows on a PC like you are closer.
I have owned just about every smart phone made looking for that perfect device, Evo isn't it. It is closer tho than the iphone is. On the other hand, if you are happy with the iphone paradigm, why ever change?
To me you have it it right on the head. It is the 'touting' that is the story not the fact that it scratches.
Aluminum scratches just like everything else.
I think the issue is... unlike an Apple MacBook Pro, you're not going to throw it in your (man)purse along with your keys and other pieces of light weight accessories that you happen to carry openly. It's a mobile device.. light weight, meant to be carried, hung, swung around and generally used.
Given Apple's track record (iPod Nano scratching, class action suit) and the barrage of criticism from people about the gorgeous products you can't breath on... Apple's reversed their marketing posture and banned protective films and covers and now claims that their glass is durable... even flaunting it in their marketing adverts is embarrassing, even laughable.
I suspect Apple is either going to quietly pull durability claims or use the shortage to artificially strengthen the appeal that a customer won't see a replacement for a while.
Saying well... "The glass is unscratchable, but the oleophobic coating is not" is wafer thin as an argument goes. I'm looking at the end product... not trying to separate out the lead paint from the swingset or the flame retardant from the plastic... oleophobic glass is a component of the glass, period.
I think the issue is... unlike an Apple MacBook Pro, you're not going to throw it in your (man)purse along with your keys and other pieces of light weight accessories that you happen to carry openly. It's a mobile device.. light weight, meant to be carried, hung, swung around and generally used.
Given Apple's track record (iPod Nano scratching, class action suit) and the barrage of criticism from people about the gorgeous products you can't breath on... Apple's reversed their marketing posture and banned protective films and covers and now claims that their glass is durable... even flaunting it in their marketing adverts is embarrassing, even laughable.
I suspect Apple is either going to quietly pull durability claims or use the shortage to artificially strengthen the appeal that a customer won't see a replacement for a while.
Saying well... "The glass is unscratchable, but the oleophobic coating is not" is wafer thin as an argument goes. I'm looking at the end product... not trying to separate out the lead paint from the swingset or the flame retardant from the plastic... oleophobic glass is a component of the glass, period.
And you have some misconceptions as well, you should of looked at the Hardness scale before making claims like that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness
Glass has a hardness of 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, metals like nickle steel and iron are 4-5, aluminum is 3. I dare you to take a pocket knife or key to your iphone screen and rub, it wont scratch it. most stones will be fine too, but quartz on the other hand which is very very common, (Found in most sand, like at the beach, or in dirt) is harder than glass, thats primarily what you need to be worried about scratching your phone. Unless you carry diamonds around. Some hardened steels are harder than glass, but not stainless steel, and not the kind you will run into into normal everyday situations. (Your keys are all softer than glass).
OMG DOORBELL my phone is here!!! bye!!!
Bricks come in all shapes and sizes, my friend. Dimensions inferred, not implied. In fact, given a standard hollow masonry brick, the iPhone 4 approximates it's ratio of side length more than the EVO the proportions of which are closer to the sides of a cinder block than a brick.
As to the OS comparison, see my other post on this forum.
I mention raw power because raw specs are what people are flaunting about the EVO - the raw power of its processor, the huge megapixel count of the cameras, the huge size of the screen. The kickstand for some reason?
All of which (save for the kickstand, of course), do matter. But they make no difference without good software. That software matters more than hardware is unbeatable. The Apollo and Space Shuttle missions were run by computers less powerful than a modern pocket calculator but the software was written perfectly for the specific hardware and made that hardware work. Same is the case with modern computers. One can work marvels on underpowered hardware provided the programming is done well. Conversely, a workhorse of a computer will do jack **** if it's running ****** software. Hence, I mention raw power.