Concerns over iPhone 11 surface after early sales surge

Chinese consumers have been storming Apple Inc’s retail stores since the arrival of its flagship iPhone 11 last week, but the first wave of comments pinpoints the gadget’s weakness in overheating and weak signals, media reports and customer reviews at ecommerce sites showed.

Since the arrival of the iPhone 11, Apple’s latest model that’s reportedly more cost-effective, many Chinese customers have splashed out to grab the latest offering of the globally renowned technology company.

However, after days of ownership, many customers have left negative feedback at one Chinese e-commerce site, the Global Times found.

At JD.com’s online marketplace, there were about 300 negative comments on the iPhone 11 posted over a week since preordering began, and these comments mainly focused on overheating and signal weakness.

“The gadget becomes quite hot just after a few minutes of use... I was afraid of an explosion,” an internet user said.

“Overheating is truly a problem, and I was thinking of returning it during the first few days of usage,” a Beijing-based resident surnamed Liu who purchased an iPhone 11 told the Global Times on Monday.

Compared with a battery problem happened to Samsung, the iPhone 11’s issues are more controllable, Jia Mo, an analyst at Canalys, told the Global Times on Monday.

These issues have not influenced Canalys’ forecast for the iPhone 11’s performance in China, but if the situation gets worse, Apple will need to come up with some solutions, Jia said.

However, positive comments were predominant with more than 11,000 positive ratings on JD.com.

Chinese technology bloggers noted the two shortcomings of the iPhone 11, but they also found that the phone is more shock-resistant than its predecessors, according to media reports.

Analysts said the concerns may signal the sales binge for the iPhone 11 will be short-lived.