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iPhone X IphoneX surgical steel durability

LogiLink

LogiLink

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 30, 2016
47
6
Poland
I bought a silicone case for my IphoneX.

aj1zS3T.jpg


And this is how my phone looks after a few weeks.

YWhy1EI.jpg


The phone was in a clean room, it was not exposed to dust or other chemical compounds.
So tell me, my phone should look like that, having contact with the silicone case?

I am seriously concerned about the quality of Apple products :(
Apparently, it was supposed to be surgical steel, very resistant to scratches and external factors !!

The entire phone has micro-scratches all around ! WTF Apple !!
 
This is why I no longer buy soft flexible cases. Overtime, they can stretch, become loose and allow dust, dirt and/or particles to get trapped. And, since the case is no longer tight, that stuff could slide around, rub the phone and scratch it. Next time, get a tight hard shell case.
 
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Under the fingernail I can feel the microcracks, it must have been something really sharp, but i found nothing in silicon case, so I'm beginning to suspect that all this very durable surgical steel is one big lie :(
 
Dust and particals from you pocket can work their way into MOST cases - when they do they will scratch a phone

So I usually take my phone out of the case and wipe it down along with the case every other day

My JB 7 plus was flawless after ownership of 12 months - I do the same thing to my x
 
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MsRandall said:
So I usually take my phone out of the case and wipe it down along with the case every other day
Click to expand...

Oh, come on!
This should be "very durable surgical steel", it turns out, however, that it is just a piece of polished metal :confused:

I did not carry nails in my pocket, and the phone looks like I was wearing nails.
 
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LogiLink said:
Oh, come on!
This should be "very durable surgical steel", it turns out, however, that it is just a piece of polished metal :confused:

I did not carry nails in my pocket, and the phone looks like I was wearing nails.
Click to expand...

I said it’s what I do - you can not do it and deal with the durable surgical steel scratches

I know in 12 months I’m selling my phone so I try to keep them looking new to fetch very good to excellent prices

A cape cod cloth will work but you have to be very careful with the process and not touch the glass/screen
 
LogiLink said:
I bought a silicone case for my IphoneX.



And this is how my phone looks after a few weeks.



The phone was in a clean room, it was not exposed to dust or other chemical compounds.
So tell me, my phone should look like that, having contact with the silicone case?

I am seriously concerned about the quality of Apple products :(
Apparently, it was supposed to be surgical steel, very resistant to scratches and external factors !!

The entire phone has micro-scratches all around ! WTF Apple !!
Click to expand...

Surgical steel has nothing to do with resistance to scratches or "external factors." In fact, many stainless steel alloys are relatively soft.
[doublepost=1512943604][/doublepost]
LogiLink said:
I wonder if I can polish them with felt ??
Click to expand...

1. You will almost certainly hit the glass.
2. Even if you don't, you'll get very uneven results, possibly even a wavy surface.

If you really want to try polishing it, do it by hand and follow the instructions in a couple of threads here.
 
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I heard the silver version scratches a lot easier but also easier to take the scratches out. Where as the space grey doesn’t scratch as easy but if it does scratch they won’t come out.
 
Cape Cod polishing cloths most definitely work on stainless steel (and other metals). They are actually pretty amazing. But remember this, if you want to get a scratch out, and buff it out with a cloth like this, you need to know that for the scratch to come out, you will be actually removing some of the metal surface to reduce the depth of the scratch. This does remove the scratch, but also metal around it. I use it all the time to polish my Breitling watch buckle, and my watch cost far more than as an iPhone X.
 
All you people obsessed with micro scratches and resale value...clearly you’re attentive to detail, but you seem to be blind to a far more important detail than micro scratches...actual resale value differential.

Do you really think having micro scratches is going to effect your resale value by an amount that warrants relentless inspection and constant polishing?

If so, you’re selling it wrong. In fact, in this day and age of unlocked phones and market saturation, resale values are dropping every year, and they’re never going back up.

