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Scratches Appear on Early iPhone 4 Review Unit

Avatar74 said:
And there's the rub. Nonetheless, the line for FAB, First Adopters Bitching, begins here.

I have a Rolex with a synthetic sapphire crystal which costs as much as the no-contract iPhone, and I've scratched it or nicked its corner. Scratch resistance does not equal scratch-proof... unless you have a diamond-coated surface.

But again... let the people who willingly chose to be first adopters start whining. I might just wait to see if there's any actual manufacturing issues or not before I go and plop $200 on another iPhone.
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I had several Swiss watches with sapphire glass and never discovered any scratches at all. And the most expensive parts of a Rolex are the clockwork and the brand ;)

My iPhone 3G front didn't get any scratches wile I was in the army.. So I expect the same quality for the iPhone 4
 
Have you people never owned watches with sapphire "scratch-proof" crystals in them? I have. Yet to have one that hasn't obtained a scratch during use. I'm completely floored that a scratch on a phone has sparked such a large amount of responses and "OMG how dare you Apple" statements. I have no doubt that the material on the iPhone 4 is comparable to sapphire in hardness, which, contrary to popular belief, seems to scratch quite easily if not babied- I have about 10 sapphire-faced watches that can attest to this. It's a scratch- get over it.

Err0xx
 
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, and I'm too lazy to read through 10 pages to check. Although certainly not conclusive, I'd suggest that everyone re-read the iFixit teardown. Specifically: "The front glass panel of the iPhone is constructed of Corning Gorilla Glass, a chemically strengthened alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass that is reported to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic.
Gorilla Glass holds many advantages as the iPhone 4's front panel, including its high resistance to wear and increased strength from an ion-exchange chemical strengthening process."

Note my bolding -- the front panel. Again, it isn't conclusive, but it certainly looks like Apple may have used the more expensive glass for the front panel only.
 
A couple of thoughts about scratches and walled gardens

First, as an Android and iPhone developer I can tell you I will take the iPhone platform in a heartbeat over Android. Why? Because the Android development environment is painful. iPhone certainly has some rough edges within the SDK but nothing like the pain that developing for Android is. Not to mention the proliferation of Android OS versions, screen sizes, manufacturer add-ons, and poor security. Further the Android App Store is terrible. Apple makes it easier to make money and provides a more consistent experience. So I will continue to focus on iOS.

The Google I/O developer phone is such a piece of crap. I just needed to say that.

Second, what doesn't scratch? I saw a post about a guy discussing comparative hardness to various rocks. I really doubt that anyone is carrying around any rocks in their pocket. However, keys will scratch anything they come into contact with. Really easy solution here... wait for it... keys in right pocket and phone in left pocket. Feel free to customize as long as they remain in two separate pockets with the phone free of contact with metal or rocks. Since my first iPhone, not one of my phones has more than typical light scratching on the case and the screen is perfect after a wipe down with a microfiber cloth. None of the phones have ever had a protective film or cover.

And as a last point remember the phone only has to last until next year.
 
Eriamjh1138@DAN said:
Whoa. Some people need to chill out (does anyone still say that?).
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Who exactly needs to chill out? I've been reading through the first two-pages of these replies and I see posts like this criticizing people who get overly-upset about scratches, but I haven't actually seen anybody getting overly-upset about scratches posting in this thread. :p
 
Give me a break!

Everything can be scratched. Even diamonds can get scratched. All you have to do is rub it up against something sharp. If you don't want your new iPhone to get scratched why don't you use a stick on screen protector.? Invisible Shield is the best. I use it with all of my devices. The new iPhone may be more scratch resistant but it's not scratch proof. So quit whining and you your brain.
 
Actually I had an iPod mini that was aluminum (silver) that I repeatedly abused for 3 years and it never got scratched. Only the white scroll wheel got marked up occasionally.
 
zombitronic said:
It's very likely that it's the oleophobic coating that scratched, not the glass.
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that's very true, much like when the coating on wood gets flaked off but the wood is in perfect condition. i'm probably going to be fine with mine as it is. i don't plan on throwing mine across the room in the near future.
 
hookem92 said:
Everything can be scratched. Even diamonds can get scratched. All you have to do is rub it up against something sharp. If you don't want your new iPhone to get scratched why don't you use a stick on screen protector.? Invisible Shield is the best. I use it with all of my devices. The new iPhone may be more scratch resistant but it's not scratch proof. So quit whining and you your brain.
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Diamonds can be scratched by other diamonds. Or something with incredible force, probably beyond what a human is capable of doing with a knife in hand. But no, something sharp like a razor blade can not scratch a diamond...
 
kkat69 said:
Another point to make is even though the casing says 'Glass' it's still not what the average person considers glass. The casing does technically fall under the category of 'glass' but it's still a polymer than can be scratched where as true glass can only be scratched a few ways most of which wouldn't be done during normal day to day use.
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Aluminosilicate Glass is NOT a plastic polymer. It is a mineral glass. It is significantly harder to scratch than window glass, but a bit easier to scratch than quartz glass.

They threw it across the room and dropped it on tile and it has a few marks that can be seen if you hold it up just right to a bright light... um...

