iPhone 4 drop test yields results (video)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted June 24th 2010 1:43AM
posted June 24th 2010 1:43AM
posted June 24th 2010 1:43AM
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Glass breaks? Wow, that is a shock!
@rybek I completely agree. Why are people surprised that when you drop an electronic device onto concrete, it breaks? Moral of the story: Get a case or just don't drop your phone like a clumsy fool.
@rkmac
I actually heard a Genius at the apple store tell a boy that walked in with his iphones screen broken, and his dad, that iphones and ipods weren't design to be in a case and that maybe being in a case made it more prone to break when dropped. I don't understand that logic behind that but
whatever.
@rybek I think the point is that they touted the glass as something super, but in the end, it's still just glass.
@rybek It's a "test" no one is surprised to see it break. Just because the IPhone broke does not mean it was an attack against fan boys, you don't have to defend the phone. So stop trying to be sarcastic.
I prefer to not drop my phone anyway. If I dropped an iPhone 4 by accident and didn't have it inside a case or some other protection, I would simply blame myself. Simple as that.
That poor concrete :
@rybek
but, will it blend???
@8loop1 Well you gotta watch these "geniuses" sometimes.
@rybek No, grounding antennae is a shock.
@rybek
Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! I dropped my damn phone about I say 8 times HARD, about 50 drops nothing to serious, but those 8 were bad man, I have the Sprint HTC Hero and all 8 times concrete, hard pavement, and metal floor, yes metal. All that's wrong is let's see about 6 scratches and thumps on the corners and a very small scratch that you cant see on the screen and hmm a little chip on the left corner of my phone that you can barely see. Well my point is there should be no FUCKEN reason for a phone to get shattered like the iPhone in the video in 4 drops that were about 4 feet high. The highest drop I got on mine was about 8 feet, I'll even make a video to prove my point. This just shows HTC makes way better hardware. Point and Simple.
@1:08 - The reason why the iPhone shut itself off was because it went into emergency mode and was notifying Jobs that it was being killed.... I think it also told him that it was a pleasure wearing the Apple banner.
@jubjub No it's not. It really has some better parameters than normal glass. It just breaks almost as easily.
@rybek We need to see what happened to the pavement! Imagine what the gorilla glass did to that! Like, what, a crevice big enough for a truck, I mean PC, to fall into?
@rkmac
you know its a phone, right? its not a work of picassos art that needs to be cared for. its a fucking phone. And when do you plan on taking off the case after protecting it from scratches!!!? oh right, never, so youre taking care of your phone for literally no reason, as itll always be inside the fucking case.
@JonnyB "This just shows HTC makes way better hardware."
Whaaaatever.
All this shows is that glass breaks, and that it might have been a questionable choice in a mobilephone.
But if Apple's industrial design is something you like, and you hold an iPhone 4, it's very tight. It's a thin slab that you like to mess with and hold. Frankly, it's sort of unfuckwithable. And you accept the risk of glass on both sides.
@jubjub
I wouldn't say that it's "just glass". Of course, it's not indestructible, but the important fact is that it will survive casual drops. Try that with normal glass.
@Plazmic Flame LMAO!!! Now that funny! :)
@JonnyB
fanboy. they should put your picture next to the definition.
its glass and plastic... it doesnt matter if its made by htc or apple or dell or anyone else on the planet... it will break if you drop it at the right angle. consider yourself lucky... not someone who picked "better hardware". if you really want to prove it... ship it to me. ill break it into pieces in 1 drop. guaranteed.
@rybek Let me edit that for you
Gorilla glass breaks? Shocking!... wait... >_>
@kid300 Just admit androids ugly One reason is so I get more money for it when it's time to resell it.
@rybek
80% of the apple keynote was about the "strong" body and the "awesome" display.
one broke and the other turned yellow.
i love that they used an iphone4 to film this
@coolkams03
80% of the apple keynote was about the "strong" body, "awesome" display and the "cleverly" designed antenna
one broke, other turned yellow and the rest blocked the signal.
@hey buddy
Whaaaatever this shows that all the iPhone fanboys downranked me cuz what? I told them my almost 8 month old phone survived more drops the first week then the oh so magical iPhone 4? It's just funny because I said HTC makes better hardware, and its true, why it is when you stab the Evos fucken screen there's barely a little scratch, and for the iPhone there's a huge scratch? Or when you drop it 4 TIMES! From a reasonable height it shatters and is not functional? I just hate you apple fanboys with a Passion, I really do, well you can downrank me if you please but at the end of the day you will have a craptastic phone with a close craptastic OS with no Flash, no signal and big yellow spots on your screen, goodnight fanboys:)
@inertone
Not only did they use the other iPhone 4 to film the heinous crime ... but it also couldn't do anything about it. These guys are sick bastards...
@rkmac
I've dropped my phone several times. No scrathes, no nada. Moral of the story: Don't be fooled by Apple's fancy marketing sentences.
@JonnyB
My iphone 3g, which I have had for 2 years now has taken the most beating of any phone I've owned and I've owned a LOT of phones(P.S. I have never used a case or a screen protector). For 2 years, I have dropped it AT LEAST 75 times and for 2 months straight everyday (this is not an exaggeration by any means) my baby ate, slammed, and slobbered on my phone on a daily basis (she was really into phones during that stage). My phone NEVER stopped working once and I still, to this day, don't have a single scratch on my screen. The back of the phone has a hairline crack and many many light scratches but this phone has been a fuckin champ and the MAIN reason that I will upgrade to iphone 4. My experience helped me make my choice, not some fanboy comments or devotion to a company. The phone has treated me very well. Who knows if the new one will live up to my 3g one, but I am damn sure giving it a shot because of the great experience I've had.
