Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone XR Just as Breakable as iPhone XS Based on SquareTrade Drop Test
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm actually shocked that the back of the XR is glass. I assumed it was aluminum or plastic.
I think I'd approve firing Ives for repeatedly making surfaces which aren't displays or camera lens be glass. It adds nothing of value to the customer - it just makes it easier to break.
For that matter EVERYTHING is droppable and ultimately breakable. But once again, for an item specifically DESIGNED from the get-go to be portable and on-hand at all times, why does it come out of the gate with hard, fragile corners and/or seemingly no noticeable improvement to durability over the past 10 years.
Then again, this narrowminded trend of focus on appearance is just a sign of our times. Car bumpers are no longer designed to withstand gentle touches in parking lots, but are heavily sculpted, pointed, over designed styling exercises that can leave a mark or crack with even the slightest contact with another car.
Last edited:
Just like the last time these clowns broke iPhones, I'll take Aaron @ https://mobilereviews-eh.ca 's word over an insurance company's.
People should use whatever level of protection they think goes along with the risks.
I have owned my iPhone X over a year now and it is still crack free and has never been in a case and has been dropped a few times. I have a knick in the SS to prove it. That being said, my sister has managed to break the glass on two iPhone X devices in under a year. So if you're a user who frequently drops your phone it is probably a good idea to case it up and/or insure it. As with any glass repeated impacts will eventually break it.
Which then begs the question, why have glass backs that are more fragile? If it's in a case, who cares? There's a reason car bodies aren't all glass.
Exactly I am more concerned about 3-4ft drops, unless you are a 6'4 person and like to hold your phone up to your ear a lot instead of using headphones a 6' drop just isn't a realistic test.
"Apple's lower-cost iPhone XR is just as breakable as the higher end iPhone XS and XS Max"
Does anyone know when this trend of considering "glass" premium came in or is it the fact that people want wireless changing a bigger pull to have glass backs?
I don't see anything changing unless we go back to aluminium or Apple redesign their phones in a way they can break but you can easily replace the back glass - this is currently just too pricey
Does anyone know when this trend of considering "glass" premium came in or is it the fact that people want wireless changing a bigger pull to have glass backs?
I don't see anything changing unless we go back to aluminium or Apple redesign their phones in a way they can break but you can easily replace the back glass - this is currently just too pricey
Useless test. Everybody knows that when Apple claims a glass is the most durable ever in a new phone, they are talking about scratch resistance, not resistance to sudden impact. In order for a phone to mitigate damage from a drop, it would need to have soft shock absorbent material like rubber surrounding the edges. Almost like... a case would provide? /s
I won't buy anymore **** Johny Ive multimillionaire iPhones. My X and my XS Mac both broke on TINY drops. Almost a thousand USD down the drain in repair costs. Nothing for arrogant multimillionaires. But really - these guys have lost also sense for how normal human beings live.
I think manufacturers should be held to a higher standard in the court of public option - and make more efforts to increased durability of phone.
But a test of a 6 feet drop to concrete seems to apply to a 9 foot tall warehouse worker or auto garage mechanic.
I suspect that the average 5'9" tall person holds their phone at about 4' 6". And is on office carpeting, vinyl or wood floor most of the time.
The test, like highway safety crash testing, should be conducted in a manner that better reflects real-world usage. 6 foot and bare concrete is an extreme scenario, not a likely scenario.
But a test of a 6 feet drop to concrete seems to apply to a 9 foot tall warehouse worker or auto garage mechanic.
I suspect that the average 5'9" tall person holds their phone at about 4' 6". And is on office carpeting, vinyl or wood floor most of the time.
The test, like highway safety crash testing, should be conducted in a manner that better reflects real-world usage. 6 foot and bare concrete is an extreme scenario, not a likely scenario.
Last edited:
How is this $450 new iPhone not "low cost"?
It beats the heck out of all of its <$500 smartphone competitors.
Have you ever noticed how scratched up those devices that couriers use to capture your signature are?
Yeah that.
My metal-framed iPhone 4 and 5S fell victim to cracked glass the few times I happened to carry it not in a case for a bit. Can't speak firsthand about whether the 6 or 7 would have had better crack-resistance...
