Hopefully this will help everyone
Guys, I just got back from the Apple store, thank god with a 5 Series and I have a few points that I'd like to share with you.
Just so you all know (that's a little disclaimer): I'm called a perfectionist by people who know me close so YMMV depending on how much of a 'perfectionist' you are. I just wanted to share my experience and story with you guys since I've found this thread so very informative and helpful to me personally.
In the Apple store, they have about 8 phones on one table on display (in addition to the ones scattered around the store beside the displays). Of those 8, 4 on one side are 5s and the 4 on the other side are 7s (just luck? maybe). I've played with every phone in the store and had the 5 and the 7 SIDE BY SIDE under direct light with brightness on full and auto-brightness off for about 5 minutes looking at them from pretty much all angles possible. These are the points I've noticed:
- The dot 'badness' varies from one 7 phone to another 7, they're not all that bad and some of them are as good or slightly worse than the 5s.
- The 5 phones ALSO have the dots (if you claim that your 5 phone doesn't have them, pump the brightness, turn auto bright off, and look with phone 1 inch away from your eye under the last row off buttons on the home screen, they ARE there. However, they are NOT at the top of the screen (right under the info bar), those scattered white dots that are available on the 7s are NOT there with the 5s that's for sure.
- The colors on the 7s are definitely darker, looking especially at the icon of Safary the blues on the 7 are DEFINITELY darker than those on the 5.
- if you have the 7 and 5 side by side, the brightness of the 5 really shows up around the word "Clock" on the home screen, on the 7, the grey "Clock" is surrounded by the black background and doesn't really stand out, on the 5, even the grey "Clock" really stands out from the surrounding black.
- With the brightness set to max on both and with both on auto-bright off, the colors of the 5 are lighter and brighter than those of the 7, that's for sure, by how much difference? I wouldn't say a huge lot. Some will like the darker contrasty colors of the 7s, others will like the 5's lighter colors more.
These are my notes around the store, now to the experience at the genius bar:
Yesterday I went to that same store and complained that sometimes I charge the phone and it dies after 2 days on standby and 1.5 hours of talk time and the checker board problem. The genius told me the battery shouldn't be that bad, but said he never heard of the checker board dot problem (that I don't quite believe since he seemed pretty knowledgeable), he pulled out his phone it was a 7 I played with it and frankly the dots on his were not as bad as on mine at all yet he did have the white scattered dots right under the bar at the top and above the first row of icons. Anyway, the guy was really really nice and said that he'll exchange it right away (really no questions asked) I told him I didn't have the box, he said no problem at all, and was ready to take it and said if u have a backup of it I'll exchange it right away, unfortunately I told him it's not backed up and I'd like to bring it another time, he gave me his card with a note on the back "Replace, Battery Issues, <his signature> and <date>"
Today I went to the store, had an appt. at the genius bar. I sat there the guy (different one) asked me what the problem is, I told him the battery (he took the phone as I was talking and hooked it up to power) and then I told him I also have the white checker board problem (he didn't deny it at all and said nothing), I told him that I've scanned the floor and they do have 1/2 their phones are 5s and the other half are 7s, he said it's strange how come they got them layed out with such 'luck' (he knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the "5 and 7 panels" and said there's no way to know from the box or which ones with which serial numbers are 5s and which are 7s). I also told him that I was there yesterday and that the <genius name> looked at it, and pulled out his card with the note, he said "oh ok" (at this point he kinda backed down and it was sort of a done deal).
He proceeded with the exchange process, then went back of the store to grab the replacement. It took him roughly 5 mins (yes a long time) then returned with a sealed phone in the box, cut the plastic rap off the box infront of me, then exchanged the SIM card and said hopefully this one will be better.
I was buying a Crystal film for the phone and the guy asked me about my experience with the phone, I told him about having the checkerboard problem, he said he 'never heard of it'.
Anyway, as I said I have a 5 series phone here and so far I don't see any problems with it, These are things I've noticed:
- Right by the battery at the top of the home screen and right at the edge of the black bezel the brightness is 'VERY VERY slightly' minorly uneven, I'm thinking there's a connection there or something.
- The black seems 'brighter' than my previous 7, I had to push the brightness down to around 30% or so.
- The mesh dots as I said are there on the 5 under the last row however they are NO where as visible as they are on the 7, and u really have to look so very close
- If anyone else has noticed but some phones (most?) have a VERY slight gap (less than a millimeter) between the chrome bezel and the back cover of the phone (clearly visible on the top edges of the phones), on this phone (and it's the 4th exchange for me), the gap is clearly negligible or almost not there.
My conclusion: If you take the phone to an Apple Store and really show the Genius that you know what you're talking about (and mention how 'serious' it's getting known online) and will not settle for any BS (the sort of "it's Ok, it's within spec.") I'm pretty sure they will exchange it.
And my conspiracy theory here is that they somehow do know what's a 5 phone and what's a 7 phone without opening the box, how? I don't know but I pretty much feel (know?) they somehow can, I don't know how but they do.
Sorry for the VERYYYYYYY long post, I hope it will be useful for someone out there, just like you guys helped me. Thanks a lot for everyone who posted every little piece of info. that gave me a little bit more 'light'.
