S7 and S7 Edge Home Button Scratch Gate!

[FoxKat]

Love ya Foxy but I think your a bit outta yo mind with the "microscopic abrasives" trapped in the grooves of your thumb being anywhere close to a possible cause of a damaged home button.

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You may think so, but next time you are out for the day and haven't washed your hands, task a cheap pair of sunglasses that you don't mind destroying, make sure the lenses are clean, and then just rub them with your fingers and watch the scratches appear. Glass is glass, and most glass has a Mohs hardness of between 5 & 6. Dirt that collects on your fingers as you touch surfaces in your travels (railings, door handles, car steering wheel, etc.) can contain what was once airborne fine powdered stone dust kicked up by car tires and the wind. The dust is similar to powdered abrasives used to polish glass and is higher on the Mohs scale than glad so it causes scratches. The oils on your fingers tap that dust and fine particulates and create a perfect opportunity to scratch glass.

I've even at times tried to remove a tiny bit of gunk from my phone's screen with my finger by rubbing it, only to see after that I'd created scratches. I no longer rub stuff off of the glass and instead opt for a glass cleaner and microfiber cloth to remove it. If you ever get the chance to see your finger to under a microscope you'll see the dirty gunk in referring to. An easier way to see it as to take notice of the color of the soapy water you rinse off your hands when you wash them. If they weren't dirty the water and soap should be clear to white.

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[PereDroid]

Sorry man. Not buying it. If there is something in the groove of your finger capable of scratching glass....you'd feel it.

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[FoxKat]

Sorry man. Not buying it. If there is something in the groove of your finger capable of scratching glass....you'd feel it.

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Look, I'm not talking about something big enough to see or feel. Abrasives coarse enough to make visible scratches on glass are still fine enough to be unable to see or feel with your fingers.

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[PereDroid]

Look, dude, I'm not buying it.
Any particle capable of leaving VISIBLE scratches on glass will be felt.
Let's do some science, bro. Wait til I get home.

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[PereDroid]

Oil on your fingers is very destructive. No question.

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[FoxKat]

You know, I haven't heard anywhere for sure that the button is covered in glass. It looks to me like a hard polymer with a coating of perhaps acrylic over the pattern squares. Since obviously plastic (acrylic or polymer), is now where near as hard as glass, it would be far more susceptible to scratches and by even softer materials than glass. It also means that the harder abrasives will do even more damage.

And if it is plastic or acrylic finger oils can possibly contribute to softening of the surface and therefore making it easier to scratch as well.

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[Preach2k]

My daughter's S6 does not have that issue with the Home button and so far my oldest daughter's S7 have not had that issue as of yet?

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[FoxKat]

That's good news. Perhaps it's just buttons sources from certain manufacturers. Typically manufacturers will have several sources for key components, or several locations of their own manufacture and there can be problems with one or another that result in certain batches of the finished product.

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[FoxKat]

Look, dude, I'm not buying it.
Any particle capable of leaving VISIBLE scratches on glass will be felt.
Let's do some science, bro. Wait til I get home.

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I vehemently (and respectfully), disagree. The actual size (width and depth), of scratches will appear far larger and more obvious than they actually are. The thickness of those scratches are in the tens to hundreds of microns across, but because our eyes are very sensitive to light when the glass is held just right the reflection of the light on the scratch makes it look far more severe.

I've seen scratches that appear nasty but you can't barely even feel them with your fingernail.

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[PereDroid]

Well we are going to have to agree to disagree, my friend. Friends do that sometimes.

 

[TisMyDroid]

I vehemently (and respectfully), disagree. The actual size (width and depth), of scratches will appear far larger and more obvious than they actually are. The thickness of those scratches are in the tens to hundreds of microns across, but because our eyes are very sensitive to light when the glass is held just right the reflection of the light on the scratch makes it look far more severe.

I've seen scratches that appear nasty but you can't barely even feel them with your fingernail.

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I have to agree. I've had scratches on my screens before that you could not feel but you could easily see.

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[PereDroid]

That's not really the debate here.
Pere: Microscopic particles will not scratch Gorilla Glass
Foxy: Yes they will.

 

[TisMyDroid]

That's not really the debate here.
Pere: Microscopic particles will not scratch Gorilla Glass
Foxy: Yes they will.

Oh, misunderstood the debate. I can't attest to what or how microscopic they were that caused the scratches on my screens. Only that I've had scratches I could see and not feel. My Maxx, my Droid M and my Note 3 all ended up with a faint scratch or two that irritated the bejeebers out of me to see them but couldn't feel them. no idea what caused them.

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[FoxKat]

I have to agree. I've had scratches on my screens before that you could not feel but you could easily see.

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Exactly, and so if you can't feel the scratches then you would almost assuredly not be able to feel the abrasive that caused that scratch.

I've used a product called Rareox which is a superfine powder of oxidized cerium, a soft, ductile metal element (Ce), number 58 on the atomic chart. This powder mineral is one used by glass cutters to polish smooth the rough cut edges of glass. There are a wide variety of such powdered polishes used by the glass industry with varying levels of abrasiveness for this purpose. To feel it in your fingers you would think you were feeling talcum powder or flower, yet it is an abrasive and readily leaves easily visible scratches on glass.

The way it's used is to create a paste or slurry by mixing with water, and then through a long and arduous process with buffer wheels at varying speeds, this paste is ground onto the glass until the surface comes up smooth and free of any visible scratches. I once had a car side window that had a scuff on it, and although the scuff appeared as a frosting of the glass it was so fine you couldn't feel it. Using Rareox and with much elbow grease it took me several hours to buff that glass to the point that it was clear. Initially it actually made the scuff look worse but eventually it gradually started clearing up and a few hours later you couldn't tell it was ever scuffed.

Scratches on glass can be so fine that if measured they would be perhaps only a few thousandths of a hair's width across, but with light cast across them, they look far more ominous. It's these so-called hairline scratches that I'm referring to, the greatest portion of scratches most experience which are caused my abrasives trapped on your fingertips, and which are fine enough that you can't even feel the abrasive.

An article that PC747 linked in a thread actually describes that airborne particulates, fragments of sand and such, which are so fine you can't see them are perhaps the greatest cause of these fine superficial scratches on glass screens. A quote in that article, with the source being Corning Glass, states this;

"The sand that makes up a substantial portion of household dust is quartz, with a Mohs hardness of 7, which will certainly scratch anything with a Mohs hardness of 6 or less."
Revisiting Old Solutions to Gorilla Glass 5's Current Problems

Since glass is a Mohs of 5-6, dust will scratch glass easily.

I am suggesting that similar superfine abrasive particulates like this dust as described are attracted to, adhere to and are trapped in your fingerprints are also the culprit in these superficial scratches.

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[Wolveslovemee]

I have a similar problem with my Edge s7 also. Less than 4 weeks of use, I notice that my home button has what looks like the paint peeled off. It looks as if there was an air bubble underneath whatever they use for the home button and simply just the act of using the home button lifted the paint off. Unbelievable.

I bought my phone at AT&T originally, so I went back to show them and they said I needed to contact Samsung. After some rigorous exchanges on why I felt they should handle it, a very nice employee there called Samsung with me to confirm the phone was in 100% perfect condition besides the home button. After the rep from AT&T confirming to the man on the line that the phone was not damaged in any way - they said they would take a look at it and sent me a pre paid label.

Im wondering if anyone here has tried to return their phones to Samsung headquarters for this issue? Was your phone under warranty?