iPhone 4 Units Ship with Damaged Screens, Device Gets Easily Scratched - Reports

For those who aren’t yet tired of seeing iPhone 4 units performing sub-par, or getting broken, Softpedia has a few more interesting details about Apple’s new smartphone, and they’re not positive. A number of freshly unboxed units reportedly show colored splotches near the bottom edges of the screen. Other units, like the one reviewed by tech-site Engadget, have already collected minor scratches, despite Apple’s durability claims.

TUAW reports that several iPhone 4 buyers are signaling screen discoloration (or coloration, depending on how you analyze it) near the bottom edges of the screen. The report quotes an Apple Discussions forum poster as saying that, "In the bottom 10% of the screen there are three blotches about the size of shirt buttons that discolor the screen a brown/yellow color."

The anomaly is presented in a picture (available above). It is unclear whether or not the quoted Apple customer is the actual author of the image. Sadly, for these customers, Apple isn’t taking tech support calls for the iPhone 4 until after the smartphone’s official release, the report adds.

iPhone 4 also gets easily scratched, according to the people at Engadget, whose review unit managed to collect (admittedly) shallow marks on the back casing in just a few days of use. They quote iFixit for identifying the phone’s front panel as made from "Gorilla Glass."

However, the repair shop fails to document the material covering the back side of the phone, which is also known to be made from strengthened glass. Apple advertises its new device as being very durable, although recent reports (including a number of early drop-tests) beg to differ.

The second image down shows the nasty scratch in all its glory. While indeed just a superficial wound, it does pose an interesting scenario for the long run. Perhaps those Bumpers Apple sells should be taken more seriously.