iPhone 5 (vs Samsung Galaxy S3) Drop Tests Show Very Durable Device and Screen

[Zudeo]

I'm not using a case with mine. Screw that, after seeing it beat the S3 it's gonna be naked like my pristine iPhone 4 before it!

Also...

this phone is gorgeous. Jony Ive really outdid himself.

 

[Tech198]

lol... drop test... you kiddin me right ?

Don't people have better time on their hands, rather than "seeing" which phone breaks first.

I don't by it.. All phones break... just from greater distances...

They wanna test it for real ?.... Try doing these from an air plain.

 

[patent10021]

This shows why I hesitate buying black One drop and the anodized black turns to poop. They should've kept it like the 4/4S. I still really want the black one though. Looks Vaderish.

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lol... drop test... you kiddin me right ?

Don't people have better time on their hands, rather than "seeing" which phone breaks first.

I don't by it.. All phones break... just from greater distances...

They wanna test it for real ?.... Try doing these from an air plain.

Yes, air polluted would be so much more damaging.

 

[diogenis]

Yes, this is a no brainer...
Less mass = less energy to dissipate plus
Better quality materials used (aluminum) means the iphone is tougher.

However, they should drop the (indeed amazing) super mirror finish on the edges and add a material that can actually dampen the falls and not introduce nasty scratches. much as the bumper cases are now, only be a part of the design and a lot more discreet. Then drops should mean nothing for the iphone.

As it is now, they made a luxurious phone but with the simplest drop you might get scratches or break the glass

 

[Maddoxx]

Another one bites the dust!

Another one bites the dust!

Two years three months fourteen days eleven hours and fifty-six seconds will have gone by when iFixYouri will be flipping on their florenent buzzing lights on for the very last time. The "only destructible by slamming your iPhone 5 face down on a ceramic tile" video, would proven to have been their greatest undoing!

 

[damitssam]

The Palm Pre had this. No one cared. Seriously, what makes this an appealing feature?



Remains to be seen since Nokia faked the photos and videos for its promo. 😡



I give MS props for doing something original (for once in their existence), but the problem I see with the Metro UI (or whatever they are calling it today) is it's so stylized that the apps assimilate a very generic look and feel. "Which app is this? I dunno. Oh wait, it's Evernote. Look, it says Evernote at the top." 🙁



Steve Ballmer Certified Perspiration Detection™? 😉

LOL at steve. Poor fella. I like the idea of a floating lens. If properly done almost 100% guaranteed to be the most sharp camera on the market when released.

Wireless charging is actually real convenient for the real lazy ones. I frequently leave my phone on the desk uncharged. Plugging it in would require me to bend over from my computer chair and charge it. Small things that matter 😉 And I don't have to deal with a ugly $29 adapter.

 

[mysterydate]

People on these tech sites DO NOT GET THAT POINT. I read a guy on a cell phone site saying how he hoped Verizon's LTE in a given market (don't remember which) would be better than AT&T's soon. A real Verizon fanboy. Things like that.

The industry moving forward is GOOD, even if it's not your chosen company/product/etc.

Ha - exactly. I understand a company not liking its competitors lifting features, aesthetics, or materials (we're already seeing that with Twig :| ) but a customer? Why would you not want more robust competition? Your chosen inanimate idol will only be improved by market pressure.

 

[gaximus]

Research fail.

Maximum SD storage is 64GB, but the unit has 16-64GB of flash built-in, so no matter how you slice it the S3 is more flexibly spacious.

The only thing that that the S3 is comparatively lacking is evident in this video. And that's build quality. Specs wise it beats the 5 easily in many areas.

Who cares about specs when it fails at every speed test?

 

[Tech198]

I'd never buy a phone without a case, likewise with the iPad.

I prefer to actually protect my products.

 

[Evstar]

SWEET!! I bought an iPhone 4, and although I didn't actually know much about the phone the marketing was really good. Now that I know iPhone 5 comes up trumps in the important tests I will definitely buy one. GO APPLE!!!