Ok so it’s next year and you want a new iPhone. Get out your microscope and inspect your current phone. Invest in a smelly messy polishing cloth and spend an hour buffing out the micro scratches (and hope that your buyer can’t tell from your crappy polish job that your polished the phone). Then post the phone on Craigslist or eBay or swappa or whatever. And get ready for the lowball bids, or chargebacks or other scams. And guess what. You got $25 more than you would have if you didn’t obsessively worry about and polish out the scratches. If you’re lucky. Or maybe you got even less than the next guy with a gouge on the corner of his phone. There’s no guaranteeing all your hard work and time will be worth it.

If you plan to upgrade every year, stop obsessing about scratches and get on an upgrade program. Skip the headaches of worrying and polishing and resale for a few extra bucks.

5 years ago, it was worth the effort. Those days are over.
 
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mcdj said:
All you people obsessed with micro scratches and resale value...clearly you’re attentive to detail, but you seem to be blind to a far more important detail than micro scratches...actual resale value differential.

Do you really think having micro scratches is going to effect your resale value by an amount that warrants relentless inspection and constant polishing?

If so, you’re selling it wrong. In fact, in this day and age of unlocked phones and market saturation, resale values are dropping every year, and they’re never going back up.

Ok so it’s next year and you want a new iPhone. Get out your microscope and inspect your current phone. Invest in a smelly messy polishing cloth and spend an hour buffing out the micro scratches (and hope that your buyer can’t tell from your crappy polish job that your polished the phone). Then post the phone on Craigslist or eBay or swappa or whatever. And get ready for the lowball bids, or chargebacks or other scams. And guess what. You got $25 more than you would have if you didn’t obsessively worry about and polish out the scratches. If you’re lucky. Or maybe you got even less than the next guy with a gouge on the corner of his phone. There’s no guaranteeing all your hard work and time will be worth it.

If you plan to upgrade every year, stop obsessing about scratches and get on an upgrade program. Skip the headaches of worrying and polishing and resale for a few extra bucks.

5 years ago, it was worth the effort. Those days are over.
Click to expand...
I agree with the op. You spend a $1000 or more on a phone you don’t want it to scratch so damn easy. Especially when he has it in a case.
 
j800r said:
Stainless steel. Not surgical steel. Same thing you’re cutlery is typically made of. ?
Click to expand...

The silver iPhone X is 'surgical stainless steel'. That's exactly how Apple has it labeled on their website.
 
Last edited:
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mcdj said:
All you people obsessed with micro scratches and resale value...clearly you’re attentive to detail, but you seem to be blind to a far more important detail than micro scratches...actual resale value differential.

Do you really think having micro scratches is going to effect your resale value by an amount that warrants relentless inspection and constant polishing?

If so, you’re selling it wrong. In fact, in this day and age of unlocked phones and market saturation, resale values are dropping every year, and they’re never going back up.

Ok so it’s next year and you want a new iPhone. Get out your microscope and inspect your current phone. Invest in a smelly messy polishing cloth and spend an hour buffing out the micro scratches (and hope that your buyer can’t tell from your crappy polish job that your polished the phone). Then post the phone on Craigslist or eBay or swappa or whatever. And get ready for the lowball bids, or chargebacks or other scams. And guess what. You got $25 more than you would have if you didn’t obsessively worry about and polish out the scratches. If you’re lucky. Or maybe you got even less than the next guy with a gouge on the corner of his phone. There’s no guaranteeing all your hard work and time will be worth it.

If you plan to upgrade every year, stop obsessing about scratches and get on an upgrade program. Skip the headaches of worrying and polishing and resale for a few extra bucks.

5 years ago, it was worth the effort. Those days are over.
Click to expand...
Not true. Its still worth it to sell the phone and not trade in and have a 50$ payment every month. Paying off and putting down 600$ on the phone and cutting the payment down a lot is still worth it for me. you take about a 200$ drop selling the phone in a year.
[doublepost=1512980392][/doublepost]
LogiLink said:
I bought a silicone case for my IphoneX.


