We all know that there’s no such thing as the perfect phone but the new iPhone is getting a lot of close scrutiny (for simply being an iPhone evidently) a few days after it officially became available to a number of markets.
A couple of serious issues already cropped up as new owners got the chance to play with their new toy.
Scuffs easily
One of the biggest criticism the iPhone 5 got early on was from its anodized aluminum back plate which according to a lot of owners scuffs or scratches easily. Some even got minimal scuffs right off the box and it’s good to know that Apple are happy to replace such units with new ones. Buyers are advised to check their units carefully at the store to have it replaced right away if such scratch marks are visible. {The Verge}
It’s the same problem that afflicted the HTC One S who’s anodized aluminum shell scrapes easily even from normal use without necessarily banging or dropping it.
Here’s a video by iFixit where the back and edges of the iPhone 5 easily got scratched from a bunch of keys, something that the iPhone 4S handled well.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSFKVq36Hgc
No internet from WiFi
There’s also a growing thread over at the Apple forum where users are reporting that they can connect to a WiFi network but can’t pass data. The problem happens when the WiFi network uses a WPA2 encryption and can be temporarily resolved by switching your router to use the less-secured WEP encryption.
Apple is already aware of this issue and is working on a software fix for it.
Apple maps
Not really an issue with the iPhone 5 but more on the iOS 6 it comes with. Turns out that Apple maps is not that accurate as compared to the previously-removed Google Maps. Apple focused on the turn-by-turn voice navigation for their maps which in turn sacrificed other features Google Maps users are accustomed to such as transit, street view and POI. {via ZDNet}
iPhone 5 is still a bit far to officially hit our shores so there’s still a lot of time for contemplating whether you should get one or not.