iPhone 5 iPhone 5 Rant & Rave

Lets hear your thoughts on your iPhone 5 or IOS6 Issues.... The good, the bad, or the ugly.

This is a long post. I posted it in a different thread and even then I thought I should start my own thread for it. Not really sorry it's a long read. It's what happened....so far. I don't expect anything else to cause me to get yet a 5th iPhone 5.

1. @imutter @Europa @Rafagon @Tattooed Alex and everybody here is my 4 iPhone 5s in less than a month saga. All but one flawless. I would say Apple's quality control is good even with being on my fourth iPhone 5.

I have had three out of four flawless iPhone 5's. My first iPhone 5 came out of the box pristine! No scratches or dings or nicks of any kind. Unfortunately, because of a blown mic that I discovered a week into owning this awesome iPhone 5, I had to go to the Apple store and swap it out.

The second iPhone 5 was perfect as well. No scratches or dings or nicks of any kind right out of the white coffin box they put the iPhone 5's in. Unfortunately, this one had video recording issues. The sound was low and overrun with static/hissing. At the Genius bar they determined it had to be swapped out. It sounded terrible.

The third iPhone 5 was unfortunately flawed right out of the box at the Genius bar. Now these flaws consisted of two little dings on the back. One was on the top to the far right of the flash on the dividing line that connects the glass and the metal and the second was on the bottom also on the dividing line that connects the glass and the metal. I saw them almost immediately. I was tired and wanted to get the show on the road as I had to restore from my iCloud back up and the nicks didn't bother me so I said nothing. After a few hours restoring in the mall Apple store I left and had the Ghost Armor installed on the iPhone 5 and that made the difference. The little nicks looked like tiny bubbles and a few hours later they evened out and were more noticeable with the Ghost Armor. I was deciding between taking it back and getting a new iPhone 5 without the flaws or just keeping it because these flaws were no big deal. Undecided, last week I vowed to return it because I paid my $ and should have a flawless iPhone 5. I ended up doing no such thing. I kept it.It worked correctly and the flaws grew on me. Now let me tell you, these two little virtually invisible nicks had character and after a few days I didn't mind them at all. I was happy, this was my iPhone 5, flaws and all. Until there was a slight problem. The video recording started to have a louder hissing/static sound. I figured it wasn’t a big deal because that is how these iPhone 5’s sound when you record video and I wanted to keep this third iPhone 5.

Well the final straw was yesterday after work. I got off the train and walked to my complex where I met my husband and a neighbor talking in the entrance to my complex. I take out my ear buds and start to roll them up, the iPhone 5 is in my pocket. I’m talking and not paying attention or remembering how shallow my coat pocket is and all of a sudden I hear a metallic thud/scrape on the pavement that sounded like a toy falling. I look down and my third iPhone 5, now no longer in my pocket, is on the ground and the ear buds are in my hand. I don’t freak out as the talking continued. I turn the iPhone over and see a few craters now embedded in the top aluminum that were so severe the white meat of the true color of the aluminum showed through. The deepest crater was on the top left of the earpiece the lesser offensive ones were on the right all showing the gleaming natural color of the aluminum.

When I got in the house, I made a Genius Appointment for last night (Tuesday, 10/16/12) 5:50pm. I took the bus to the Mall Apple store. EWW! Finally there, once I got a Genius, I did NOT, and this is important, I DID NOT mention the flaws at the top of the iPhone or how they got there, instead I talked about the video recording with the hissing problem. The Genius looked over the iPhone and said absolutely NOTHING about the flaws.It was as if he didn’t see them. How could U not see them?!! Hey, U don’t see them, neither do I. He read over the notes of my previous visits and swap outs and tested the iPhone thinking it sounded fine. I assured him I did as well at first, but if we keep taking video he will hear the change in the volume of the hissing. He took a video with his iPhone 4S and then with mine again and he crumbled his face in disapproval and said this sounds bad. The video taken with the iPhone 4S sounded flawless. He proclaims, "I’m going to swap it out." Walla! A brand new fourth iPhone 5 completely flawless in minutes. I have done this test with my husband’s iPhone 4S so I know there is a difference.

So out of four iPhone 5s I have had three absolutely perfect ones. I do not want to go back for another swap so this one better hang in there. I have accepted the sound of the video recording and this fourth iPhone 5 sounds better than the last three. Less hissing/static. I hope that doesn’t change. If it does, I hope there will be some sort of software fix on the way. In fact, I’m sure Apple is working on a slew of fixes for us on things we don’t even know are wrong. I welcome an update and soon.

