iPhone 4 Home Button Not Sensitive Anymore

Date:  Aug 20, 2011

We all know iPhone 4 is one of the most popular smartphone.

However, if you love it so much, you tend to use it a lot, that means, you will press that HOME BUTTON a lot.  After about 11-12 months of excessive usage of that HOME BUTTON...

It will become a bit insensitive.  That means, every 100 times you press the button, there may be 10-20 times that the HOME button is not responsive.  So, what do you do?

I am using the iPhone 4 given by my wife which is from Starhub.  It is a $0 iPhone4.

So, today, I asked my wife to bring it back to Starhub @ Vivo.  My wife explains the situation to the receptionist.

The receptionist: "Oh! Don't worry, take this ticket, and wait there, you are the next.  Usually they will do 1-to-1 exchange."

OK.  That could only mean 1 thing.  It is common for this problem.

The service staff: "Oh no!  Your iPhone 4 has justed passed the 1 year warranty period.  You purchased it on Aug 6, 2010".

Oh-No.

The service staff: "If you want to do a 1-for-1 exchange, the cost is S$350."

OK.  They gave us an option.  Without thinking, we just ask them to go ahead to make the changes.  We also asked if this is a common problem?

The service staff: "Actually, it is a common problem.  So, we have lots of people come and do 1-for-1 exchange within the warranty."

The service staff: "But usually mostly man will come and do the exchange."

My wife explains, it is the husband that is using the phone.  HaHaHaHa LOL.

Here is my thoughts:

1.  Why do I actually pay $350 for a new (may be is refurbished?) iPhone?  Well, last year, I sold away my iPhone 3GS at a price of $600.  So, there is a resell value for iPhone into countries such as Indonesia or Philippines, etc.  But if your phone has dropped few times, that has some scratches on it, and the HOME button is not working that well, I don't think you can fetch $600.  And there is a chance that you cannot sell it.  Since this phone is FOC.  So, just pay the $350 lor.  I can still use it for a couple of month, then, sell it with a higher resell value.

2.  I think this HOME button is a common thing, when I used to own Nokia phones or Sony phones, buttons tend to wear off after 1-2 years of usage, especially when you do a lot of SMS.

3.  No wonder Starhub, SingTel and M1 always claim that the cost of the hardware (i.e. iPhone) is very high.  But have you just look around, and see how many people are using iPhone?  You will be surprise to see the profiles of these users.  hahaha

4.  I am sure M1 and SingTel also have this 1-to-1 exchange policy.  But not sure how hard it is.  To me, Starhub treated it like a common problem, is if like they already buy 2 phones to sell to you and waiting for you to come and claim for the replacement.  :)