iPhone 4 Drop Test with Bumper Case

[IndustrialSpace]

Of course it's not surprising such a surface would cause a cracked glass. People drop things in all sorts of unexpected places and surfaces.

This IS the purpose of owning a bumper.

If I only drop it on the bed or other soft, forgiving areas I may frequent, then I wouldn't need a bumper. However, if I want to protect it for as many surfaces as possible, especially hard ones, like concrete which cause the greatest potential for damge, I would expect a $30 case made by the phone manufacturer to be of high grade or caliber. This is just NOT the case here. No pun intended.

A well-designed bumper case would help prevent such damage from drops involving concrete. This is poorly made and the goal was more to shield the antenna than it was for protective purposes.

Seems very obvious.

 

[yentrog31]

Those "intelligent" people who paid $30 for a rubber band might have believed Apple when they said it provided Bump resistance.

lol..forget it..give up.....some are sheep(not all-don't get offended)....but sheep = wool = blindfold...and I swear Apple could make a "bumper" out of wool and some would "flock" to it.

 

[txpotato]

Those "intelligent" people who paid $30 for a rubber band might have believed Apple when they said it provided Bump resistance.

We, fanboys, firmly believe whatever SJ said. and forever.
SJ bless fanboys

 

[Dany M]

Aw, I was planning on getting the white one. Guess I'll se what cases their are

 

[wrkactjob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4uMTZWh0Rc&feature=youtube_gdata

 

[violaboy]

When I bought the bumpers, I figured they wouldn't provide concrete damage protection. The bumpers provide just the right about amount of grip so that I have a slimmer chance of dropping the phone. Without them, the phone is rather slippery.

The fact that they help reception is fine, but I don't really think that Apple made them knowing that reception would be an issue. Over the years, Apple has never made a highly-durable case. I remember my first iPod case (included with the iPod if I'm not mistaken) was elastic with a crappy belt clip.

What I do LIKE about the bumper case:

(1) it doesn't bulk up the phone, allowing me to keep the phone in my pocket comfortably;
(2) it isn't fully-rubberized. Cases with full-rubber sides and back pick up lots of pocket lint and other dirt and tend to pull pockets inside out which is very annoying.
(3) it aesthetically fits the look/feel of the phone. So many cases make iPhones look ugly.

I'll take my chances with the bumpers over having a mammoth case. If I do drop it that's my own fault...

 

[iGrip]

The tests do not show a real-world scenario

Did you watch the video? They dropped it gently from a normal height, just like any typical "I dropped my phone" scenario.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

My 1st Gen iPhone with my Agent 18 case has taken numerous falls like a champ. People drop phones its going to happen no way around it! The Agent 18 case I have is money though really protects the phone whether its dropped on the end or face first.

 

[redman042]

The advertising value is enormous. A video, article and a link from multiple mac news sites for the price of one iPhone 4? That's an incredible deal for the website.

Of course, they're relying on sites so desperate for news that they think "phone breaks after being dropped multiple times onto concrete" is worth reporting.

Well said. I wonder just how many takes they had before they managed to get it to break in four drops.

 

[Ferris23]

Ridiculous test. It did help because when it drops and didn't break the first time, the side it landed on didn't get scratched to ****.

These videos are lame.

 

[mobi]

The advertising value is enormous. A video, article and a link from multiple mac news sites for the price of one iPhone 4? That's an incredible deal for the website.

They should have put a little effort in producing this video...it would have had a much more viral appeal...

 

[pondosinatra]

you dont think the vid was trying for real life scenarios?..I have dropped my iphone 3GS from my pocket..about 3 feet.....had a case and it survived..so what is your point?

My point is I'm curious what would happen if I dropped it from 2 stories.

 

[tbrinkma]

Let's face it. iPhone 4 is a great smartphone, but it has some minor design issues they will probably iron out in iPhone 5.

Yes, dropping a phone on concrete will eventually break it, but it's almost unbelievable it happens so easily even with the bumpers. So it's safe to say we have a bumper design fail as well. As someone else above said, they were probably designed to alleviate the signal issues anyway.

'Bumper' cases like the ones Apple makes aren't designed to be *protective* against an impact. They're designed for two things: a) make the phone easier to grip (thus less likely to be dropped in the first place), and b) look pretty. That said, in the right circumstances, they can still make the difference between broken and unbroken after a drop because they do have a (very slight) padding factor.

 

[Chaya]

Cases aren't helpful in general

Presumably, the details of a specific drop (angle of impact, height of fall, speed, and surface it falls onto) are a lot more relevant than how many times the phone has been dropped. As such, comparing a single test like this to a single test of an iPhone being dropped until breaking without a case is nearly meaningless.