And this is how my phone looks after a few weeks.


The phone was in a clean room, it was not exposed to dust or other chemical compounds.
So tell me, my phone should look like that, having contact with the silicone case?

I am seriously concerned about the quality of Apple products :(
Apparently, it was supposed to be surgical steel, very resistant to scratches and external factors !!

The entire phone has micro-scratches all around ! WTF Apple !!
Click to expand...
You buy a 1000$ phone and put it in a 5$ silicone case and then blame apple?

Do this.... Buy and 10000$+ stainless steel watch and rub dirt and little sand/particles all over it and see if it scratches.

If anything the cheap crappy case makes it worse then running the phone without a case(most the time cases cause this) because once dirt gets in there(because it is not AIR tight) the phone shifts around and its basically acting as sandpaper in a way. Its rubbing on the case and the phone and pushing into it.
Dont blame apple. stainless steel on anything does this. It is a not a hard metal it scratches fairly easily. Good thing is you can polish it.
 
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so many good takeaways here, given my personal experience with many of the above.

Best protection for my X turns out to be the Apple Watch S3 LTE. X isn’t exposed to dirty hands and pockets during yardwork, for example, as it stays in house.

Case cost may reflect quality, but my $109 Pad & Quill wallet case often collected a veritable raised bed of scratchy dirt under and around my 6s+ simply because of the dirty environment to which I exposed it.
 
Relentless Power said:
The silver iPhone X is 'surgical stainless steel'. That's exactly how Apple has it labeled on their website.
Click to expand...

Exactly true, but the OP is making a huge leap from surgical grade stainless steel to unrelated attributes like "durability" and hardness.

Surgical stainless actually strikes me as a funny choice on Apple's part, especially given the small width of the bezels on the X. But perhaps Apple knows, or thinks, that people spend a LOT of time with phones in their hands. I don't remember the bands on the 4 or 4S being advertised as made from surgical-grade stainless.
 
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mcdj said:
All you people obsessed with micro scratches and resale value...clearly you’re attentive to detail, but you seem to be blind to a far more important detail than micro scratches...actual resale value differential.

Do you really think having micro scratches is going to effect your resale value by an amount that warrants relentless inspection and constant polishing?

If so, you’re selling it wrong. In fact, in this day and age of unlocked phones and market saturation, resale values are dropping every year, and they’re never going back up.

Ok so it’s next year and you want a new iPhone. Get out your microscope and inspect your current phone. Invest in a smelly messy polishing cloth and spend an hour buffing out the micro scratches (and hope that your buyer can’t tell from your crappy polish job that your polished the phone). Then post the phone on Craigslist or eBay or swappa or whatever. And get ready for the lowball bids, or chargebacks or other scams. And guess what. You got $25 more than you would have if you didn’t obsessively worry about and polish out the scratches. If you’re lucky. Or maybe you got even less than the next guy with a gouge on the corner of his phone. There’s no guaranteeing all your hard work and time will be worth it.

If you plan to upgrade every year, stop obsessing about scratches and get on an upgrade program. Skip the headaches of worrying and polishing and resale for a few extra bucks.

5 years ago, it was worth the effort. Those days are over.
Click to expand...



You keep doing it your way and I will keep selling my year old very good condition phone for $715 vs a $300 Verizon trade in.
 
I just took a case like that off of my daughter's shiny black IPhone 8 Plus. She was very fortunate I was able to remove all of the scum and crap that collected between that case and her pride and joy IPhone before permanent damage was done to the finish. It was on the phone for only a week and a half. It took me some alcohol and two different kinds of cloths to clean it up.

I have her phone back in the microfiber lined Apple silicone case until I can give her the Speck case she wants for Christmas to replace her other Speck case. I don’t like her Speck case, either, and think it could scratch a stainless edged phone. But it has served her iPhone just fine. We are replacing it because it got scratched up and ugly.
 
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