If I can convince you or others to, for a brief second, don't think about glass/breakage but instead focus on "the customer needing to do XXX action in order to get YYY result/function" for a moment...When the iPhone came out, so much of its makeup was the fact was programmed to do things in a certain elegant way that it truly felt like "it just works." Before then, doing certain things beyond a simple phone call required the user to perform many inconvenient actions. Even the task of swapping contacts programmed into your flip phone to a new phone was insanely inconvenient. Or creating certain reminders on your phone then ensuring your "main" schedule was updated manually later, if you remembered. Or copying some text from a clunky web browser on your phone to an email you'd like to send.... Thinking back to the Palm Treo I had before my first iPhone (an iPhone 4), it was utterly amazing how Apple's innovations made things "happen" and in a convenient way.
Another amazing but SIMPLE innovation was to ensure the iPhone/iPad shipped with nearly a full charge, so it was ready to use out of the gate and didn't require a few hours of charge-up first. Taking that task out of the owner's responsibility was so ground-breaking and differentiating. Now it's almost universal.
My point here is: why hasn't Apple's "genius designer" identified the opportunity to come up with a hardware package that was both elegant and afforded the user instant, seamless durability improvement out of the gate, rather than require the user to buy a case just to achieve basic levels of protection.
Even a less-slippery phone with ridges or some type of improved grippability would help. The iPhone 7 I owned for 10 days before upgrading to an 8 with sensible battery life felt MUCH grippier and secure in-hand than the slippery much more slippery 8.
Even offering a separately-available equivalent of the Sony sports-walkman would be a market-separator...say, an acrylic or "softer" energy-absorbing composite case with toughened corners that permitted a slightly-recessed face & backside.
It's that "doing for the customer so he/she doesn't have to" innovative & market-separating opportunity that Apple is completely missing the boat on, from their current fashion-first focus.
Last edited:
It is interesting that Apple Insider says the XR is just as "durable". Why does this one say "breakable"? The headlines amount to the same meaning. Is it because a negative sounding headline gets more clicks and engagement?
If you're a klutz, just get a case.
If you are a ninja and never drop anything, go caseless.
This isn't rocket science, people. Though I can imagine Werner Von Braun would have likely gotten a case for his phone.
If you are a ninja and never drop anything, go caseless.
This isn't rocket science, people. Though I can imagine Werner Von Braun would have likely gotten a case for his phone.
Exactly.
...While Apple completely misses the opportunity to innovate something so that the customer does not need to do something....Apple completely missing the opportunity to add in more "it just works..."
This shifting the responsibility onto the user is, IMHO, also the source of so much heartburn from things like removed headphone jacks and USB/port-flexibility. Those may afford Apple the opportunity to look like a wildly forward-thinking innovator to tech websites, but after the shine is gone, it leaves users having to do/buy things to workaround Apple's built-in roadblocks that prevent the user from "just using it" fully, safely, conveniently out the gate....
Do something to prevent these "phone still breaks" articles... So obvious to me, to lacking from the mind of Apple's "geniuses..."
People don't use protective cases for their expensive phones?
My phone is an ancient Nexus 5, even then keep it in a dual layer case. I can't understand using a $1K device without keeping it protected.
My phone is an ancient Nexus 5, even then keep it in a dual layer case. I can't understand using a $1K device without keeping it protected.
It is a shame that it isn't an alu on the back model - and I know, it won't charge well. Its just a heart stopping device when it slips out of your fingers. So far my X has survived three falls.
There is a lot to be said that Apple has two profit enhancers when it comes to iPhone sales. The first is storage size so they'll often sell the base model with a weak storage capacity which strongly encourages users to pay a higher rate for more storage. You see this clearly with the iPhone Xs base having 64GB and the immediate next upcharge has 256GB (a 4x increase). An all glass iPhone makes it easier to sell users on Apple Care as they'll perceive the insurance as more valuable since any insurance product is sold to counter consumer fears.
So, I'd say Apple has an incentive to innovate and create more durable phones (to reduce Apple Care claims) that appear to the consumer as less durable (to increase Apple Care sales). They've done well in this area as I have yet to break my iPhone X glass and I've been case free since owning the device.
