Apple head of Marketing comments the iPhone 5 scratches, says they are normal

It’s known that the aluminum shell of the iPhone 5 has been plagued by chipping issues and that has certainly made a lot of iPhone 5 owners quite unhappy. One of them even wrote an email to Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller and much to his surprise, he got a response.

9to5Mac has verified the authenticity of the email, but this is hardly the response the user was hoping to get. Phil Schiller’s message to the affected users is a quite clear “Deal with it”.

Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.

That’s not that surprising, considering that Apple was aware of the issues prior to releasing the smartphone to the public.

So, iPhone 5 owners, there you have it – if you want to keep your new Apple smartphone in a mint condition, you should probably invest in a case or just be really really careful. And you shouldn’t expect any sympathy from Apple or its Senior Vice President of Marketing.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Was Apple aware of the iPhone 5 build quality issues?

The chipping issues of the anodized aluminum back cover of the new iPhone caused a real storm this weekend and it seems the saga is not going to end anytime soon. Apple’s latest smartphone turned out to be way less durable than its predecessor and that made quite a lot of its early adopters angry.

And while build quality issues are not uncommon in an industry where time is so precious and technology is oftentimes pushed close to its limits, Apple might not be an innocent victim here. The latest development leads us to believe that the company was fully aware of the sensitive nature of the iPhone 5 back panel, but still proceeded with its manufacturing.

One of our readers brought to our attention the following video, which was created before the iPhone 5 was announced. The worker at the Foxconn factory who published the photos of the new iOS smartphone before it went official, said that most of the iPhone 5 units he and his team were producing were faulty – with good ones being just 10%.

If all the workers in the factory knew that the back can be scratched easily, there’s no way the guys over in Cupertino weren’t aware of the issues and yet they still went ahead with the launch.

The good news is that you can always return your iPhone 5 if you are unhappy with it for a full refund. According to the video, though, you should just wait until October, when units of higher quality will supposedly come to the market.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Apple iPhone 5 back panel scratch test confirms you better buy a case

The iPhone 5 anodized aluminum body might be bending the laws of physics and everything, but it’s also shaping out to be quite sensitive. First we learn that some units come chipped out of the box and now we get this scratch test, which confirms that peeling the paint from your brand new iPhone 5 is easier than you might have thought.

The video is created by the ever helpful ifixit and shows how the iPhone 5 back panels handles keys and metal rings. The iPhone 4S was subjected to the same tests for comparison’s sake and it seemed to handle them way better than its successor.

So it appears that you will need to be extra careful with your new Apple iPhone 5, if you are to preserve it in mint condition. We’d normally suggest you buy a case or a bumper, but given that the super slim waistline is one of the iPhone 5’s key selling points, you probably just need to reserve a pocket in your jeans/purse for it.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com