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[Merged] iPhone 4 Glass Body, Durability, and Drop Test Results

iPhones are actually really tough, as seen here in stress tests from articles from a reputable publication

The Original iPhone Stress Tests - PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/157529/the_original_iphone_stress_tests.html

It's Tough to Kill an Apple iPhone 3G - PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/148310/its_tough_to_kill_an_apple_iphone_3g.html



on the 3rd drop there was a loud POP, and yet again, shattered glass.
Click to expand...

The glass seems to be hit from at least 3 locations, not a single 1 "drop."

So no video?
 

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iFixYouri said:
1. First test was conducted on office carpet, which it held up fine. Concrete is what broke it.
2. Weight should not effect the acceleration...all objects accelerate to the ground at 9.8 m/s^2....however as since we live on earth, denser objects will fall to the earth faster than lighter objects because they can overcome air resistance....like if u go to the moon and drop a feather and a bowling ball, they will both land at the same time (because there is no air resistance). However here on earth, heavier objects will fall faster than the lighter ones because they overcome drag better than lighter objects (they are denser and have less spaces between particles).

Okay...so now that we have that cleared up...we have results of round 2...

So here's what we did this time.

First and foremost: The scratch test. Wow is all i can say. We went at it with keys, screwdrivers, razors, and not a mark. Good job apple! Very scratch resistant.

Second: The drop test.

Rather than dropping it flat, we dropped it a few different ways. We dropped on hard carpet, no problems, no cracking, held up well. Then we moved out to the concrete. We dropped it while walking out of our pocket, standing still and fumbling it, on the corner, spinning, etc. It did hold up quite well, much better than a 3G or 3Gs, but after drop #7 it hit the sweet spot(on the corner, top left) and shattered.

Our conclusion...it did take quite the beating, more than the predecessors, 2G/3G/3Gs, but it is still breakable.

No pictures yet....still have to upload them...coming soon :-D
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Please post some videos/pictures. Thank you so much for doing this!
 
Thank You!

Thanks for your test. I have a iPhone repair business and thought I was a gonner when I saw the video! now I can keep my new boat and my mistress!!
 
iPhone 4 Glass Breaks on 3rd Drop (graphic images)

Ouch...

http://www.ifixyouri.com/blog/?p=59

On the old iphone, it was recessed and protected by a chrome bezel.

We have a full iPhone 4(minus the circuit board), here at our shop and decided to do a little drop test. This drop was performed from 3.5 ft up. Mind you that these parts ARE original apple parts. Laser etched and all. The iPhone 4 did survive 2 drops, as expected, but on the 3rd drop there was a loud POP, and yet again, shattered glass.
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However, those are just spare iPhone 4 parts, and are definitely not fitted how Apple intended them to be. There are probably tons of mechanisms and chemicals that hold that thing together so shattering like that doesn't happen.
 
Built said:
I'm planning on using Squaretrade for the first time.
Click to expand...

SquareTrade is awesome. Sorry if I'm running this thread off the tracks... But I called my insurance, they cover phones also... With the same $50 deductible but for only $25 a year. Just a thought.
 
lorenwade said:
SquareTrade is awesome. Sorry if I'm running this thread off the tracks... But I called my insurance, they cover phones also... With the same $50 deductible but for only $25 a year. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
I have State Farm. Zero deductible, covers for ANY reason, $36/ year for a 3GS 16 gig. Dropped my phone and shattered the glass, called my agent, they had a claims tech call me within the hour, and I had a check for $600 in my hands literally two days later.
 
gouda272 said:
I do not think they cover theft or loss. i did not see that mentioned anywhere on their site.
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You're right! Sorry for the confusion everyone.
Squaretrade said:
The basic Care Plan does NOT cover the following:

DOA items or items breaking in the first 60 days
Accidental damage (unless you’ve purchased ADH)
Damage from misuse, loss, or theft
Accessories, attachments, and additional parts
Consumable items (bulbs, fuses, replaceable batteries)
Pre-existing conditions
Commercial-use items
Click to expand...
 
Reading this article though said that they had to drop it on it's face 3 times to break it. The odds of you landing it right on the face 3 times probably won't be that great. I would get a bumper though.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

You also need to understand that this company relies on people breaking their phones. If the phone was unbreakable then they would be out of business. Sooo I don't think it's that strange that they were able to break the glass. Apple says the glass is stronger and I believe them. It's not unbreakable but definitely stronger then the past iPhones or they wouldn't have used it on the back of the phone as well. You are all trusting a companys opinion on an obviously biased test. If my job was to sell home insurance, I would definitely be telling you that the area was prone to burglary, fires, etc. So no offense to this company but this "test" means nothing to me. I trust Apples impartial testing to this 3rd partys testing any day.
 
This company really has nothing to gain by proving this. Its not like insurance at all because you are not going to give them money unless you actually break your iPhone 4 screen.
 
STEVESKI07 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

You also need to understand that this company relies on people breaking their phones. If the phone was unbreakable then they would be out of business. Sooo I don't think it's that strange that they were able to break the glass. Apple says the glass is stronger and I believe them. It's not unbreakable but definitely stronger then the past iPhones or they wouldn't have used it on the back of the phone as well. You are all trusting a companys opinion on an obviously biased test. If my job was to sell home insurance, I would definitely be telling you that the area was prone to burglary, fires, etc. So no offense to this company but this "test" means nothing to me. I trust Apples impartial testing to this 3rd partys testing any day.
Click to expand...

Why would a company bias this test? What would they gain by doing this? If anything, they would LOSE business, due to the fact that after seeing this, my plans of keeping my iPhone caseless has changed.
 
Testing...as in dropping...products...yes...it was a simple drop test...

Wow...and how old are you to keep harping on something that i made a mistake on? Let's remember one thing here...I'm here trying to HELP and INFORM. I'm not here to get ripped on for a physics error, or lesson. If i wanted that, i'd go back to school.

Let me rephrase this NEWBIES...apparently we have a bunch of children in here who have never ever ever in their lives made a mistake with anything school related. I applaud you for that.

The impact is greater with the heavier the object. Take this for example a truck and a motorcycle that you're riding on both slam into a wall going the same speed. The truck weighs 10000 lbs and the motorcycle weighs 500 lbs. Which causes more damage to the wall? That was my point.

And the entire point to this thread was to INFORM you...not for me to get ripped on because i messed up on my acceleration formula. Wow.

If you guys prefer to continue with this drop test yourselves, calculate the formulas, do whatever makes you happy, by all means, go for it.
 
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