@Sharunda geez that sounds like a terrible experience. Hats off to you for sticking with it if my experience was like this i don't know what i would do. Hopefully an update fixes your issues!!

@Sharunda wow oh wow...thanks for sharing that. I actually did the same thing with my phone on my third day with it and my case had not arrived. I have a pretty ugly dig in the edge (at least to me) but my gf does not think it is that bad. I need to try out my video and see if I have any problems and maybe the local genius will swap me out a new shiny one as well

@ednygma The significant others never think the digs and dings on the aluminum is a big deal. Geesh! If they could just understand! My hubby actually looked at it before I proclaimed to him I was getting it swapped that it wasn't so bad and that he could live with it. Pift! What?! I could never live with that. If I did it after a year of use maybe, but I only had it less than a two weeks so it had to go back. I have a whole another 102 weeks to go with it so I should get a new one. LOL!!

Yes, try your video and listen to it carefully. U will hear the hissing/static. It shouldn't be louder than the voice. If it is, take it in and get it swapped. IDK if this is a software issue. It has happened to me with two iPhone 5's so far and each time they just got swapped out. My current iPhone 5 sounds great/better.

Another early adopter of the iPhone 5 , that I work with, has his iPhone 5 since September 21st and has not taken video. He took one simultaneously with mine and the hissing/static was significantly more pronounced than mine. Another co-worker said that his iPhone 5 was picking up a lot of Ambient noise and that Apple may have changed the mic in the newer iPhones that they're making now and that could be why my iPhone 5 sounded better than his.

IDK about all that - I just want it to work.

@Muckcityjustin It was just an annoying disappointing experience. I knew Apple would make it right. I just got the iPhone. It wasn't 30 days old so I knew they would make this right once they heard the sound on the video. It's really frustrating. U just want the iPhone work right ya know?!

I would never give up. I rely on my iPhone for so much and I love it so I could never throw in the towel. My new iPhone is A-Okay so far! LOL!! I hope it stays this way. Hopefully if there is a software update that can fix this issue for others who possibly don't even know there is an issue, that would be awesome!

Other than these issues, the iPhone 5 is an amazing device. IMO the best iPhone yet and I wouldn't trade it for any other device out there.

I have a hissing sound as well. This seems awful with video recording. Damn.

I feel your pain. You should probably call Apple or make an appointment at a Genius Bar to get it swapped out if it bothers you or is too horrible for Video recording.

I thought this was a hardware issue, but if they become aware of a problem and then try to fix it through a software update, if that can be done, that would be great. The only solution I had was to get my iPhone 5 swapped out three times. Got my fingers crossed that this one is a winner.

I couldn't agree more. I've had them all since the very first iDay. I tried to use a phone with a sliding keyboard and it just wasn't cutting it. I love how apple will always fix the problems such great customer service. I couldn't be happier with my device either. Glad your 5 that you have now is good!

I was having battery and wifi connection issues. Did a complete restore and so far so good.

Nice phone, great performance, only complaint is the battery life...

Have you don't a compete factory restore on the phone? I was having battery which seem to have been resolved.

Yes I have done a restore and set up as new

I have nothing to add to this thread. My iP5 is AWESOME!!!!!!

why is the Facebook app so bad on ios6, when I update status it doesn't show up and if I take a pic and add a message that doesn't upload either... I keep having to delete app and then restart it you think Facebook would make there app work good on ios6 ..


Sent from my iPhone5using iCafe app

I have to agree. If I share a link or do anything on FB it never shows up.

Yeah it's confusing. It shows up in your timeline or whatever it's called but not your feed. Just other people's stuff shows up in the feed.

[off topic]
I quit using Facebook a while a ago.. Now I use Twitter and Tweetbot!

I keep Facebook around kind of... I auto post to Facebook from Twitter and I check Facebook every so often... I gave up on FB because of the crap app and because all FB is these days is Farmville and people posting photos of their lunch... [/ off topic]

I honestly have no complaints at all with the iPhone 5 or iOS6.. It's a very nice and gorgeous device and it's hands down the fastest and snappiest device I have ever owned..

My only MINOR gripe is the headphone jack at the bottom but if that is all I have to complain about then I'd say Apple hit a home run...

My .02