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SWEET!! I bought an iPhone 4, and although I didn't actually know much about the phone the marketing was really good. Now that I know iPhone 5 comes up trumps in the important tests I will definitely buy one. GO APPLE!!!

And yeah, the Samsung might have better specs and perform better, but it will never have the "Cool-ness" of the Apple brand!

 

[Sokratesagogo]

Does it not sicken anyone waiting in line for their 5 to see some fool do this?

 

[NumberNine]

so as long as it doesn't hit screen side down, you're good

 

[FrozenShivers]

Maybe they should have waited until the iPhone 5 was out longer before releasing something like this...... not like some people waited in line for hours to get one, only to find out the store was sold out.

Yeah cause having the newest phone is soooooo important and upsetting.

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On a somewhat unrelated note, has anyone else noticed how absolutely awesome the EarPods are?!?! I'm a bit of a music quality stickler and I find these headphones rival my $60 skullcandy and $100 Sol Republic earbuds.

Not saying they are on par with Bose or some of the other really high end brands, but as a free set that comes with a phone (and even for $29) they truly are awesome.

If you have any of the older ones lying around do a test. listen to the EarPods for a little while then go back to the older Apple headphones. It's like going from SD to HD.

EDIT: They are also incredibly comfortable. I'll have to do the running test later but based on the importance Apple placed on them in the keynote I'd be willing to bet all the things they said about them are true.

EDIT: They are NOT however noise cancelling. Which I kind of like for everyday use and running. I like to be able to hear if someone is trying to get my attention at work or if say a car is coming as I'm running. For an airplane I'd reckon these won't be all that great, but who knows.

You can't call yourself a music quality stickle then go on to talk about Bose+Skullcandy.

 

[Swordylove]

Could this be the first smartphone that truly doesn't require a case?

No.

 

[ChrisTX]

No.

It survived nearly every drop test. Unless you're just really clumsy, I don't see why not.

 

[b24pgg]

Who cares about specs when it fails at every speed test?

lolwut

Speed Test would like to have a word with you:

 

[JAT]

The average height of the American male is 5' 9.2"

And that's short. What, now being tall means you're a bigot?

Grow up.

 

[Celf]

Could this be the first smartphone that truly doesn't require a case?

The iPhone 5 is durable...but you're going to need a case anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSFKVq36Hgc

 

[lucas107]

i never trust a drop test without the use of a robot. to many variables when they are done by humans and are not a very comparative test. regardless of materials the smaller phone should handle the drops better so again tests like these are rather trivial. but kudos to apple they seemed to have built a very solid phone for once. smartest thing they did was get rid of the full glass front and back.

 

[noripwr]

* Screen resolution
* screen tech (OLED - better contrast ratio)
* 2x more RAM
* wireless charging
* two baseband chips (simultaneous LTE data and voice)
* bigger battery (better battery time for talk and stand by)
* wireless charging
* memory card (more storage)

The S3 has wireless charging? Wasn't aware of that since my S3 came with a charging cable. The memory card for more storage argument is kinda moot since with Google Play, I had all my music on the cloud. And I don't put video on a mobile device (even iPad screen is too small to be enjoyable), so I didn't have a use for the memory slot (and it's a PITA to access anyway).

I can agree with others that OLED isn't exactly better. I couldn't see the screen under sunlight even with max brightness. And the bigger battery argument is also moot. When I had the phone on Airplane mode, sure I could get incredible standby time. But off Airplane mode and hardly even using it for a 9-hr work day, the phone would be at about 8-10% battery life before I reach my car to leave. And this is with sync and bluetooth off since I like to manually get my gmail inbox and I don't have any BT devices.

Even my coworker who recently got an S3 can't get decent battery life out of it and we both hardly use it during work. We don't get signal down in the hospital basement so it's definitely not LTE/WiFi/3G draining it. So yea, the battery life .... not getting anywhere near what the spec sheet says.