The things that scratch Aluminosilicate Glass include tool steel and sand. I expect sand will be the more common problem.
 
hookem92 said:
Everything can be scratched. Even diamonds can get scratched. All you have to do is rub it up against something sharp. If you don't want your new iPhone to get scratched why don't you use a stick on screen protector.? Invisible Shield is the best. I use it with all of my devices. The new iPhone may be more scratch resistant but it's not scratch proof. So quit whining and you your brain.
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Not exactly, I don't mean this in a mean way but you should take an introductory Geology class, sharpness cannot trump hardness. (Unless you have an unreasonable amount of pressure, but not something humans are capable of). Something that is softer cannot scratch something that is harder regardless of the sharpness. This is just how things interact on a molecular level. (Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness ) And it's how you can determine the composition of substances (Through a scratch test, you have plates of different materials that have different hardness levels, then you take the rock or material you wish to identify and rub it, if the material scratches its softer, if the plate scratches its harder). I wish geology was a requirement along with physics and biology in high school. (Again I don't intend this in a mean way, its just there are a lot of misconceptions out there).
 
:eek: How can this be? I mean after all, Steve Jobs himself, claimed it was nearly immune to this. So let me get this straight. Jobs was wrong? Oh the horror.

Apple - GREAT Marketing, same product quality as the rest.
 
Shorties said:
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).

:eek: OMG DOORBELL my phone is here!!! bye!!! :eek:
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did we really just quote wikipedia???
 
pmasters said:
:eek: How can this be? I mean after all, Steve Jobs himself, claimed it was nearly immune to this. So let me get this straight. Jobs was wrong? Oh the horror.
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I think you are joking, but just in case my humor detector needs calibration...

Uncle Steve never said it was scratch PROOF, but that it was more scratch RESISTANT than plastic.
 
Shorties said:
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).

:eek: OMG DOORBELL my phone is here!!! bye!!! :eek:
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I was able to scratch my iPod touch with a house key. I just applied some pressure, and pushed at an angle. BOOM! Permanent scratch.
 
The concern is that deep enough scratches shatter...

Mike Biggen said:
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, and I'm too lazy to read through 10 pages to check. Although certainly not conclusive, I'd suggest that everyone re-read the iFixit teardown. Specifically: "The front glass panel of the iPhone is constructed of Corning Gorilla Glass, a chemically strengthened alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass that is reported to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic.
Gorilla Glass holds many advantages as the iPhone 4's front panel, including its high resistance to wear and increased strength from an ion-exchange chemical strengthening process."

Note my bolding -- the front panel. Again, it isn't conclusive, but it certainly looks like Apple may have used the more expensive glass for the front panel only.
Click to expand...

..these types of "strengthened" glasses. The classical term is "tempered" glass in which a thin layer of the exterior surface is treated in a way that causes it to expand relative to the interior. This places the exterior in compression and makes the glass much stronger (and a little harder) than normal. See this video (it focuses on thermal tempering, but chemical tempered glass performs the same way).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gDqiFRDPB4

The problem is that if something chips or scratches the glass deeply enough to get through the very thin outer layer in compression, then the whole sheet fractures spontaneously. You can see it happen near the end of the video where a sheet of glass strong enough to withstand the direct impact of a driven golfball shatters when he chips the edge with a tiny hammer. It also shatters completely into tiny pieces when it gets hit along one edge with a steel ball bearing which is dense enough to chip the glass where the golfball is not.

So there are one or two pieces of chemically tempered glass (depending upon whether or not the back is tempered) with one face and all 4 edges exposed. If any of those exposed faces gets deeply enough scratched, or chipped, then the piece is gone.

The biggest danger, I think, is the exposed edges. Lots of things can chip them...even materials that are softer than they are (like the steel hammer used to break the glass in the video). Even a thin film screen protector wouldn't necessarily protect the edges of the glass. It would need one of those ugly cases (or even Apples edge band)....but that seems to negate one of the most popular features...the phone's elegant appearance. I guess knowing that you have an attractive phone under the ugly case is some consolation.

My understanding is that all the video electronics are bonded to the front glass and would have to be replaced along with the glass if the glass breaks. Based on Apple's historically high repair pricing, expect that to cost more than the subsidized price you paid for the phone.

I have an iPod Touch, not an iphone, so I can't speak for earlier iPhone designs. But the edges of my Touch are pretty well protected. The Android phones that I have seen from HTC and Motorola have their screens inset into the frames so their edges are protected. This iPhone is, I think, blazing an uncertain trail in this regard.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
"Did somebody say crack?" - Whitney H.

Joking...

Seriously though, did they handle it with great care, then it cracked? I doubt it. I plan to get a case. It doesn't change my mind.
 
palmerc said:
Second, what doesn't scratch? I saw a post about a guy discussing comparative hardness to various rocks. I really doubt that anyone is carrying around any rocks in their pocket. However, keys will scratch anything they come into contact with. Really easy solution here... wait for it... keys in right pocket and phone in left pocket. Feel free to customize as long as they remain in two separate pockets with the phone free of contact with metal or rocks. Since my first iPhone, not one of my phones has more than typical light scratching on the case and the screen is perfect after a wipe down with a microfiber cloth. None of the phones have ever had a protective film or cover.

And as a last point remember the phone only has to last until next year.
Click to expand...

The materials that can scratch it are sometimes found in razors and the gemstones I listed. Actually, keys can't scratch gorilla glass, look at the video I posted earlier of a motorola droid.

And no, I need it to last anywhere from 2-4 years. My original iphone is still going strong
 
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