iPhone 5 Concerns - Long Post (combined)

I have had a few problems with my new AT&T iPhone 5 6gGB and I am continuing to experience abnormalties.

1. The first iphone 5 I owned had a very serious rattle, the apple store keyboard login problem, and data leakage. I had to keep it for a few weeks because they had no replacements at the time. So I was told. Employee who should not be named, dropped the box while I was watching and said it would be okay. This was not a loose battery rattle, but the Apple store employees breaking out in dance type of rattle when shaking my phone - seriously the used it as a Maracca. It was definately confirmed that it was not the battery, the camera lens suspended by magnets, or the power button. All issues were reproducible in the store. I went through 5Gb of data in 2 weeks with this phone. Thanks for the warnings AT&T,

2. Got a new phone, had the camera issue (purple haze - didn't bother me that much since I don't take photos while staring into the sun or in direct light), got no LTE/4G signal at all when I connected to wifi. Phone would say "no signal" and there were zero bars. This is a problem. Funny thing is, when I turned off wifi; it would temporarily give me full bars and then drop back off. I could not make calls during this time. Reset, restored the phone as new, and after having no luck, returned the phone to the Apple store. I got a replacment phone after the genius bar ran diagnostics and apparently found what I found.

2. Now with this being my 3rd Iphone 5. I have done a little more research into my issues.

My iphone as well as everyone i've talked too have tried and tested a theory that the phone cannot connect to LTE while on a phone call. This was also given to me in blunt language by AT&T. I was told that I shouldn't expect the phone to stay connected to LTE while on a phone call because the network and phone will not allow it. I must be mistaken, because the first iPhone I had did not take an excess of 40 seconds to perform a search for www.google.com. It was connected to LTE while using Apple maps and I was talking on the phone. Irony I know. I sent them my speed test results and I was told 0.60 mbps was normal for 4g and there were no outages. It was a little low said the rep, but still within range. This was tested a few times, with AT&T having me reset connections, restore the phone, etc before I was told that this is normal for all phones on the network. It takes me more than 30 seconds to load a map across town on LTE if i'm on the phone. This is unacceptable in my opion. I bought the phone for its capability to multitask, not be neutered by some unknown changes.

ℹ Below are my recent tests while testing this theory. The results really go from bottom to top. The 22.84 mbps down is while not on a call. All results up to the 10.13 mbps and 9.12. mpbs are after I got off the phone with AT&T and reset my network settings. It took 3 resets to get LTE to reconnect in which I got the awesome, but temporary 54.61 mbps down. My average results are normally 20-30 mpbs down and around 20 mpbs up (attached below). This is all while sitting stationary in a parking lot in between 3 AT&T antenna's. I checked because the rep originally told me that they had a tower down near me. If you look closely, I got 0 upload several times and this is just "googling" google. Attempted to connect a few times to the app store and got "app store not available" message. I'm not sure what AT&T/Apple has done but I didn't really have a problem loading maps while on the phone on my iphone 4. Nor on my first -broken iphone 5. It was actually a bragging point for a while. I'm saying Apple too because this could probably be fixed with a firmware update.

The results really go from bottom to top. The 22.84 mbps down is while not on a call. All results up to the 10.13 mbps and 9.12. mpbs are after I got off the phone with AT&T and reset my network settings. It took 3 resets to get LTE to reconnect in which I got the awesome, but temporary 54.61 mbps down. My average results are normally 20-30 mpbs down and around 20 mpbs up (attached below). This is all while sitting stationary in a parking lot in between 3 AT&T antenna's. I checked because the rep originally told me that they had a tower down near me. If you look closely, I got 0 upload several times and this is just "googling" google. Attempted to connect a few times to the app store and got "app store not available" message. I'm not sure what AT&T/Apple has done but I didn't really have a problem loading maps while on the phone on my iphone 4. Nor on my first -broken iphone 5. It was actually a bragging point for a while. I'm saying Apple too because this could probably be fixed with a firmware update.

ℹ This is my average speed in North Atlanta, GA on LTE

The other issue I noticed was the weight. Although it's still light, it just "felt" different. They gave me a replacement phone wrapped in paper or cardboard and I immediately felt something different about the phone. I asked the Apple store salesman if something was up or if they gave me a Verizon phone and he didn't know any difference. I know the various websites lists the stats at 3.95 oz, but I got something different. My phone weighs in at 3.81 oz. I tested 4 other iphones and they were all 3.7oz. All AT&T with ghost armor and clearcoat and got that same weight. I used stamps.com postal scale and a regular postal scale that was not usb with the same results. I weighed each 3 times and didn't breathe during the test (I'm not a scientist). What is different about my phone than theirs? My phone actually feels different, but I have no idea why. Do any of you?

I noticed another issue when rubbing the phone along the bottom. Where cell antenna 2 meets the unibody, there is a obvious detent in the surface. If you ran your hand along this antenna it was obvious. Even more obvious when I went to get my phone clear- coated. I'm a little nervous about not having anything protecting the phone. This made the detent more obvious because the coating guys could not fill this spot. They immediately recommended I get it checked out before getting it coated, but I told them to do it anyway. I just got the 3rd phone what else could be wrong with it I asked myself. Images below.

ℹ you can stick your fingernail in this separation

Sorry for the picture quality. I had to use the iPad 2 to take the pictures. The other iphone has been erased.

Another issue i've noticed is that the home button seems to get stuck and makes an very audible click/crack noise when it's been sitting for a while. Other iphones make a normal clicking noise - I've also tested this with several of my friends phones. Once you've hit the button about 10 times the sound goes away, but if you let it sit for a while (few hours) the sounds and force it takes to press the button returns. Are any of you experiencing the same problem?

The other problem is the phone was given to me with a scratch. I was first snippy about people complaining about scratches, but once it is seen it can't be unseen. I noticed it, but initially thought it was some crap left over from the little package they gave the phone to me in. At this point, I was getting tired and only looked for very obvious differences as I tried to restore my contacts before leaving the store. I walked away from the Apple store directly to the clear-coat guys. The clear-coat guys are good at pointing out problems, but it was 8:50 PM and the mall closed at 9PM. I was not in a mood at this point. The issue isn't that I could take the phone back, but to see if anyone has the same issues.

Scratches are not that bad, but they are in a spot where I can't cover them without a case. I also have some on the top right edge of the front of the phone. I have been and always have been very careful with my iPhones. My other iphone is still coated and in a case from day one. I haven't even had the chance to put this in a case yet, but I have had it coated which can not cover these scratches. I'm trying to avoid the case right now as I like how thin the phone is without it. I will probably take it back, but not going to be a happy camper.

I have tried several fixes for the "soft" issues I have. I've reset, restored, reset again, set up as new iphone, etc. Nothing really helps the problem. A bug report has been filed- might need to file again. Has anyone experienced any of these issues and what solutions have you had in regards to them? I know there are normally bugs to work out on the first release of any product, but this is slightly exhausting.