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iPhone 4 Drop Test with Bumper Case
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For all we know the claim could be perfectly true but since they're using the glass in a way that doesn't even resemble what it's intended for, the 'bending' part has no relevance whatsoever.
So they're saying it's used for windscreens in helicopters. Yeah, I'd imagine if you hit a helicopter windscreen with a baseball bat, it might not break, because the glass is tough and flexible. But on the iPhone the glass is glued smack up against a hard surface. So imagine instead that you glued the helicopter windscreen to a thick sheet of steel, then take a swing at it with the baseball bat again. Not so tough now, is it?
So technically they're not lying in their advertising at all when they show the glass bending, but what they are doing is a bit misleading. iPhones don't bend much, do they? They're demonstrating a property of the glass that's rendered non-applicable by the design of the phone itself. The glass wants to protect itself by bending, but it can't. The ground/floor and the iPhone team up and assault the glass from both sides.
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I'm impressed that you've never dropped a call what with living under that bridge and all.
Patrick J said:
I'm impressed that you've never dropped a call what with living under that bridge and all.
The glass could be stronger, but an impact greatly increases the stress on the material. Kinda the same reason why you can put something heavy on a piece of paper stretched across a plane (kinda like a bridge), but when you drop that heavy object onto the paper, it goes right through.
Just dont drop your phone!
A drop is about probability. A single video tells us nothing. Pick ANY device, and ANY case short of a major armor, and you might see a break from the very first drop. Might, or might not, by luck. You’re not magically blocking the laws of physics, you’re just improving your odds. Even a 1-in-100 chance will sometimes happen on the first try; and I’d be happy for a case that simply doubled the odds in my favor. Which case does that best? It would pretty expensive to get REAL info on that!
Regardless, a bumper lifts the glass off of tabletops and provides rubbery grip for your hands to help prevent drops.
I don’t know that I want one of these (though I like concept). But an anecdote is not useful information. Take 50 drops with 50 phones, then 50 phones more with bumper cases, and give us some real stats. Otherwise, it’s a mildly interesting publicity stunt at best.
Likewise, 10 people saying they dropped phone X and broke at on try one, vs. 10 people saying they dropped it a lot without problems, is not statistical proof of anything. Any phone on the planet has been dropped a zillion times by someone without ill effects, and any phone has died from a 24-inch drop for less lucky owners. Formal mass-scale testing in formal conditions is what might matter. (Ouch!) Or professionally conducted (non-web) surveys on a very large scale over time. Failing that, it’s just discussion and stories.
Regardless, a bumper lifts the glass off of tabletops and provides rubbery grip for your hands to help prevent drops.
I don’t know that I want one of these (though I like concept). But an anecdote is not useful information. Take 50 drops with 50 phones, then 50 phones more with bumper cases, and give us some real stats. Otherwise, it’s a mildly interesting publicity stunt at best.
Likewise, 10 people saying they dropped phone X and broke at on try one, vs. 10 people saying they dropped it a lot without problems, is not statistical proof of anything. Any phone on the planet has been dropped a zillion times by someone without ill effects, and any phone has died from a 24-inch drop for less lucky owners. Formal mass-scale testing in formal conditions is what might matter. (Ouch!) Or professionally conducted (non-web) surveys on a very large scale over time. Failing that, it’s just discussion and stories.
wow
that's almost the same thing that happens when I've dropped the following items on concrete
my Laptop
my SLR camera
my canon L lenses
my iMac
my digital camera
my scanner
my bottle of beer
the designers of these products as well have made some serious design errors for them to break so easily...
or maybe I should just really try to not drop them on concrete, or anything else.
(i will say, I accidentally dropped a friend's 3G iphone in it's hardshell incase cover, from about 2 feet onto a desk which was NOT concrete, and it shattered. now THAT did get me a bit pissed).
at any rate, this video isnt stupid, but would have been more relevant as an ad if they just showed a broken iPhone 4 that they repaired. no sense in showing me it can be broken, I already know that.
that's almost the same thing that happens when I've dropped the following items on concrete
my Laptop
my SLR camera
my canon L lenses
my iMac
my digital camera
my scanner
my bottle of beer
the designers of these products as well have made some serious design errors for them to break so easily...
or maybe I should just really try to not drop them on concrete, or anything else.
(i will say, I accidentally dropped a friend's 3G iphone in it's hardshell incase cover, from about 2 feet onto a desk which was NOT concrete, and it shattered. now THAT did get me a bit pissed).
at any rate, this video isnt stupid, but would have been more relevant as an ad if they just showed a broken iPhone 4 that they repaired. no sense in showing me it can be broken, I already know that.
Drop Expectations
How could any semi-intelligent preson, even in their wildest dreams, think that any piece of electronic equipment covered with a paper-thin sheet of glass, would not break when dropped onto concrete? This truely illustrates the dumbing down of America.
How could any semi-intelligent preson, even in their wildest dreams, think that any piece of electronic equipment covered with a paper-thin sheet of glass, would not break when dropped onto concrete? This truely illustrates the dumbing down of America.
