Friday, October 6, 2017

Apple Falsely Advertised Glass Back On New iPhones

Georgia Pappas
Staff Writer

The long awaited iPhone 8 and 8 plus were released on Sept 22 and while they are a big improvement over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the newly-introduced glass backs are more fragile than advertised, and were found to be easily broken by a drop test, letting down a large majority of consumers.
 At the press conference for Apple’s new and improved products, like the Apple TV and the Apple Watch Series 3, the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X were announced to release on Sept. 22 and Nov. 3 respectively. As presented at the meeting, the iPhone 8 and 8 plus have advanced new glass backs that are supposedly "the most durable glass ever in a smartphone," but this has been proven incorrect.
 Apple stated that the advanced phone has a copper infused layer in the glass back, creating the hyped-up advertising; however, it is not the best idea to use this phone without a case. A YouTube user PhoneBuff has the ability to use a drop test machine and experimented with the iPhone 8 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The Note 8 also has a glass back that was released before the iPhone 8, which is why it was compared to the iPhone. At the end of the test, both phones did not hold up very well at all. The iPhone and the Note 8 were about equally damaged, supporting the idea that the iPhone’s back is not the sturdiest of all time. The apparent strong glass back could not even survive a short drop without shattering.
 It was actually found in a promotional drop test video that the less popular Moto Z2 Force uses the most durable glass in its structure. After over 100 Chicago employees for Motorola each dropped individual phones face down, not a single one cracked. Dozens of these tests have been executed and all came out with the same results.
 Apple has not provided the media with sales number for a few years; however, according to analyzed data, the iPhone 8 and 8 plus have been the slowest selling iPhones since the iPhone 5 in 2013. Although it may not be only because of the falsely advertised glass back, it could be a factor. Many customers are awaiting the release of the iPhone X over the iPhone 8 and 8 plus, due to the more major improvements in the iPhone X, which could be another factor towards the low sales numbers.

Even though Apple’s new iPhones ended up having disappointing durability in their glass backs compared to the build up in the advertising, these iPhones are still some of the most powerful smartphones ever created. With enhanced cameras, wireless charging, facial recognition and more, the glass back strength is a loss that can be taken while these new features have been released.