This is exactly right! I work in an environment where I see many broken iPhones. I often ask the owner what happened, and from what I can tell, some drops are just bad luck-- meaning the phone happens to have the wrong conditions come together to cause it to break. They seem to survive more drops than not, and I've heard incredible survival stories.

When asked for my recommendation for a case, I say all cases help protect against scratches and none (save, perhaps, the Otter case) are going to save your phone from a bad fall. For that, you'd want some shock absorption and most cases don't provide much of that.

 

[tbrinkma]

Actually it is what SJ said. When I have to choose who is liar between them. I have to choose Steve Jobs.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010...-steve-jobs-on-the-iphone-4-antenna-problems/

Maybe you missed the news, but it turns out that that 'conversation' was a fake.

 

[IndustrialSpace]

Well said. I wonder just how many takes they had before they managed to get it to break in four drops.

The final drop could have easily been the first drop and thus broken the glass too.

 

[IndustrialSpace]

This is exactly right! I work in an environment where I see many broken iPhones. I often ask the owner what happened, and from what I can tell, some drops are just bad luck-- meaning the phone happens to have the wrong conditions come together to cause it to break. They seem to survive more drops than not, and I've heard incredible survival stories.

When asked for my recommendation for a case, I say all cases help protect against scratches and none (save, perhaps, the Otter case) are going to save your phone from a bad fall. For that, you'd want some shock absorption and most cases don't provide much of that.

Judging by your posts, you're obviously an Apple employee.

Are you even allowed to be posting about confidential customer interactions on here?

 

[3282868]

Actually that was the fake SJ that said it was just a phone.

I miss that blog, it was hysterical. I forgot who confessed to writing it? There was a fake Jonny Ive blog for a while too.

 

[Sinfire]

And what were people expecting? That the bumper was going to prevent 100% of all damage to a dropped iPhone ?

How many times can the phone be dropped so that the bumper hits the ground first before it breaks ? The bumper only protects the sides, if you drop the phone and it lands flat, the screen is going to break.

Only way to completely protect it is to put it in a case that covers the entire phone ( including the front ).

 

[afireintonto]

When is the otterbox gonna come out?

 

[BlondeBuddhist]

I have never dropped my iPhone 4, 3GS, or 3G the way this guy "tested", especially outside. A phone doesn't typically spin 10 times when being dropped like this salesman, I mean tester does it. The one time I dropped it outside was my 3G and i dropped it pulling it out of my pocket and it landed face down on a rock, putting a hairline crack straight across the screen.

The only other fumbles came back before I stopped smoking ganja and would forget the phone in my lap and it would go flying when I would get out of a vehicle.

The reason I case my iPhone is mostly for finger prints and scratch protection. How anyone can take a "test" done by a company that fixes iPhones seriously is beyond me. Certainly not Front Page material.


Blonde Buddhist

 

[thor008u2]

Another Great Moment in Video Journalism...

‘Friggin’ retards… Does iFixYouri really believe they are doing a service to the cell phone industry by dropping a phone until it breaks? What’s the point in dropping an iPhone on asphalt mutiple times? Of course it’s going to crack/malfunction/break and be rendered useless. Whether with a cheap bumper or not. Do the many incarnations of Droid phones break, as well, after 3, 4, or more drops? Of course they will. Doesn’t logic dictate that a single drop may damage a phone? I just don’t get these ‘video investigations’ at all….

 

[muu]

‘Friggin’ retards… Does iFixYouri really believe they are doing a service to the cell phone industry by dropping a phone until it breaks? What’s the point in dropping an iPhone on asphalt mutiple times? Of course it’s going to crack/malfunction/break and be rendered useless. Whether with a cheap bumper or not. Do the many incarnations of Droid phones break, as well, after 3, 4, or more drops? Of course they will. Doesn’t logic dictate that a single drop may damage a phone? I just don’t get these ‘video investigations’ at all….

They generate a ton of hits, which equate to revenue down the road for a website. You didn't actually think news blogs are there to be informative, did you? If videos of dropping the android phones would generate as much hits, they'd probably get made and then attempted to be spread as 'newsworthy' as well.

 

[ihaveNFC]

What part of "bumper" don't people understand? Unless my common sense has suddenly evaporated, I'm inclined to view the "bumper case" as a means to deflect minor bumps and drops. Anyone dumb enough to drop their iphone 3+ times on concrete doesn't deserve to hold one, let alone use one.

For those comparing superior quality of their older phones... my 1975 Marantz receiver has outlasted everything (audio component wise) made on today's manufacturing standards. Just sayin.

 

[kevinkt]

show us one that does work PLEASE!!!!!!!