The Apple iPhone 5 has been arriving at customers’ homes for four days now, and some customers are reporting cosmetic damage right out of the box. Complaints are focusing on small scuffs, scratches, and other defects in the iPhone 5’s anodized coatings on the metal band that surrounds the phone.
Apple is no stranger to shipping scuffed up devices after the 2012 iPad was also met with manufacturing flaws which were believed to be caused by lax quality controls at Apple’s Foxconn manufacturing facilities.
To determine which devices were being effected the most MacNN examined 200 Twitter messages and found that the black model was scratched 71 percent of the time , the white model was scratched 13 percent of the time, and 16 people did not identify the color of their device.
News of scratched iPhone 5 devices arriving at customers’ doors does not really surprise. iFixIt recently conducted a scratch test, which revealed an easy to scratch surface. In fact, the drop and scratch test found that the new devices’ coating more easily scratches than the iPhone 4S. The drop test also found that the iPhone 5 is more easily capable of scratching with common items in a user’s pockets such as coins and keys.
While Apple attempted to address its coating issues, the best suggestion at this time is to pick up a nice case with a wrap around bumper to ensure no scratches or dents are given to your brand new iPhone 5.
Here’s an iPhone 5 scratch test video:
[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/OSFKVq36Hgc” width=”560″ height=”315″]
Are you surprised by Apple’s lack of quality control for its newest iPhone device?
