Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Check your 3G iPhone for cracks

Unclear if it's just the white ones or all of them, but the new phones are cracking:
Cracks 'appearing' in new iPhone 3Gs - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

...The problem is not the plastic, but that the metal frame is too small for the plastic to lock on without causing the stress fractures.' It's pretty clear Apple has a manufacturing defect on its hands.

For those with cracks, taking it back to the Apple Store (or possibly the mobile phone retailer where you made your original purchase) is your only recourse. Several people have noted here and elsewhere that they've successfully had their handset replaced after a careful inspection....
As an Apple customer, I'm used to this. My MacBook plastic cracked, my iMac display partially delaminated, etc.

I have a 3G iPhone so I'll watch for the cracks. Might be important to get their existence documented early to be in line for a recall solution.

I'm not sure what the value of a phone swap is, if it's a real manufacturing defect the new one will have the same problem.

1 comment:

Dave Walker said...

I'm not sure what the value of a phone swap is, if it's a real manufacturing defect the new one will have the same problem.

Not necessarily -- remember that Apple contracts with many hardware manufacturers who actually supply components and assemble finished phones. If there was, say, a batch of metal rings that were a millimeter too small that went into a batch or two of phones, that's no guarantee that a phone assembled in a different plant potentially thousands of miles away would have the same issue.