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The iPhone 5 is barely a month old, and almost everyone, present company included, thinks it is the most amazing smartphone on the market. But, it’s not perfect (that’s what updates are for), and Apple’s Support Community has been lighting up with not-isolated issues affecting all matter of functionality on the iPhone 5.
The top 6 iPhone 5 gripes from Apple’s support forums:
1. Date and time
The above issue, regarding iPhone 5 dates and times randomly changing, largely seems to primarily affect Verizon users. One support forum member (Rockyrikoko) even reported the same problem having occurred for Verizon’s Droid devices. The same member later claimed Apple engineers told him/her: “Issues with time provided over the air from Verizon will ultimately be for the carrier to address.” A quick skim through over a dozen pages revealed that —to this date— there has been no quick fix from Apple or Verizon and many users are still manually setting their clocks.
Check out the full thread: iPhone 5 time and date issues
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2. Lightning cable charging
Many support forum members reported that Lightning cables less than a day old failed to sync and charge. No answer seemed to surface as to what caused the issue, but many claimed to get a full replacement with no hassle. These are actually “smart” cables with embedded chips inside, so they tend to open more points of failure where the previous 30-pin cables were just direct leads that could only be hampered by a short circuit.
Check out the full thread: Lightning cable that came with iPhone 5 won’t charge
3. Wi-Fi
As seen above, one three-hour-old iPhone 5 could not connect to Wi-Fi. Over 1,000 comments in the thread responded to the original poster, with many claiming to have gone to Apple and resolved the issue with a brief restore, but one user (Louis Trapani) said he also needed to reload iOS 6 to resolve the matter. Despite hundreds of quick-fixes reported, many forum members are still experiencing hiccups when attempting to receive data from a Wi-Fi network. One user even wrote to 9to5Mac:
Mine keeps losing connection to WiFi constantly and with crawling .2 to .5 mbs download speeds. It is a hit and miss. While at the Apple Store meeting with Genius Bar… the wifi continued to act up in the presence of the rep with wifi bars changing from 3 bars down to 1.
The rep came back shortly and advised that apple engineers will not need my iphone to isoloate the problem and that they have numerous iphones already with similar problems. Unfortunately they did not have my model of iphone 5 and gave me a 3 to 5 day waiting period for a replacement to arrive being that the 64g is not as common as the 32 or 16.
Check out the full thread: iPhone 5 wifi issues
4. Reception issues:
Within the first day of launching, the above post surfaced and indicated the Verizon iPhone 5 suffered from reception issues when toggled from 3G to LTE. Over 200 replies ensued, many with similar complaints, including from Canadian-based iPhone users not on Verizon’s network. One of the last responders in the thread (Pete boston) apparently conducted an AT&T versus Verizon comparison test while in Time Square of New York City. He called the iPhone 5′s performance “horrific” when not sitting next to a cell tower. However, as a Manhattan dweller myself, I will concede that reception severely lacks in busy touristy areas for all networks and mobile devices.
Check out the full thread: iPhone 5 lte signal/reception problem
5. Digitized voice sounds
The above support forum member reported experiencing “bad phone quality” with the iPhone 5 just a few days after it launched. The user went to Apple and replaced the smartphone, but Apple did not exchange the SIM card. “It seems to be working well now, with some minor voice glitches here and there,” the member explained. “I just chalk that up to the cellular network I guess.” Over 100 people weighed in on the thread, however, and attributed the poor sounds, which some suggested were digitized in nature, to LTE. Disabling LTE in settings appears to alleviate any call quality issues.
Check out the full thread: iPhone 5 bad call voice quality
6. Battery life
For one particular support forum member, as seen above, a day-old iPhone 5′s battery seemed to drain much quicker than older-generation iPhones. A slew of follow-up responses indicated a similar issue, with another member (Bellatone) citing a 1-percent battery loss every two minutes while in use. The original poster eventually said Apple began to conduct a 48-hour diagnostic test to monitor battery issues, and others later mentioned similar situations, with a general conclusion that Apple is “trying to resolve” the matter. Fortunately, for Apple, there were just as many members in the thread experiencing a superb battery life.
Check out the full thread: Why is my iPhone5 battery draining so fast, worse than my iphone4?
