Apple iPhone 17 series is on sale. The iPhone 17 series, which comprises of four smartphones the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, is available for purchase from September 19th globally. However, within the first few days of the iPhone 17 series going on sale, the store units of the phones had scratches on them.
People across the world, from New York to London to Mumbai, queued outside the Apple stores to get their hands on the latest iPhone 17 smartphones. Meanwhile, consumers in China one of the first markets where the new devices went on sale, took to social media earlier Friday with photos of scratches on the back of the newly released iPhone 17 lineup. As of Friday afternoon, the related hashtag was among the top trending topics on China’s Weibo, with more than 40 million views. Users on X similarly posted images and video of the scratched handsets.
Blue colour variants of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max exhibited scuffs after just a few hours of being on display:
Not only in China, according to the Bloomberg report, the Blue colour variants of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max exhibited scuffs after just a few hours of being on display, Bloomberg found from visits to Apple stores in New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London. The black iPhone Air also showed itself to be prone to scratching, the reporters observed. In addition, Apple’s magnetic MagSafe charger can leave a visible circular mark on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, Bloomberg found.
The primary reason experts are blaming for these scratches is Apple’s shift from using Titanium to Aluminium Unibody. Prior to the iPhone 17 series, Apple used the Titanium Frame for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 devices; however, this time, they switched back to Aluminium, which Apple has touted as more scratch-resistant.
Aluminum, the material Apple used for its iPhone 17 Pro and Max enclosures, is known to be scratch-prone, and the blemishes are especially conspicuous on darker-colored devices. The iPhone 5, released in 2012, received similar complaints from users about scuffs on the black and slate models. The iPhone 17 Pro is offered in three shades, with the deep blue being the darkest.
Early sales across Asia showed strong demand for the iPhone Pro models
Early sales across Asia showed strong demand for the Pro models. In Hong Kong, a small crowd assembled at Apple’s flagship store to check out the new handsets, but stock for walk-in purchases was limited only to the new iPhone Air. Anyone wanting to purchase an iPhone 17 or Pro edition was directed to order online, where Apple indicated wait times of roughly three weeks.
Australia, New Zealand, mainland China, and Singapore’s Apple stores showed similar shipping times, with the iPhone 17 Pro Max wait extending to as long as four weeks. In South Korea, the 17 Pro could be had within a week whereas the Pro Max was marked as unavailable until late October. This excitement among people for iPhone 17 phones is great news for Apple who is struggling in the race with rivals to launch AI features.
