From memory, Apple has never had a truly clean iPhone launch in recent years. With the iPhone 4 there was the Applegate situation while both the 4 and 4S faced some degree of yellow-tinted displays. While these problems were somewhat rectified by offering everyone a free case or waiting for the display glue to settle, the current issues faced by the iPhone 5 might be more problematic.
Some early adopters of the latest iPhone have found that the anodised aluminium casing is scratch and scuff prone. Other media outlets have speculated that the scuffs may have been caused when workers inserted the display, while the issue has also appeared around the antenna. This comes just days after Apple came under attack for their buggy maps software that has replaced Google Maps in iOS 6.
KitGuru says: It is unclear if this is merely a few isolated cases, if it isn't, Apple could have another Applegate incident on their hands.
I got a new iPhone 5 but it doesn’t look new anymore. Every time I take it out of my empty pocket it scratches it. The cloth from my pants literally scratches my iPhone 5 like crazy. Also I had to cut my fingernails really short because if they even barely touched it it would instantly scratch it. After a few days of handling so incredibly gently, it it looks like it has been through a war. Less than 10 days and it looks 10 years old.