I’m totally not suggesting that you do this yourself but if you’re so very worried about scratching the iPhone 5 and/or a close follower of scuffgate, or whatever they call it these days, know this: stuff scratches. Especially stuff made from aluminum. The iPhone 5 is no different.
Does it suck to have scratches on something brand new that you just spent a lot of money on? Hell yeah it does. But it’s probably not a design flaw—nothing like Antennagate—and the aluminum back doesn’t have the fragile beauty of the iPhone 4 and 4S’ glass back. Swapping shattered glass for possibly scratched aluminum seems like a net positive.
https://gizmodo.com/apple-antennagate-and-why-its-time-to-move-on-5589336
And just look at the video above (which looks like it’s filmed inside an AT&T store and not an Apple Store). That dude goes to town on the iPhone 5 and it holds up surprisingly well, even after some pretty gnarly noises. [@arnoldkim]
