- 1 year ago
Apple Screwed Up Again
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00:00Apple released iPhone 17 Pro just last week, and within days, customers began posting photos of
00:06the device with scratches, chips, markings, and dents. News outlets have already nicknamed the
00:12issue Scratchgate. It's become so widespread that Apple publicly addressed it just five days after
00:18the 17 Pro went on sale. They said, the aluminum on the 17 Pro and Pro Max is just as durable as
00:25that on other products. However, over time, it may show small abrasions with normal wear and tear.
00:31But what's happened over the past week has been anything but normal. In fact, I can only think of
00:36one other iPhone model that showed this sort of damage immediately after its release, and that
00:42was iPhone 5. It came out on September 21st, 2012, and just like with the 17 Pro, people quickly began
00:50posting photos of the product with chips, scuffs, and scratches, causing the term scuffgate to trend
00:56on social media. One user even emailed Phil Schiller, Apple's VP of Worldwide Marketing. The user wrote,
01:03I love my Black & Slate iPhone 5, but I've been seeing some scuffs, scratches, and marks throughout
01:08the band around the phone along with many others. What should we all do? Any plans to fix this?
01:14Schiller replied, Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use,
01:19exposing its natural silver color. That is normal. Now that statement from 13 years ago sounds eerily
01:27similar to the one we heard from Apple recently. So is it true that everyone's just overreacting to
01:32something that should be considered normal? Well, no. Because this has only ever been an issue twice
01:39in iPhone's 18 year history. In 2012 with iPhone 5, and today with iPhone 17 Pro. If it was statistically
01:47normal, then this type of durability issue would affect 51 to 100% of all iPhone models. But it
01:54hasn't. It's only affected 5.9%. That's 2 out of 34. I would call that abnormal. So let's look a little
02:03deeper. Because there are unique qualities about both iPhone 5 and the 17 Pro that make them less durable.
02:10The first being their aluminum designs. Which is why using a heavy duty protective case like the O-Stand
02:16Q3 Air is so important with these new phones. Now this was provided by our channel partner Torres,
02:22who makes cases and screen protectors built for hard impacts. This model has a bright orange color to
02:29match 17 Pro, anti-slip grips on either side, and airbags that cover every corner. But what I love about
02:37these cases is their integrated 360 degree stand. It lets me do so many things hands-free. When I'm on
02:43a FaceTime call, I can just prop it up in portrait mode on my desk. No more hand fatigue. When I'm
02:48watching YouTube while eating, I can just turn it to landscape mode. I also love using it as a tripod
02:54to take spontaneous photos on the go. A selfie like this looks way better than holding my phone with an
03:00arm stretched out. Taurus also has screen protectors like this one that includes an applicator device.
03:06You just place your phone, fasten the protective film, pull the tab, then slide the roller down and
03:12back up and you've got perfect placement with significantly less screen glare. So visit Taurus
03:17today by tapping the link in the comments and find a case that fits your lifestyle.
03:21Alright now aluminum is commonly used for consumer electronics because it's light, cheap, easy to
03:27manufacture, and easy to dye bright colors. But there are downsides. It's soft and it's weak. That's why
03:35companies like Apple anodize their aluminum, which creates a hard outer layer that protects against
03:40light scratches. But this layer is only about 15 microns thick, or one-tenth the thickness of a human
03:47hair, leaving the aluminum vulnerable to punctures, scuffs, and dents. If Apple applies color to the
03:53aluminum, the dye is applied on top of the anodized layer. That means a scratch could break through the
03:58paint, but not the aluminum. When this happens, you're left with a light gray mark that stands out against a
04:04dark paint color. iPhone 5 had a very dark aluminum color that Apple called slate. And even when a tiny
04:11speck of paint chipped off, the high contrast turned it into an eyesore. The 5 also had diamond
04:18chamfered edges. They were created using a machining process that shaved away the anodized coating,
04:23giving the aluminum a smooth and reflective appearance, but also leaving it soft and vulnerable
04:28to damage. The edges were so fragile that some customers discovered their phone was already chipped
04:33right out of the box. So despite Schiller saying that scratching or chipping with use is normal,
04:39the iPhone 5 proved to be more fragile than usual, resulting from design decisions that Apple made
04:45themselves. Decisions that happened to be reversed in later models. The 5S no longer came in a dark
04:51slate color. Instead, Apple created space gray, a shade that was closer to silver than a dark gray or
04:57black. That way, when the phone was inevitably damaged, the contrast between the raw aluminum and space
05:03gray would be far lower and less noticeable. Then the SE, which borrowed the 5S design,
05:09didn't have diamond chamfered edges. It had anodized chamfered edges, which wasn't nearly as reflective or
05:15beautiful, but was more durable. And guess what? There was no more scuff gate, and no more widespread
05:21complaints from users. Two years later, Apple would make a similar mistake with iPhone 6.
