How do white iPhones look after a year of use?

April 10, 2012 4:39 PM

Has anyone had a white iPhone for at least a year or so? They look so pretty in the ads. I wonder how they hold up in real life.

I'm thinking of my now two-year old black iPhone, which except for a few scratches on the back of the casing looks like new.

I'm not overly fussy, but I'd be embarrassed if my phone started to look visibly dirty and I wasn't able to clean it. Some have said that body oils cause grime to build up in crevices on the sides or around the home button.

posted by bchaplin to computers & internet (17 answers total)

8 months and looks the same as the day I got it. I remember being worried - but it's great. iPad is 18 months old and great too. I'm ridiculously hard on them too; definitely not as careful as I should be.
posted by crankyrogalsky at 4:43 PM on April 10, 2012

I've only had mine since October (since it's a 4gs) but it looks just like it did six months ago.

I would think if stuff got in the cracks it would be just as bad a problem for a black phone. On either one, the surfaces you touch are transparent, and having schmutz stuck under the glass would show up against a black surface too.

I have pretty greasy hands. If I don't clean my keyboard pretty often it gets really gross.
posted by aubilenon at 4:45 PM on April 10, 2012

Get an Otterbox and put it on the phone in the store or out in the parking lot, right after you've bought it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:54 PM on April 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Had mine one year now and it still looks very white. The white Mac Book I am currently typing on looks gross as hell so I say go for it.
posted by murrey at 4:57 PM on April 10, 2012

I've had a white 4S since November and it doesn't show signs of staining. I have to stress that unlike the 3GS where the white part is white plastic that could stain, on the 4s the white is actually glass where the back has been coated with the white material. So to stain the phone you would either have to stain the glass or break through to the actual white material.
posted by Mercaptan at 5:11 PM on April 10, 2012

Mine looks beautiful.
posted by Bunglegirl at 5:13 PM on April 10, 2012

I have a white 3GS that still looks great. Not sure how similar the plastic is on the 4(S).
posted by backwards guitar at 5:14 PM on April 10, 2012

The iPhones are glass, so they're not going to stain (unlike my white MacBook, ugh).
posted by radioamy at 5:26 PM on April 10, 2012

The wrapper I have around mine looks dingy, but the phone is still white as the day I bought it.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:27 PM on April 10, 2012

The very thin bezel around the glass is plastic, so it'd have the potential for staining, but mine is as white as the day I got it in October (I have a brand new one to compare it to, and I can tell no difference whatsoever).
posted by zsazsa at 5:34 PM on April 10, 2012

Thanks for the answers! This is encouraging. I try to take care of my things, but I wouldn't want to have to worry about it too much -- after all, it is supposed to be functional as well as pretty.
posted by bchaplin at 5:53 PM on April 10, 2012

We have a first generation white iPhone that is now the kids' plaything, and it still looks fine. But it's been in a case.
posted by leahwrenn at 5:58 PM on April 10, 2012

Wifey's 4GS looks like the day she got it for Christmas. As for the phone itself, the thing seems to reflect how well the owner cares for themselves and their stuff. You should do pretty good.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:08 PM on April 10, 2012

White iPhone 4S and iPad still look new. I did put a slider case on the phone and a clear case on the back of the ipad but there's still plenty of area not covered. Like everyone else has said, the white part is actually covered with glass.
posted by tamitang at 9:38 PM on April 10, 2012

The glass protects the colored plastic just fine regardless. It's the aluminum bits that get scratched up over time. Well, and the glass shatters.
posted by chairface at 11:44 PM on April 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

My white 4S looks looks brand new still, 11 months later. (Mine goes in and out of a case, has been dropped a few times, and has no screen protector.)
posted by sm1tten at 6:52 AM on April 11, 2012

Whilst the white 4 and 4S won't stain on the glass, the corners and edge of the front and back panels are unprotected white plastic that could potentially stain from indigo from blue jeans or something. You can see the bit that might stain here. I had to put mine in a case to stop the edges from going blue.
posted by blaisedell at 1:04 PM on April 11, 2012