@Microdot
Actually no, I am no fanboy, I just showed my opinion in things and shared my events to the world with my phone and its drops, and don't forget the iPhone 4 screen is 30 times stronger then plastic! Omgee!! Wow! And broke after 4 pussy drops, and yeah okay I'll do that right after you go to jobs basement and suck on his Macintosh:)
@Plazmic Flame LMMFAO!!!! XD
@JonnyB + 1
it would be plus +100,000, if i could
@rybek Fascinating. More than 30% of all voters own an iPhone 4 before it has even been released...?
@KetsuSan
I'm pretty sure if this iPhone 4 belonged to Chuck Norris, if would have gone straight through the concrete and end up on the other side of the world in the Indian Ocean. Then wash up on the shores of Australia demanding to be returned to it's owner before it gets upset and......
O o
/¯¯___________________
| SHOOP DA WHOOP!!! BLARRRGHHHHHHHH
\__¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
@rybek
Please don't shoot video whilst holding your phone in portrait mode, shaky cam is bad enough.
You have to feel for the iPhone engineers - they spend a year or more perfecting every millimeter of this beautiful piece of technology. They go on camera and lovingly talk about how striking the design is and how much care went into it. They excitedly release it to the public and...
...people key it, smash it, drop it repeatedly on concrete for no reason, bend it, and shove it in a blender.
Apple should take note and produce their own 'crash test' videos the way car companies do - get behind the scenes video of Steve stomping on the thing, or British dude throwing it against a brick wall. Or heck, save the trouble and Steve could throw the newest iPhone in a blender to end every keynote!
@idib IT WILL BLEND!!!!! i cant wait for that to happen
@slick612nkz I suggest you take your time on the upgrade to the 4 and spend time with one at a store or a friends and get a feel for the durability. My friend's 3GS is just as durable as your experience, but this is a huge design change for the 4 and this "test" is an unnerving result.
My own opinion on durability is that a phone must survive being drunk, not having a baby. I have an original samsung Instinct (i really want a phone badly, so suckered into this thing) and that thing has survived my college fun. One particularly bad night I dropped my phone 8 times on asphalt.. The second drop broke the case (the hard plastic one from sprint) and as it flew out I stepped on the uncased phone. It survived the next six drops (no case) with a scuffed corner and scratch on the back, and this is from 5-6 feet up, not the 3-4 in the video. I hope my next phone is that durable. And I know its a glass-plastic difference, but if it takes plastic to survive falls, thats where I am buying.
@JonnyB
I actually really want you to post up that video right about wrong, just so you can prove (or disprove) your point and all the others accusations can either be confirmed or proven false.
Anyway, I think the point here is this...Apple always markets their product as being the DOWN RIGHT BEST! (and I'm not even going to mention the 'M' word). But this is a clear example of how they exaggerate their marketing and promises. Apple needs to realize they need to cut the BS because people will call them on their bluff. This video being case and point.
"30 times harder than plastic" Plastic wouldnt break that easily in 4 drops
"sapphire crystal" sapphire crystals Mohs scale hardness is 9 --- Diamonds is 10.....if you ask me, I dont think something so close to the toughness of diamond should break that easily. (info taken from wiki)
"custom silicon" really???the same as the samsung silicon being used in samsung products??? (may not be the exact same but they are both based on the same ARM chip)
Apple please stop BSing to your customers....either tell us the truth or REALLY make it 30 times harder than plastic, stop lying! No one likes being lied to.
We want the truth damn it!!
I personally would like to see some sort of hard brushed aluminum case. Preferably with the 'gorilla glass' or the Dell Streak or something comparable to that or the EVO.
@hey buddy I dunno, if the metal was plastic, it may have distributed the shock and only made a small chip on the site on impact. design phail
@rybek
Just wondering about the tone of the article. Seems to try to downplay the glitch here. Had the tone been same, if this was not Apple?
Also wondering, has Engadget posted video of reception problem on iphone 4? Or have i missed it?
@rybek lol
what's with the video resolution?
@rkmac my daughter throws my phones all the time on all sorts of floors never had problem like my old htc hd2 never even scratched .and that was on concrete so that thing about electronic devices is just a lie . i thought the iPhone was magic surely it should be able to take the same punishment
@rybek Well if the guys at ifixyouri.com don't show that it can break, then their whole business model goes to hell. Seeing as how they fix broken iPhones and all.
@rybek
Well, my phone survived my army training, and the geek I am I had it on me the whole time. Personally, I'd say the problem is thet the screen/bezel doesn't have a bezel to absorb impact if dropped at the right/wrong angle. Glass that hard won't scratch easily, but it will shatter
@8loop1 He's a genius...don't question him.
I am pretty sure if world nuclear war kicked off the only human built object left untouched would be nokia 3310s. They were tough buggers. Obviously there would be no one left to use them but I am sure the cockroaches would eventually evolve to use them. The tranmitters would have vapourised so no coverage (just like Orange in the UK) but at least they could play snake.
@abedinthehouse
why don't you hit a diamond or a sapphire glass watch face with a hammer and see how hard it is.
@abedinthehouse Hardness and toughness (resistance to breakage) are not related at all. If anything, they're inversely related. He said it's HARDER, not TOUGHER. Why do people keep expecting hard things to be break resistant?
@rybek makes me wonder why they didn't use a more elastic material around the edges, like plastic or steel are you know, anything that can spring back from such lame hits as those... hardened or not, glass has a lower shock resistance than plastic or metal.