05:27At that time, Android phones were receiving larger screens year after year, but Apple only increased
05:34iPhone's screen size once, and it wasn't even that big of an improvement, from 3.5 inches with the
05:39iPhone 4S to 4 inches with iPhone 5. While Samsung Galaxy's S3 had a 4.8-inch display, and the Galaxy
05:47Note 2 had a 5.5-inch display. This disparity actually caused iPhone sales to slow, as Android's smartphone
05:54market share surged from 2011 to 2014. So Apple planned a comeback with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus,
06:01featuring their largest displays ever at 4.7 and 5.5 inches. This resulted in two big design changes,
06:08a phone that was much bigger and much thinner. In fact, until the iPhone air last week,
06:14iPhone 6 was the thinnest model ever at 6.9 millimeters. It was 9% thinner than the 5S, which
06:20was already 18% thinner than the 4S. Combine this with a footprint that's 27 or 70% larger,
06:28and you have a device that's easier to bend. Within three days of the iPhone 6 release,
06:32customers were posting photos of their warped devices, usually from being carried in tight
06:37pockets. Unbox Therapy posted a video bending the phone which went viral, and just six days after its
06:43release, major news outlets began reporting on iPhone 6's bendgate. Apple responded quickly, inviting
06:50journalists to its Cupertino testing facility in an effort to prove that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
06:56met the company's durability standards. They also released a statement saying,
07:00with normal use, a bend in iPhone is extremely rare. But this didn't answer the most important
07:06question. Was iPhone 6 easier to bend than previous models? So Consumer Reports, an independent nonprofit
07:14organization that doesn't accept advertising money, looked to answer that question themselves. They
07:19created their own bend test, with a compression machine that applied a controlled, measurable
07:24force to six different smartphones. The test was over once at least one of two criteria were met.
07:31A phone visibly deformed and didn't return to shape, or the screen separated from the body.
07:36Out of all six devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note came out on top, with standing 150 pounds of force.
07:44Tied for second place was the LG G3 and iPhone 5, at 130 pounds. Tied for third place was the HTC One
07:52and iPhone 6 Plus, at 90 pounds. Finally, in last place was iPhone 6, with standing just 70 pounds of
08:00force. Making it almost half as strong as iPhone 5. So while it may have been rare for users to experience
08:07bending with their 6 or 6 Plus, Apple failed to mention that they were in fact 46% and 31%
08:14weaker than before. And just like with iPhone 5's scuff gate, Apple quietly addressed the issue the
08:20following year with a new model. The 6000 series aluminum used in the 6 was replaced with 7000
08:27series aluminum in the 6S, making the chassis two to four times as resistant to permanent bending.
08:34But Apple didn't stop there. They also made the walls of the rear shell thicker, and added extra ribs of
08:40stainless steel and zinc around the volume button and SIM tray openings. Plus, the volume button cutouts
08:46were reshaped from long, thin slots to shorter, more compact openings with thicker metal around the edges.
08:53When customers began receiving their 6S units, there were no more widespread complaints about bending. And no
09:01more bend gate. It appeared Apple had learned their lesson from both iPhone 5 and iPhone 6.
