My iPhone just survived a 9-foot fall. How it happened.. well it's just too hard to talk about.. you can imagine my reaction to it's falling.. --> But absolutely NO damage.. You can imagine my relief --> Just thought I'd share my approval of how strong a device it is. ^^
My original iPhone took a hefty fall onto a tile floor with no case on. Bounced and sounded like a rock and there was no damage at all. Thing is a beast. Hope my 3G is the same way.
My buddy dropped his 1st gen iPhone, probably from like pocket height and it cracked the screen. It must have hit just right. It make me cringe to think about. He won't even talk about it. You must be a tall man TylerSmash...or a tree climber.
I once dropped an old Palm m105 PDA from my shirt pocket from the top of a stairwell (1st floor) about 12 feet onto an industrial concrete floor (no covering) and despite the PDA coming apart and scattering batteries, case, battery cover etc in all directions, it worked fine when I put it back together with nothing more than a slight scuff in one corner. I wouldn't like to try this with my iPhone!! It has only been dropped once by my daughter from her pocket onto our tiled kitchen floor and that was heart-stopping enough for me. Luckily I've got a second daughter...
I had the original ROKR and I was setting up a balloon drop in a high school gymnasium and i was on one of those, hell whats it called? it moves and goes up and down, anyway i was up in the scaffolding and the phone slipped and plummeted all the way down and didn't have a single mark. Bitch about the 100 song limit all you want but that phone was a beast.
It's all about location of impact on the phone and the surface material of the landing zone. 2 feet to concrete might screw you, and 40 feet to grass may not.
I dropped mine quite a few times and it was fine. Even on concrete. Until last time. It fell face down on to a hardwood floor. No outer damage, but now there are grey lines about 4 pixels tall going across the bottom, right about through the center of the "slide to unlock" area. The weird thing is that the length of these lines vary. Sometimes the rows of "dead" pixels will go all the way across the screen; sometimes there are gaps. This makes me doubt that the pixels are actually dead, since the length and location of the lines (horizontally) is not consistent. Anyway, if I ever get a new one, I'm getting a case.
lol If it were to fall 9ft onto solid cement, it would most certainly have damage. It sounds to me like it fell 9ft onto a pile of pillows.
Nah If it fell on pillows then it wouldn't have all been in slow motion. ^^ It fell onto the ground. Grass and then dirt.. lots of dirt..
You're lucky, but I would expect no damage under those conditions. Impact from that height on grass/dirt isn't likely to cause damage since the ground absorbs most of the impact.. things like cement and tile send all that impact back to the phone, making cracked screens and other major damage a good possibility. I have dropped my iPhone once, when a friend was trying to take it from me (he was drunk....) and knocked it out of my raised hand. Fell around 6 feet to linoleum. Luckily I always get cases for my cell phones so the case took the brunt of the drop and nothing bad happened to it, thank god.
Cement is the worse. It's hard as hell and really porous - those little holes grab and scratch. Almost any other surface won't make me crap my pants, but if my phone slipped out of my hands and went flying towards the sidewalk, it'd be ultra slow motion.
Yeah a buddy of mine cracked the screen by dropping it onto tile from about a 3ft. height..It shattered the screen pretty good, I agree it all depends on what type of surface you drop it onto AND what angle the impact is at. Glad to hear the OP's iPhone was not harmed though
Well I jinxed myself! Was walking back to my dorm when a fellow student pushed past me and knocked my iPhone out of my hand and on to the concrete!! Thank god for my rubber incase. No damage was incurred whatsoever.
I've come to the conclusion that when the iPhone is dropped on one of the four corners at a sufficient height and impact material, it cracks the screen, if it falls flat on the back or flat on the front, it may not and probably not crack. David
I prefer the look but not the risks. After I shattered the screen on my iPhone 2G, I got a screen the day I bought my 3G (launch day, July 11th) with a screen protector and the case has only come off twice for about one minute to clean the back, the screen protector has never come off. No scratches! David
Yeah, same. It fits better in my pocket, looks better, etc. Plus I pay an extra $7 a months to cover it for theft, accidental damage, etc Since 3G launch day I have dropped it a few time and accidentally put my keys in the same pocket a few times but the phone is fine. The screen is near perfect and it only has minor scratching the back - much better than my old Nokia N80