I still don't know why
Apple utilized a glass back. I understand that metal impedes signal quality, and that plastic isn't ecofriendly. However, glass??? Was there not a patent by Apple for the use of cubic-zicornia in their devices not too long ago? Why glass?
Apple utilized a glass back. I understand that metal impedes signal quality, and that plastic isn't ecofriendly. However, glass??? Was there not a patent by Apple for the use of cubic-zicornia in their devices not too long ago? Why glass?
It seems the folks at ifixyouriforacouplehundreddollars.com have an uncanny command of the obvious.
Can we please stop with all these kinds of posts? They add nothing to the forum and are a waste of space.
With that said, IFix Your I has an agenda with these tests. They will come on here to post that their experiments are an exercise in scientific research but they are a front for an attempt to advertise their repair business. This was the same agenda they had when the iPhone 4 came out and they did a drop test from the same height four times in a row without a case. The tests do not show a real-world scenario and they and the company is looking for press. Nothing more, nothing less. Lame.
No they aren't lying. The glass is almost certainly 30x stronger than previously used glass. However, as people above have mentioned, that doesn't really have any bearing on dropping it.
When you subject something to an impact, strength is definitely a good thing to have as this means the material can deform more before failing. However, what you really need is a material with a high toughness. The toughness governs how fast cracks can propogate in a material. Higher toughness = less crack propogation = more load required for failure.
Unfortunately while ceramics can be made to be very strong and hard (resistance to scratching), it is much more difficult to make them tough and so most will see brittle failure as the main failure mode when subjected to a load.
A lot of 'strength' terms are banded around as the same thing, but in case anyone was wondering (in slightly more laymans terms)
Strength = resistance to deformation before failure
Hardness = resistance to scratching
Toughness = resistance to cracks
Stiffness = resistance to bending
Anyone shocked by the phone breaking unfortunately must be in a bit of a dreamland as I would be pretty certain that the units ability to withstand a drop from a few feet onto a hard surface wouldn't have been particularly high on Apples list of design features. This is exactly why 'tough' products exist when there is a likelihood of the unit being dropped, hit, crushed etc. A 'premium' product like iPhone 4 is designed primarily to work well (slightly ironic there...), look good and feel good, which it does very well. However, impact resistance it does not have and will never have until Apple make an iPhone Tough.
So not lying, not misleading or false advertising, just life.
don't hold it that way, don't touch it with your ear, don't drop it...
iPhone 4 needs a new accessory:
introducing iTripod
iPhone 4 needs a new accessory:
introducing iTripod
Ok, so there's this short supply issue and they're sending these fix-it ******s FREE iPhone 4's to test/tear apart/etc? Why not make those people wait 7-14 days for THEIR phones and I get mine right away? 
Instead of crushing your phone over reception issues (or in this case, drop testing a product that was NEVER intended to prevent damage), how about sending it over to someone who doesn't throw a temper tantrum over a lost call or two?
Thanks in advance...
Instead of crushing your phone over reception issues (or in this case, drop testing a product that was NEVER intended to prevent damage), how about sending it over to someone who doesn't throw a temper tantrum over a lost call or two?
Thanks in advance...
protecting the wrong thing?
So the iPhone 4 has a pane of glass on the front and a pane of glass on the back. The rest of it is a steel band around the edges.
The first time Apple sells a 'case' for the iPhone is one that protects... wait for it.. the steel band around the edges! Strange.
Perhaps the intended purpose of the $30 rubber bumpers wasn't to protect but to do something else. I wonder what that would be?
So the iPhone 4 has a pane of glass on the front and a pane of glass on the back. The rest of it is a steel band around the edges.
The first time Apple sells a 'case' for the iPhone is one that protects... wait for it.. the steel band around the edges! Strange.
Perhaps the intended purpose of the $30 rubber bumpers wasn't to protect but to do something else. I wonder what that would be?
I absolutely LOVE the way Arn and Macrumors are passing this off as news.
Was there are rumor that a glorified rubber band around the edges of your iPhone would somehow protect the screen from cracking?
Or that the iPhone has an issue with something other than the glass screen cracking when dropped?
Was there are rumor that a glorified rubber band around the edges of your iPhone would somehow protect the screen from cracking?
Or that the iPhone has an issue with something other than the glass screen cracking when dropped?
Haha why did they fade the volume when they said "for all your iphone [volume turned down for iphone 4] 3g and 3gs needs"
Can't fix them eh?
The bumper is kind of stupid. The only reason I'm going to pick one up because I dropped mine in my Sena wallet case and the only exposed little spot near the corner got a little scuff on it on the stainless steel...3 days after I got it. I dont want to see that happen again.
Can't fix them eh?
The bumper is kind of stupid. The only reason I'm going to pick one up because I dropped mine in my Sena wallet case and the only exposed little spot near the corner got a little scuff on it on the stainless steel...3 days after I got it. I dont want to see that happen again.
This guy just dropped his IQ. What a load of cr*p!. If you wanna crashtest the phone do it right! and in a controlled environment. This random sjit makes no sense. Some guy dies falling out of bed.. another survives a fall from 10th. floor. Get the picture?