Re: HTC One (M8): Camera lens cover issue
My two cents -
I got my AT&T M8 3 days after it was officially announced, so I've had it for roughly 3 months or so. It was immediately placed into an OtterBox Commuter Series case, and I have babied this thing since I got it. I routinely take the phone out of the case to wash the case and give the phone a quick wipe down to remove all the dust and dirt that can work it's way between the case and the phone. The only thing I have EVER used to wipe off the cameras on my phones is some kind of microfiber cloth designed to for use on lenses or glasses. As I said, I'm pretty careful with my phones. Almost immediately, I noticed some tiny scratches on the cover over the main camera housing. I remember thinking at the time, "Huh... that's weird. I have no clue how those could have gotten there. I hope it doesn't get any worse."
Well... since this thread currently has 15 pages and I'm writing on it, I bet you can guess what happened.
As of today, the scratches are so bad that I, like many others in this thread, have blurry photos. I plan on utilizing the method described multiple times in this thread as a "fix". Seems to solve the problem. I do, however, have a few thoughts/things I've discovered...
1) HTC has a REAL problem on their hands. This is a major design flaw, and the thousands of posts across multiple websites and forums describing this exact problem should tell them that this isn't just a couple isolated incidents caused by people who are rough on their phones.
2) The cover over the camera housing is PLASTIC. I repeat - PLASTIC. It is NOT glass. I challenge any of you who think the cover over the camera housing is glass to do this simple easy test - Hold the phone so that some light source is reflecting off of it. Now, gently push down on the center of the cover with something that won't scratch it (fingernail, pencil eraser, old Palm stylus, etc.) You will see the cover bend. Sorry, kids, but a piece of glass that small doesn't bend. The fact the HTC used plastic here is just sad.
3) HTC put some kind of weird coating on said plastic. I don't know if it is anti-glare, polarizing, or what... but THAT is what is getting scratched. Based on reading many posts and my own fiddling, if you can get the coating off, the problem is "fixed". For how to fix it, refer to the many posts on here that detail what works.
4) I will NOT be sending my phone back to HTC for a repair or replacement. Why? So I can be phoneless for weeks and they can put a new cover on my phone that has the exact same issues and I will be right back where I am in another 3 months? Sorry, no thanks. Until HTC makes some kind of official admission of their MAJOR mistake and offers to fix all of these phones with a re-engineered cover made of glass, this problem will just keep happening over and over. I will also not be bothering AT&T with any of this. It's not their fault in any way.
5) I noticed that there are very few scratches on my smaller secondary camera cover, which might seem odd. This is easily explained. I have a habit of giving my camera a quick wipe with my lens cloth before I use it, as I have convinced myself that fingerprints will yield blurry shots. In the OtterBox case, this is easy to do to the main camera, not so much to the secondary camera. So, I only wipe the main camera. 3 months of this has resulted in scratches all over the main, very few on the secondary. However, I am noticing some small scratches on the secondary cover now. Wonder how long it is until that one is unusable???
Sorry for the long post, but I, like others, did a google search for "htc m8 camera scratch" and I was stunned at how many people are having this issue. I felt compelled to let people know what I have experienced. If I repeated other posts, I apologize. There's 15 pages of this just on this forum alone, and I couldn't read every one. Hope some of this helps. And I sincerely hope HTC does the right thing sooner rather than later and admits their mistake and promises to make things right with their customers. They better not be like Apple was when they had the major antenna issue and pretended like it wasn't there. Apple can get away with treating their customers like crap, HTC cannot. They need to address this now.