09:06Ten years went by without any major iPhone durability issues. And that's because they pretty much solved
09:12it by using harder metals and stronger glass. In 2017, iPhone X was the first model to have a stainless
09:19steel frame. This was an improvement over aluminum since it was three times stiffer, making it even more
09:25difficult to bend, and almost two times harder, increasing scratch resistance. It was also a more
09:31expensive material, making the phone feel more premium. This was particularly important with the
09:37iPhone X since it was the first model to cost $1,000, far more than the previous 7 Plus that cost $770.
09:46But every material has a downside. With stainless steel, it was weight, being three times heavier
09:53than aluminum. Apple continued using stainless steel on higher-end iPhone models until 2023 with the 15
09:59Pro. It featured titanium, which is almost half the weight of steel while still being just about as
10:05durable. But it has a big downside. The price. Titanium costs about 10 to 15 times more than aluminum,
10:13and 6 to 10 times more than stainless steel. This is mainly due to the metal being harder to mine and
10:19to source. Titanium extraction is energy intensive, slow, and limited to a small number of locations
10:26worldwide. This means fewer refineries selling the material, which drives up cost. So when Apple was
10:32developing the iPhone 17 Pro, which uses far more metal than the previous 16 Pro, the high cost of
10:39titanium likely caused them to consider alternatives. Because for the first time in nine years, Apple
10:44decided to make their most expensive iPhones from their cheapest metal, aluminum. But it wasn't just
10:50to save money. During iPhone 17 Pro's introduction, Apple gave their justification for using aluminum,
10:56saying it's 20 times better for thermal conductivity than titanium. And while that's technically true,
11:02its practical effect on 17 Pro's thermal performance is far less dramatic. Because for a thin device like
11:09iPhone, the main bottleneck isn't dissipating heat into the air. It's spreading heat across the device
11:15fast enough to prevent the chip from overheating. So the reality is, the 17 Pro's new vapor chamber cooling
11:22system is a far greater contributor to its thermal performance. And there's evidence to support this.
11:29Consider the iPhone 8 and 10. The 8's aluminum frame was 10 times better at heat conduction than the 10's steel frame.
11:36But during this same intensive task, iPhone 8 reached 44 degrees Celsius, and the 10 reached 45 degrees.
11:45That's because they were both using the same internal graphite spreaders to move heat away from the chip,
11:50so the results are virtually indistinguishable. Other tests show that laptops with a vapor chamber reach about
11:5660 degrees Celsius under load. While competitors with the same hardware and a heat pipe operate close to
12:0480 degrees Celsius. That's a 25% temperature reduction attributed to the vapor chamber alone.
12:11What about test results for the 17 Pro? Well, under load, the 17 Pro Max reaches 33.3 degrees Celsius,
12:18while the 16 Pro Max reached 43.1 degrees. That's a temperature reduction of 23%, lining up with industry
12:27standard vapor chamber performance. Now these tests are obviously limited, and I'm sure the aluminum
12:33frame on 17 Pro is contributing somewhat to its improved thermals, but I don't think it's as big of a
12:39factor as Apple's lettuce to believe. In fact, I'm curious how a titanium 17 Pro with a vapor chamber would compare.
12:47I think it'd be worth giving up a little bit of the aluminum's thermal performance for the durability
12:51of titanium. Now it's also technically true what Apple said about aluminum showing small abrasions
12:57with normal wear and tear. We saw it most recently with the Space Black MacBook Pro in 2023. Just like
13:03with the Slate iPhone 5, its dark anodization exposed flaws that a lighter color, or even silver, would've
13:10hidden. Customers across the internet posted photos complaining about the fragile paint, with the USB-C
13:16port being the most common spot to be chipped since it only took the metal connector rubbing against it
13:21a few times to begin seeing damage. Plus, a sharp 90 degree edge of aluminum is particularly vulnerable,
13:30since the anodized coating can't adhere to it properly. There's actually a term for this called
13:35the edge effect. One manufacturing report says,
13:38anodized coatings grow perpendicular from the treated surface. Therefore, voids occur on all sharp corners
13:45and edges. The coating has a tendency to crumble at these points. All edges and corners should be broken
13:51with a radius to obtain a uniform coating. This is the biggest reason why iPhone 17 Pro is so fragile.
