Ever since the iPhone 5 started landing in people's hands, I've been hearing stories that the new aluminum shell is not as robust as the old stainless steel and glass design, and that it picks up scratches and scuffs easily.
According to 9to5Mac, one new iPhone 5 owner decided to politely vent his spleen to Apple's Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller, and it seems that Schiller took the time to respond.
"I love my Black & Slate iPhone 5," writes 9to5Mac reader Alex, "but I've been seeing some scuffs, scratches and marks throughout the band around the phone along with many others. What should we all do? Any plans to fix this?"
Schiller, in typical Steve Jobs fashion (who seemed to respond to customer's emails periodically), allegedly responds with two sentences.
Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.
In other words, aluminum stuff scratches, and since the iPhone 5's back panel is made of aluminum, you'd better get used to these scratches.
Repair specialists iFixit carried out a scratch test on the iPhone 5, and discovered that a two-year-old could make a new iPhone 5 look real old, real fast.
If you want to keep your iPhone 5 looking good, you're going to need to put it in a case.
This is not the first time that Apple has released a product that appeared to scratch easily. Back in early 2009 the company settled a $22.5 million lawsuit over scratch problems related to the iPod nano.
