The iPhone 17 Professional may scratch simpler than a lottery ticket

After being revealed by Apple at its “Awe dropping” keynote occasion earlier this month, the iPhone 17 series formally began transport final week, and Apple’s brand-new iPhones are formally within the wild now for folks to check and bend to the limits, actually.

Naturally, inside hours of the iPhone 17 collection launching final Friday, a discovery was made somewhat rapidly in regards to the construct high quality of the brand new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max: it is extra prone to scratching.

Guests to Apple Shops rapidly observed that scratches have been already seen on demo models of the brand new iPhone 17 Professional, particularly on the deep blue shade, which showcased scratches essentially the most (by way of Bloomberg). The cosmic orange and silver colours additionally exhibited comparable points. On social media, pictures of the scratches unfold like wildfire, elevating issues in regards to the scratch resistance of the iPhone 17 Professional in comparison with final yr’s iPhone 16 Professional. Some folks have already begun coining the controversy as “scratchgate.”

Why is the iPhone 17 Professional scratching so simply?

You’ll be able to thank aluminum for that

In the event you’re questioning why the iPhone 17 Professional could be extra susceptible to scratches than earlier Professional iPhone fashions, it is doubtless because of its new unibody aluminum design. The iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional have been each made from titanium with glass backs, whereas the iPhone 17 Professional is fully an aluminum design with a piece of glass on the again for wi-fi charging, which is why the again of the machine has two shade tones (as seen within the picture above). Aluminum is well-known for being extra prone to scratches than titanium, therefore why this concern is simply cropping up now.

JerryRigEverything, a YouTuber well-known for testing smartphone sturdiness, found that the iPhone 17 Professional’s digicam plateau was extra prone to scuffs than wherever else on the telephone, because of how the coloured aluminum oxide layer from the anodization course of does not adhere properly to sharp corners. You’ll be able to see an instance of this under from a submit on X, the place you possibly can see the perimeters of the digicam plateau of the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Professional scratched off.

Nevertheless, it is now all dangerous information for the iPhone 17 Professional. On Instagram, JerryRigEveryThing posted a photograph of his deep blue iPhone 17 Professional laden with scratches, saying: “Enjoyable truth: 99% of the ‘scratches’ you see on this image is simply mud from coin and keys I used to make the marks. It would all utterly rub off.” So, scratchgate is not essentially the top of the world for Apple’s new iPhone, and a few scratches and the mud from them may simply simply wipe away.

Regardless of among the scratches with the ability to wiped away, that does not imply folks aren’t justifiably involved about their shiny new $1,000 iPhone immediately having a nasty-looking scratch on it, or the colour chipping off. This concern jogs my memory a number of the MacBook, which additionally has a unibody aluminum design. In the event you get a scratch on it, you possibly can often wipe it away, however typically the paint does chip close to USB ports, comparable to what’s taking place on the iPhone 17 Professional’s digicam plateau.

The simplest solution to stop this from taking place is just by placing a case on the iPhone 17 Professional, and there is a good probability many individuals who spent a $1,000 or extra on their new iPhone have already performed this. For individuals who select to make use of the iPhone 17 Professional with out a case, it is vital to pay attention to the scratch danger.

After seeing scratchgate unfold over the weekend, when my deep blue iPhone 17 Professional Max arrived within the mail, I instantly went to the closest Apple Retailer and bought a display protector and a case. In my opinion, it is all the time higher to be secure than sorry, even with Apple’s new Ceramic Shield 2 supposedly defending the telephone higher. Apple hasn’t formally commented on scratchgate, however it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if it ever addresses it.

In the event you purchased an iPhone 17 Professional, tell us within the feedback under how your telephone is holding up thus far.