13:58It's the first model to have a camera bump made from aluminum, with a sharp anodized edge around the
14:04perimeter. A decision that's worse than the chamfered edges on iPhone 5. Because a camera bump sticks out,
14:11and it's almost twice as large as the one last year, increasing the chance of getting bumped,
14:16scraped, or nicked by another object. I mean, when you set the 17 Pro down, it's literally balancing on
14:22that camera bump. It will come into contact with things, and instead of making it the most durable part
14:28of the phone, Apple made it the weakest. And for people saying you should just take better care of your
14:33phone, I say Apple should take better care of their customers. Because consider iPhone's price over the
14:40last decade. It's gone from $650 to $1,000 to $1,100 and finally $1,200. Today we pay almost double for
14:50the most premium iPhone. So I don't think it's wrong to expect a more premium product. What makes this
14:56situation even more frustrating is that Apple already solved iPhone's durability problems. In 2017,
15:03they stopped using aluminum on the back and replaced it with ion-strengthened glass. With
15:07iPhone X ditching aluminum entirely in favor of stainless steel. Then in 2023, we got titanium.
15:13For the last eight generations, iPhones have only become more and more durable. But this year,
15:20iPhone became dramatically weaker. This is unprecedented. So I'd expect customers to be taken by surprise.
15:29Maybe the 15 Pro that someone used to carry in their bag without issue is now damaging their new 17 Pro.
15:35Is it their fault for expecting this year's iPhone to be just as strong as last year's?
15:40I mean, we've seen the durability tests. The 17 Pro is being chipped by not only keys,
15:46but coins. And the most fragile area, the camera bump, is now almost twice as big as before. That's like an
15:53Achilles heel becoming an Achilles calf. Both the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are the heaviest aluminum iPhones
16:00ever at 206 and 233 grams. In fact, the 17 Pro Max is 15% heavier than the previous record holder,
16:09the 14 Plus. That means when dropped, it's going to hit the ground 15% harder. Even users who tried
16:18protecting their iPhone 17 Pro with a case discovered that the aluminum could still be damaged by an
16:23impact. I don't know if Apple expected customers to just be okay with their phones accumulating chips,
16:29scratches, and dents. Or if they assumed we'd be more careful with an iPhone made of aluminum.
16:34But no matter how hard we all try, there's no way tens of millions of people are never going to drop
16:41this phone by accident. I think customers are justified in their frustration. Apple's charging
16:46$100 more for the 17 Pro than last year, while giving it a cheaper, less durable material. So what
16:53could Apple have done differently? Well, I think the best thing for users would have been to continue
16:58making Pro iPhones from titanium. Sure, it would make the 17 Pro a little heavier, but the dramatic
17:04increase in hardness and scratch resistance would prevent widespread complaints. But if Apple needed to
17:10stick to aluminum for reasons other than cost, like marginal thermal improvements or more practical
17:16logistics, they could at least protect the camera bump by continuing to make it from glass. The antenna
17:23line that wrapped around the bump could instead run along the edge, similar to iPad Pro. This would
17:29also allow Apple to get rid of the MMWave antenna window and move it back where it was last year,
17:34mounted behind the glass. Finally, the logo could be re-centered.
17:38If we render it, I think it'd look something like this. A white glass panel stretching from the top to
17:45the bottom, a glass camera bump, and a properly positioned Apple logo. Here it is next to the
17:51current 17 Pro, and I think it just looks so much better, although I am biased. This design would also
17:58solve my next problem with the 17 Pro. It's clear case. For some context, this is how Apple's clear case
18:05looked on the previous 16 Pro, and this is how it looks on the base iPhone 17. Both are 91% transparent,
18:13with the white plastic MagSafe array obscuring 9% of the phone. For most people, this was an acceptable
18:19compromise. Now take a look at the clear case for the new iPhone 17 Pro. I'm not sure if I can even call
18:26this a clear case, since almost 60% of the phone is covered by a white rectangle. What's even more
18:32frustrating is that Apple had the opportunity to make this case look way better, by color matching
18:38the rectangle to each phone. The white version looks good on this silver 17 Pro, since its glass
18:44rectangle is also white. Imagine if there were also a cosmic orange and deep blue version. It would have
18:50given the impression of a completely clear case while still hiding MagSafe. If we're going to be stuck
18:56with white, I would prefer they use the previous design, with the white plastic ring. But Apple
19:02likely decided against this because the 17 Pro's Apple logo is no longer centered inside the MagSafe
19:08circle. That means if Apple used the previous clear case design, their logo would be obscured.
