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Can "30 times harder than plastic" be a bogus claim?

M

MassiveAttack

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 28, 2010
658
1
New York
From Gizmodo, take it with a grain of salt.

500x_full-size-iphone-4-scratch.jpg


http://gizmodo.com/5570742/first-iphone-4-scratch-on-its-ultradurable-glass-wont-be-the-last

When the iPhone 4's screen was shattered, people said that the test wasn't valid, and Apple never claimed that the screen was completely crash-resistant, anyway. Only scratch-resistant. But it seems that "30 times harder than plastic" is still not scratch-proof.

In their advertising, Apple says that the iPhone 4's aerospace-grade glass is "Chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic". According to them, "the glass is ultradurable and more scratch resistant than ever." But, they said it's 30 times harder than plastic, not 30 times more scratch-resistant than plastic, meaning that "more scratch resistant" might mean just 1 or 2 times more. Who knows.

In his review, Walter Mossberg agreed. He said that he tried to break it and scratch it, and he couldn't do it:

I dropped it several times from a few feet onto a hard surface with no problem, and it acquired no scratches at all in my testing, even though I didn't use a case or coddle it.

But as this photo shows, he really didn't try hard enough. Gdgt editor Ryan Block didn't even try to scratch his, but he got a scratch anyway:

Just spotted on the iPhone 4's supposedly nigh-indestructible glass: scratches. Seriously. Not good!

Of course, Apple's own claim was not to be scratch-proof, but scratch-resistant. The iPhone 4 might be more so than the previous iPhones, but that doesn't mean you should be throwing it around, or putting it in the same pocket as your keys—it can still scratch. [Twitter]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.
 
Did they ever say what they scratched it with? a razor blade is something that they shouldn't use since most people don't keep one in pockets.
 
My goodness. How do you people do crap like this and why do people assume you'll never ever get any damage. Either get a case, or take a chance. Apple never said it was indestructible. It's like when you buy a watch and it says water resistance. It doesn't mean jump in the pool with it. :rolleyes:
 
Unless they tell us what caused the scratch and how it happened, this story has ZERO merit. Gizmodo strikes again.
 
Engadget admits that the scratch can't be seen under normal light. You have to look very carefully under bright light. Seems to me the scratch could have been there from the day they got the iPhone, and just didn't notice it.

Of course, Gizmodo has every motivation to make as much of a big deal out of it as they can. They hate Apple and Apple hates them! :)

Mark
 
No because they could have compared it to saran wrap for all we know. They never specified the type of plastic it was 30 times harder than.
 
BTW I never take what Walt Mossberg says into consideration, his opinions are biased and probably bed fellows with Apple. :rolleyes:
 
velorapide said:
Unless they tell us what caused the scratch and how it happened, this story has ZERO merit. Gizmodo strikes again.
Click to expand...

Well, Engadget, it was Joshua Topolsky's phone.

Honestly, anything can be scratched when faced by a harder material. Just keep the phone in one pocket and harder materials in the others. Problem solved.
 
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