Apple’s latest flagship phones, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, are facing criticism over hardware weaknesses and software glitches. The company is being blamed for a design flaw that has made its latest flagship products a “scratch magnet.”

Technology blogger Zack Nelson, known through his JerryRigEverything YouTube channel, posted a video showing how little resistance the iPhone 17 Pro models have against scratches and scuffs. 

“The anodized aluminium does not stick to corners very well,” Nelson explained, adding that Apple knowingly accepted this tradeoff. 

The electrochemical anodizing process cannot cover sharp edges, but the company’s choice not to round them has left devices exposed. “That decision to look cool out of the box is going to plague everyone who owns this phone down the road,” he surmised.

Scratchgate was seen on iPhone 17 demo phones

During launch week, Bloomberg reported that demo units displayed in Apple stores had already shown scratches and scuffs after only a few hours. Deep blue iPhone 17 Pro models and the black iPhone Air appeared to be the most prone to visible damage.

The anodization process finishes the iPhone’s aluminum frame with a hard oxide layer rated 9 out of 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. This layer might resist most environmental wear, but cannot be applied uniformly on sharp edges. 

According to the DIN industrial standard, Apple could have avoided the problem by adding a subtle radius or chamfer to the camera plateau’s corners, making the edges as scratch-resistant as the rest of the device.

On the JerryRigEverything test video, everyday objects like keys or coins scraped off the thin oxide layer. Marks elsewhere on the phone from scratches can be wiped clean, but those on the plateau edges remove the protective coating permanently unless a case shields the device from the outset.

Hardware durability is not the only problem troubling Apple’s new phones. CNN’s Henry Casey reported that the iPhone 17 camera software produces a black square on images under certain lighting conditions. 

Apple confirmed the bug, stating it can occur when an extremely bright LED light shines directly into the camera. The company said it is working on a fix to be released in an upcoming software update, though no timeline has been given.

iOS 26 drains batteries at record pace

Alongside the new iPhones, Apple released its latest operating system update, iOS 26, initially announced at June’s Worldwide Developer Conference. But the rollout has been met with backlash from users who say the update is draining their phone’s battery life.

“Just fully charged my phone 58 minutes ago and it’s already down to 79%,” one customer complained on X, alongside thousands of posts bashing Apple, claiming devices now die within hours of use. 

Among other polarizing changes is the new lock screen clock feature, which activates automatically when the phone is placed sideways in low light. The design shows a large red clock against a black background, a look some have described as “scary” or “evil.”

The update also comes with a “Liquid Glass” design, which makes icons, menus, and pop-ups appear translucent enough to look like frosted glass. While intended to create a dynamic visual effect, naysayers say it makes the interface confusing and unpleasant to use. 

“Liquid glass is a cool effect, but it makes the user experience actively worse. This is a hostile design,” Daniel Shteremberg, founder of the Spiral app, wrote on X after using the update for a week. “I’m the biggest Apple fanboy ever, and even I think they’ve lost their way.”

The iPhone 17 line is also still being mocked over its aesthetics and has been labelled “ugly.” The Apple smartphone debuted in the United States at a starting price of $799 for the base model, while the iPhone 17 Pro began at $1,099. 

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