Backglass too fragile on iphone 16pro

Not trying to burst your bubble, but those aren't scratches. The back glass is cracked and you can clearly see the impact. When glass hits a hard surface at the right angle, it can break. There is no glass, which can't break. $200 is what Apple Charges to replace the back of iPhones when the glass is broken. With an impact like that, it could easily have damaged the camera too.

Had your phone been in a good protective case, this likely wouldn't have happened. Personally, I would never have my more than $1000 iPhone unprotected.

There isn’t anything to escalate. The damage has to be repaired first (Apple is not going to try and do anything with it damaged and risk additional damages. Imagine a customer demanding they fix it for free if more damage occurred because it wasn’t as damaged at first. Plus there is no way to determine if the drop is indeed a contributing factor to the camera if the damage isn’t repaired first. After all…it was a drop and impact). Unfortunately if you want the camera issue addressed you are going to have to pay for the back glass repair. As already mentioned if you can go to an actual Apple Store and speak to someone you may get lucky but it’s unlikely.

Same thing happened to me with my iPhone 16 pro but without a drop. I set my new phone down on a wooden conference room table sort of like a remote and the glass around one of the lenses just crumbled apart. I think it's a quality issue, I'm still waiting to see if they will do a buy back. My iPhone 13 pro max has gone three years no case and the back has never shattered.

The iphone 16 pro is very weak and fragile I dropped mine from waist height with a decent quality protective case, the whole back glass shattered. should’ve stuck with the 13 pro, 3 years of being dropped and didn’t have a mark on it

What country are you in? Do you have a photo of the issue with the back glass?

Can you take it to an actual Apple Store and talk to the manager? A third party repair service may not review the same way as Apple Store. Apple won’t charge you to diagnose the issue.