Why the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros Are Scratching Alarmingly Fast

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Why the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros Are Scratching Alarmingly Fast


If Steve Jobs were still alive, he would have told consumers complaining about scratching on the aluminum and glass designs of the new iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros, “There is no scratching issue. Stay tuned.”

Just as quickly as consumers got their hands on the new super-thin iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro/17 Pro Max on launch day last Friday, Sept. 19, videos and reports started going viral showing scratches and scuff marks on retail demo units at Apple stores worldwide. The videos threatened a new “scratchgate” for Apple’s new premium smartphones, which start at $999 for the iPhone Air and $1,099 for the iPhone 17 Pro.

Jobs famously told a Gizmodo reader, “There is no reception issue. Stay tuned,” following the launch of the iPhone 4 when consumers found that gripping the phone in a certain way that covered the antenna bands built into the stainless steel band caused the cellular signal to drop to unusable levels.

His “reality distortion field” or gaslighting wouldn’t have worked as well in today’s social media world, where every and any issue is exaggerated without proper context. Social media users are more incentivized to perpetuate an uninformed narrative to keep the viral train running. Follow-ups and education on why something may be happening are less favored, even if they’re done, because they don’t get as many views or spark the same amount of outrage.

Every video seems to show the new iPhones with visible damage to the aluminum frames, particularly around the iPhone 17 Pros’ massive rectangular camera “plateau” or to the glass backside. The scratches are most prominent on the new Cosmic Orange and Deep Blue colorways, which, after damage, reveal the silver aluminum underneath.

How can expensive new iPhones have such poor durability? The situation is all the more ironic considering Apple actually claims the entire iPhone lineup this year uses a Ceramic Shield 2 cover glass that is advertised as three times more scratch-resistant than iPhones with Ceramic Shield. Gizmodo reached out to Apple but didn’t receive a response by the time of publishing. We’ll update this story if we receive a statement.

Anodized aluminum will naturally scratch

Well, I have some bad news you may not want to hear. While I can’t rule out that Apple may have cheaped out on the paint job for the iPhone 17 Pros, I highly doubt that. For the uninitiated, the iPhone 17 Pros get their colored aluminum through a process called anodization, which is an electrochemical process that not only strengthens the metal but also allows for it to be dyed. This is not a new technique, nor is it Apple’s first rodeo using it in products. Apple anodizes all of its aluminum products, and every colored aluminum device is dyed using the process.

Scratching, chipping, and scuffing are normal for anodized aluminum.

Need proof? Go back and look at all the old, candy-colored iPod nanos from back in the day. Unless you wore gloves and babied the music players, all of them chipped and scratched easily from daily wear and tear. It’s totally normal. (I think the “battle-scarred” look even adds character to the devices, showing they’ve been used and loved. Imagine if everything in Star Wars was pristine; it’d look fake.)

© Shutterstock

Apple Store MagSafe stands to blame? Dust, not scratches?

But, but, the iPhone 17 Pros were showing damage mere minutes and hours after stores stocked them. I hate to be Captain Obvious, but when you’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of people literally fondling the devices nonstop and not being gentle with them as they slap them back onto the MagSafe retail stands, visible damage is bound to happen at a faster rate.

Zack Nelson, aka JerryRigEverything, who you may know as the guy who does phone durability tests by putting them through torture trials like bending, scratching, and even burning them, says in his latest video that the scratches could be more temporary than suggested in social videos.

“Fun fact: 99% of the ‘scratches’ you see in this picture is just dust from coin and keys i used to make the marks,” Nelson shared in an Instagram post. “It will all completely rub off. Except for the last 1% of damage around the sharp corner of the camera plateau that you gotta watch out for.”

Others have also sounded off on the misinformation surrounding the MagSafe outlines visible on the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros:

 

“In fact, these are not scratches at all but simply material deposits from the aluminium MagSafe pucks rubbing against these phones,” wrote X user AppleLeaker. “The back glass is matte with microscopic grooves that file-down the aluminium MagSafe pucks and leave behind marks. These marks can be wiped away with a micro fibre cloth, sometimes requiring cleaning alcohol.”

Aluminum is a softer metal

And what about how easily dentable the iPhone 17 Pros are? Not to be a wise guy and tell you to go back to high school chemistry, but aluminum is a softer metal than the titanium used in the iPhone Air (and iPhone 15 Pros and 16 Pros) or the stainless steel used in the iPhone X through the iPhone 14 Pros. So, of course, dents are going to be visible if you drop it. Use a case if you’re really worried about damage. If you want something more durable that you don’t need to use a case with, you should consider the iPhone Air. As I said in my iPhone Air review, I unexpectedly dropped our review unit—the screen survived unscathed, and there were only very minor scuffs to the corners of the titanium frame.

Beware of AI-generated photos and videos

It also pains me to have to say this, but you also shouldn’t blindly accept everything you see online. With today’s powerful generative AI photo and video creation tools, it’s harder than ever to know what is and isn’t genuine or if any footage has been modified.

Who can be certain whether the images below actually depict a real, damaged iPhone 17 Pro (even one destroyed on purpose) or not?

And even if the above images are real, intrepid users have clearly taken the initiative to use generative AI to make convincing images based on them, like the “photo” below, which shows the iPhone 17 Pro with duct tape to cover up its scratches and cracks.





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