19:14Rumors anticipated this issue months ago. We thought Apple would simply adjust the magnet pattern to make
19:19room for the logo. Or, if that sacrificed magnetic strength, Apple could just let their logo be
19:24obscured. This sort of thing actually happened before with iPhone 5C. The back of its silicon case
19:30had a series of circle cutouts that covered part of the word iPhone. All you could see was the H-O-N,
19:37and there were a lot of jokes about it being the Hun phone. So I don't think partially covering the
19:43Apple logo with MagSafe would be that big of a deal, especially if it means keeping the clear case
19:48clear. But Apple didn't do either of those things, opting instead for a big white plastic rectangle.
19:55Now let's talk about probably the strangest design decision of all. The colors. 17 Pro comes in
20:02silver, cosmic orange, and deep blue, with no space gray or black. This has only been the case with two
20:09other models in history. The iPhone 5C in 2013, which came in white, pink, yellow, green, and blue,
20:16and the original iPhone in 2007, which only came in silver. It's especially odd that Apple chose to
20:22do this with the Pro models, since historically they've always been offered in darker, more muted
20:28colors than the base model. If anything, it's iPhone Air that should have skipped out on black,
20:33since Apple said the phone was, quote, crafted in a palette of colors that evoke lightness. Also,
20:39consider that every generation of iPhone Pro have come in at least four colors. But this year's 17 Pro
20:46only comes in three. That means not only did Apple remove the black option, but they didn't replace
20:52it with anything. There were actually rumors of a new color called liquid glass that would subtly shift
20:57hue depending on the ambient light. Allegedly, it was meant to resemble the refraction effect of liquid
21:03glass in iOS 26. It would have been nice if that had at least replaced the black color, but instead we
21:09received nothing. One explanation for this is cost cutting, because selling more color variations is
21:15more expensive. That's why the budget iPhone 16e only comes in two colors, and the previous SE only
21:21came in three colors. But taking this cost cutting approach with the most expensive iPhone models is
21:27pretty shocking. Another theory I've heard is that a black iPhone 17 would absorb more heat in sunlight,
21:34negatively impacting battery life and performance. But that doesn't make much sense, since the 17 Pro
21:40comes in a dark blue shade that'll likely absorb a similar amount of heat. An official explanation
21:46came from Apple's marketing president, Greg Joswiak. He said, we've had different shades of dark for
21:52years. We know people wanted dark, and we got deep blue. So it sounds like Apple just wanted to mix
21:58things up this year. This was made even clearer by the new orange color, the most saturated shade
22:04ever on a pro iPhone. In response to that, Joswiak said, you want a fun color? How about cosmic orange?
22:12Which brings up an interesting point. Pro iPhones have always had pretty dull, muted color options compared
22:18to the standard models. Likely because stainless steel and titanium don't hold color as well as
22:23anodized aluminum. So with the 17 Pro, Apple had the chance to offer a bright, saturated shade,
22:29which I think a lot of people will be happy about. On the other hand, that makes it even more
22:34disappointing that we're stuck with just three color options for the 17 Pro instead of four or five like
22:40in previous years. Now I'm currently testing out the 17 Pro Max, and there's a lot I like about it,
22:46which I'll include in my upcoming review video. But I really think it's important to hold companies
22:51like Apple to account when they screw up. Because that public pressure is usually what forces them
22:57to quietly fix the issue in future releases. That's what happened with the iPhone 5S because of ScufGate,
23:04iPhone 6S because of BendGate, and what I expect will happen next year with iPhone 18 Pro
23:10as a result of the noise we're making today about ScratchGate.
23:14This is Greg with Apple Explained, thanks for watching till the end, and I'll see you in the next video.
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