Early reports from around the Internet suggest that iPhone 5 customers have noticed the black iPhone 5 scratches easily, and may be susceptible to scratching and scuffing. Some reports are also suggesting that the black iPhone 5 is arriving in a pre-scratched condition.
Concerns have been raised about the 'slate' backing and sides of the new phone, which are made of anodised aluminium. It is claimed that the black slate covering wears off easily, making the model look scratched or scuffed. This issue is not expected to affect the white iPhone 5.
It is unclear whether this is a few early model. MacRumors has run a reader poll looking for information and approximately 39 per cent of owners are reporting scratched or scuffed black iPhone 5 models.
Pocket-Lint has also suggested that the iPhone 5 has problems. Its review states "we’ve already noticed that on the black model the edge has started to wear, revealing the shiny silver aluminium metal underneath the “slate” coloured coating and, indeed, we’ve witnessed it on two separate models, ruling out a fluke manufacturing error.
A forum poster at Overclockers has abused an in-store demo iPhone and took this photograph of the scratched surface. Not that we condone this behaviour but it might be worth considering if you keep your iPhone in a bag with a set of keys.
It may just be that what we are seeing are a few production problems with the first run of products, which typically show some defects. Although Apple is typically quite highly regarded for the quality control of its physical products (software is, arguably another matter).
The switch from a glass to aluminium is regarded as sensible overall, as glass units are prone to cracking if dropped. But if the iPHone 5 is susceptible to widespread scratching on this level then it could well take over from Maps as the big talking point about the iPhone 5 release.
Until we have investigated further we would like any readers to share their experiences of the black iPhone 5 with
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Comments received
boywoolner said on Tue, 25 Sep 2012
Anyone who keeps any unprotected phone in their bag with a bunch of keys is a fool.
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