Won't be getting a iP5 until after Feb '13 since that's when I'll get the minor discount, since I just recently upgraded to the S3 from an iP4 on 2-yr contract. Not a good experience so far. 😕

edit: ugh and nfc. We couldn't figure out how to get that to work AND Google Wallet - yes NFC-related options are enabled in settings. I read the forums, updated the software when Samsung had it available, but later found out the carrier has Wallet blocked 😕 Now Google Play store just says "This app is incompatible with your Samsung SAMSUNG-SGH-I747." So yea ... not all those features Samsung advertises work out smoothly for everyone.

 

[theanimaster]

It's not the HARD aluminium frame of the iPhone that protected it -- it was the SOFT aluminium frame!! The aluminium absorbs the shock nicely. The first gen iPod Touches were built with an aluminium bezel which acted as a nice shock absorber for the screen. iPhone 5's is a unibody aluminium shell which will absorb shock really nicely. The trade-off? I bet it dents as easily as the MacBooks!

If this is the same paint process they used in the first gen iPod Touch, then that paint WILL wear off, but not so easily! It took 2 years for my iPod Touch's paint to start wearing... and I NEVER used a case! I'd definitely get the black iPhone5 knowing well how the paint wears... in my opinion, worn chamfers are better-looking than scratched chrome (I've got the 3Gs)!!

 

[hmmfe]

+1 Nothing like watching a fat, bald guy in shants dropping stuff. I'm gonna go watch again!

 

[AppleScruff1]

Could this be the first smartphone that truly doesn't require a case?

I wonder how the Casio Commando would do in this test?

 

[roogie]

Come on guys, you can't spell waist? Really?

Their not really paying attention to there spelling.

🙂

 

[lilo777]

The S3 has wireless charging? Wasn't aware of that since my S3 came with a charging cable. The memory card for more storage argument is kinda moot since with Google Play, I had all my music on the cloud. And I don't put video on a mobile device (even iPad screen is too small to be enjoyable), so I didn't have a use for the memory slot (and it's a PITA to access anyway).

I can agree with others that OLED isn't exactly better. I couldn't see the screen under sunlight even with max brightness. And the bigger battery argument is also moot. When I had the phone on Airplane mode, sure I could get incredible standby time. But off Airplane mode and hardly even using it for a 9-hr work day, the phone would be at about 8-10% battery life before I reach my car to leave. And this is with sync and bluetooth off since I like to manually get my gmail inbox and I don't have any BT devices.

Even my coworker who recently got an S3 can't get decent battery life out of it and we both hardly use it during work. We don't get signal down in the hospital basement so it's definitely not LTE/WiFi/3G draining it. So yea, the battery life .... not getting anywhere near what the spec sheet says.

Won't be getting a iP5 until after Feb '13 since that's when I'll get the minor discount, since I just recently upgraded to the S3 from an iP4 on 2-yr contract. Not a good experience so far. 😕

edit: ugh and nfc. We couldn't figure out how to get that to work AND Google Wallet - yes NFC-related options are enabled in settings. I read the forums, updated the software when Samsung had it available, but later found out the carrier has Wallet blocked 😕 Now Google Play store just says "This app is incompatible with your Samsung SAMSUNG-SGH-I747." So yea ... not all those features Samsung advertises work out smoothly for everyone.

S3 does have wireless charging. But the charging pad has not been released yet It's a common misconception that phones with wireless charging can't be charged "by wire". They can (at least S3). One does not need to haul charging pad during travel as some folks on this forum suggested.

If you do not have a good signal where you work - that's exactly what drains your battery for the phone is constantly searching for a signal.

As far as Google Wallet is concerned - it must be an issue with your wireless provider and not the phone. Some of them (I do not remember which ones) disabled GW in their phones because they are developing their own payment system (which you will get).