Dust under camera lens and camera not performing well

Ekaterinas2014

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Hi,
I recently switched from 7+ to 8+ (my husband is using my 7+now). I had no issues whatsoever with my 7plus. Wonderful camera... used like a main everyday camera to take pics of my kids, so many great pics captured.
Then I got the 8+ as a birthday present sim free from carphone warehouse (this is a mistake lol).
It had multiple issues, including few dust specs under the camera glass, weird clicking electronic noise when typing a message and when listening to music without a headphones. And the picture quality was really bad. I can't explain it in the professional terms, but its often out of focus, overexposed, there is no sharpness or clarity. I have been so unpleasantly surprised by this fact.
I got this phone exchanged by apple genius. He agreed that picture quality is not where it shoud be and that noise is not ok. He found no faults in software. Exchange unit is a refurb one in white envelope. I came back home to discover that it has much much more dust under the camera glass (both cameras). Picture quality is a bit better, but still not great.
I feel like I downgraded. My 7 plus doesn't have any dust in there, and pictures amazed me from the day 1.
Do I go back to the apple store? Will they open my (refurb) phone to repair it and to put even more dust there? lol
This is the first time ever I exchange phones, and I had 5, 5s, so, 6, 6s plus, 7plus...
Any advice? I guess at this point I just want a dust free device.
P.S. I have applecare+ too, if it makes any difference.
UPDATE
I passed the apple store this afternoon 1 hour before closing and they were able to see me in genius bar in 20 minutes. Good customer service like usual. I got my phone exchanged within 5 minutes with no questions asked (the genius guy saw the big dust particle), and guess what... I inspected the camera at home and there's dust lol, albeit less than before. I am so tired of this replacement game, and I am not coming back for another replacement. There is no point... While waiting I observed lots of X and 8+ with dust under there. Weirdly enough camera perforing better than the previous iphone or may be its just my imagination. Thank you for your replies!
 
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Just_Me_D

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Hi,
I recently switched from 7+ to 8+ (my husband is using my 7+now). I had no issues whatsoever with my 7plus. Wonderful camera... used like a main everyday camera to take pics of my kids, so many great pics captured.
Then I got the 8+ as a birthday present sim free from carphone warehouse (this is a mistake lol).
It had multiple issues, including few dust specs under the camera glass, weird clicking electronic noise when typing a message and when listening to music without a headphones. And the picture quality was really bad. I can't explain it in the professional terms, but its often out of focus, overexposed, there is no sharpness or clarity. I have been so unpleasantly surprised by this fact.
I got this phone exchanged by apple genius. He agreed that picture quality is not where it shoud be and that noise is not ok. He found no faults in software. Exchange unit is a refurb one in white envelope. I came back home to discover that it has much much more dust under the camera glass (both cameras). Picture quality is a bit better, but still not great.
I feel like I downgraded. My 7 plus doesn't have any dust in there, and pictures amazed me from the day 1.
Do I go back to the apple store? Will they open my (refurb) phone to repair it and to put even more dust there? lol
This is the first time ever I exchange phones, and I had 5, 5s, so, 6, 6s plus, 7plus...
Any advice? I guess at this point I just want a dust free device.
P.S. I have applecare+ too, if it makes any difference.
All I can tell you is for you to do what you think you should do. I don't know if you're one of those people who are OCD to the max or not. I mean, there are people out there who see things on their devices that not even a microscope can detect. With that in mind, I'll again recommend that you do what you think you should do. Take care and enjoy the remainder of your weekend.
 

msm0511

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May 6, 2009
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Hi,
I recently switched from 7+ to 8+ (my husband is using my 7+now). I had no issues whatsoever with my 7plus. Wonderful camera... used like a main everyday camera to take pics of my kids, so many great pics captured.
Then I got the 8+ as a birthday present sim free from carphone warehouse (this is a mistake lol).
It had multiple issues, including few dust specs under the camera glass, weird clicking electronic noise when typing a message and when listening to music without a headphones. And the picture quality was really bad. I can't explain it in the professional terms, but its often out of focus, overexposed, there is no sharpness or clarity. I have been so unpleasantly surprised by this fact.
I got this phone exchanged by apple genius. He agreed that picture quality is not where it shoud be and that noise is not ok. He found no faults in software. Exchange unit is a refurb one in white envelope. I came back home to discover that it has much much more dust under the camera glass (both cameras). Picture quality is a bit better, but still not great.
I feel like I downgraded. My 7 plus doesn't have any dust in there, and pictures amazed me from the day 1.
Do I go back to the apple store? Will they open my (refurb) phone to repair it and to put even more dust there? lol
This is the first time ever I exchange phones, and I had 5, 5s, so, 6, 6s plus, 7plus...
Any advice? I guess at this point I just want a dust free device.
P.S. I have applecare+ too, if it makes any difference.

If Apple finds that there is an issue because of the dust they will most likely replace it with another refurb. Apple does things like screen and battery replacements in store, but they usually don't do those kinds of repairs in store.
 

Garz

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Dust in camera lense on the 8’s and X has been a huge problem this year. Both and my wife’s has it. I got a pretty big piece of lint. It’s such a big problem, I haven’t bothered to swap because I’ll likely get lint or dust in my next lense too. Very poor quality control on cameras this year.
 

Ekaterinas2014

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All I can tell you is for you to do what you think you should do. I don't know if you're one of those people who are OCD to the max or not. I mean, there are people out there who see things on their devices that not even a microscope can detect. With that in mind, I'll again recommend that you do what you think you should do. Take care and enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Hi there
I am actually quite anxious person... And I rely on my iphone like a primary device to capture the memories of my kids growing. But at this point I better will concentrate on my kids than a dust particles lol
I updated my post
I am not coming back for the perfect dust free device :D
 

Ekaterinas2014

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Dust in camera lense on the 8’s and X has been a huge problem this year. Both and my wife’s has it. I got a pretty big piece of lint. It’s such a big problem, I haven’t bothered to swap because I’ll likely get lint or dust in my next lense too. Very poor quality control on cameras this year.

Three devices passed through my hands in the last few weeks and all of them are having dust under the camera glass
There is no point in replacements
 

Just_Me_D

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Hi there
I am actually quite anxious person... And I rely on my iphone like a primary device to capture the memories of my kids growing. But at this point I better will concentrate on my kids than a dust particles lol
I updated my post
I am not coming back for the perfect dust free device :D

(Laughing)....When my kids were younger, I was almost constantly taking photos of them so I understand.
 

Wotchered

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I think that every single person who feels that they have a dust issue should report it to Apple as a complaint, this can only be caused by unsuitable assembly conditions or dirty parts storage. This will only be fixed if enough people make a fuss about it!! These devices cost so much that there is really no excuse for crud in your phone or any other assembly problems,and I feel that any attempt to downplay the situation only excuses bad practice.
 

Lee_Bo

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You would also think that if these many people went back to the Apple Store with dust issues and these issues were verified by the Apple employees, they (the employees) would be reporting that directly back to Apple.
 

Ledsteplin

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You would also think that if these many people went back to the Apple Store with dust issues and these issues were verified by the Apple employees, they (the employees) would be reporting that directly back to Apple.

How many are "these many"? I'm guessing most average users don't inspect their camera lens that close, unless they detect obstruction in photos. We see reports here on the forums, but I'm guessing it's not as many in the wild as one would think. Do they get enough complaints to warrant changes? Guess we'll find out.
 

Sherry_B

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Out of the millions of iPhones sold, I can't image that "these many" could be that many. I've never once looked at my camera lens to see if there's dust on the inside. Now if the photos were coming out with something blurry on them, then I'd complain.
 

msm0511

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How many are "these many"? I'm guessing most average users don't inspect their camera lens that close, unless they detect obstruction in photos. We see reports here on the forums, but I'm guessing it's not as many in the wild as one would think. Do they get enough complaints to warrant changes? Guess we'll find out.

I can't remember which iPhone it was, but there was a thread about the front facing camera shifting until it wasn't aligned properly and causing issues with photos. I'd never looked close enough at mine until reading that thread. I looked and mine was misaligned as well. It wasn't enough that it affected my photos, so I went on with life. I agree, most people don't inspect their phones until it affects their photos. So the general consumer would probably never even notice a speck of lint or dust on the back of their phone.
 

TurdRon_FergusonBurgundy

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Hi,
I recently switched from 7+ to 8+ (my husband is using my 7+now). I had no issues whatsoever with my 7plus. Wonderful camera... used like a main everyday camera to take pics of my kids, so many great pics captured.
Then I got the 8+ as a birthday present sim free from carphone warehouse (this is a mistake lol).
It had multiple issues, including few dust specs under the camera glass, weird clicking electronic noise when typing a message and when listening to music without a headphones. And the picture quality was really bad. I can't explain it in the professional terms, but its often out of focus, overexposed, there is no sharpness or clarity. I have been so unpleasantly surprised by this fact.
I got this phone exchanged by apple genius. He agreed that picture quality is not where it shoud be and that noise is not ok. He found no faults in software. Exchange unit is a refurb one in white envelope. I came back home to discover that it has much much more dust under the camera glass (both cameras). Picture quality is a bit better, but still not great.
I feel like I downgraded. My 7 plus doesn't have any dust in there, and pictures amazed me from the day 1.
Do I go back to the apple store? Will they open my (refurb) phone to repair it and to put even more dust there? lol
This is the first time ever I exchange phones, and I had 5, 5s, so, 6, 6s plus, 7plus...
Any advice? I guess at this point I just want a dust free device.
P.S. I have applecare+ too, if it makes any difference.
UPDATE
I passed the apple store this afternoon 1 hour before closing and they were able to see me in genius bar in 20 minutes. Good customer service like usual. I got my phone exchanged within 5 minutes with no questions asked (the genius guy saw the big dust particle), and guess what... I inspected the camera at home and there's dust lol, albeit less than before. I am so tired of this replacement game, and I am not coming back for another replacement. There is no point... While waiting I observed lots of X and 8+ with dust under there. Weirdly enough camera perforing better than the previous iphone or may be its just my imagination. Thank you for your replies!

Any photos of it? You must have horrible luck, I believe I read somewhere the 8 Plus failure/return rate is 3%. Along with the X, this is the lowest among any other iPhone's ever. Not to say these issues don't surface, tech is tech, but three straight phones with dust under the camera? Strikes me as odd and if to be true, as stated, your luck is incredibly horrible. May be best to just get another 7 Plus, doesn't sound like an 8 Plus is in your cards
 

alexrat1996

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Any photos of it? You must have horrible luck, I believe I read somewhere the 8 Plus failure/return rate is 3%. Along with the X, this is the lowest among any other iPhone's ever. Not to say these issues don't surface, tech is tech, but three straight phones with dust under the camera? Strikes me as odd and if to be true, as stated, your luck is incredibly horrible. May be best to just get another 7 Plus, doesn't sound like an 8 Plus is in your cards


Try a micro fiber cloth first if not then go to apple store.