iPhone durability.

[Draconian Guppy]

So i've read numerous times on hundreds of sites stories on how the glass iphone 4 and 4s break easily, So I thought I'd share a couple of my stories...

Man I can't tell you how many times i've dropped my iPhone 4 on... Concrete, Asphalt, wood, dirt, water... unintentionally... and every time I drop it, time stops, my heart accelarates and I gulp... But alas... A phew scratches here and there on the screen protector and barely noticeable...

The worst was when It fell of my work vest ( i'm around 6 ft tall) whilst I was getting into a work truck (toyota hilux) and while I was grabbing the steering wheel, I tilted to grab the door and it fell around 9ish feet or 2.5ish meters straight into gravel..

Another time I was playing basketball and forgot to take it out my short's pocket... Straight into concrete floor

That other time, I leaned down to grab a steel tube to try and twist the opening... the iphone slipped and hit sideways the steel pipe....

knock on wood...

Then i've lost track of how many times i've dropped it face on...

So either i'm really lucky or people are really REALLY trying to break them.

Most of the time it only had a skinomi front screen protector, I later added the back one... Then I changed it for a nice metal matte stick on on the back, then removed it and stuck another transparent protector... I used to have a caselogic case for it... Now it's collecting dust.

Now... when my phone decides to call it quits on me, I can't really blame it :p But I will, nevertheless bitch and rant about what a ****ty phone and how my old phones took the same beatings and still would probably work.

Original comment is here:

https://www.neowin.net/news/eyes-on-with-the-iphone-5-sort-of

[ozgeek]

I am same with you. I had my iphone4 since October 2010. It is still going strong albeit a few stratches on the silver band.

All this time, I have dropped it a few times on the hard tiled floor in my bathroom, dropped a few times on the wooden stairs, dropped it a few times on the grass. Yet my iphone still works great. As I typing this, I am just doing my routine sync and charge on it.

Because I am very impressed on how duriable Apple mobile devices are, I decided to buy a tablet PC also made by Apple. - The iPad 2. It matches my experiences with my iphone. Hard and durible, thought I haven't dropped my ipad yet, it's been a month and I am loving it.

[The Guvnor]

^ Thanks OP. Make me feel much better about my 4S :)

Im one scared cat regarding the glass & the horror stories it comes with.

[Shadrack]

I've had my iPhone 4 for over 2 years and have dropped it a few times. Got lucky all but once when I dropped it out in the dessert on some rocks. Got a few scratches and a "dent" the size of a teeny tiny pebble on the screen. Luckily no cracks! Like any phone, it only takes dropping it in a bad way once to crack the screen.

The glass on the back and the glass protecting the camera are very scratch prone. I had to replace the back because the scratches on the lens were effecting picture quality. Apple Store replaced the glass for me for $30.

[HawkMan]

The problem with the iPhone is the small bezel and the hard metal frame that doesn't have any give before the screen combined with the big round corners. The worst place for a device to hit when falling is on a corner. The round corners actually make them much bigger tags when falling and impacting, on top of that, there's glass all the way to the edge on them.

No it won't break every fall, but it will break the glass more frequently when falling.

[sanctified Veteran]

The iPhone 4 was indeed very fragile and scratch prone, hwever the iPhone 4s seems more resistant. I've dropped mine about four times and no scratch whatsoever.

[Shadrack]

The problem with the iPhone is the small bezel and the hard metal frame that doesn't have any give before the screen combined with the big round corners. The worst place for a device to hit when falling is on a corner. The round corners actually make them much bigger tags when falling and impacting, on top of that, there's glass all the way to the edge on them.

No it won't break every fall, but it will break the glass more frequently when falling.

Break more frequently than what? Every other phone in existence?

Any phone with a large glass screen can fall and break. There probably have been studies to compare the statistics but I don't think that the iPhone 4/4s is anymore shatter prone (excluding the back glass) than other phones. At least not by a significant margin. Now, if you are a cluts I wouldn't recommend it or even a smartphone (unless it is cheep). But it can really happen to anyone. My girlfriend shattered the glass on her HTC EVO just the other day by dropping it on tile. It was an accident but my iPhone has hit the same tile and not shattered. It could of, but hasn't yet.

[Dorza]

My mate dropped his 4 on to a carpeted floor the other day, it landed on one of it's corners he said and the back of it just shattered completely. He showed me it today and it was just a mess, you could see the cracks spanning outwards from the corner it hit so it definatly started there. Some one in work dropped theirs to and that also shattered but I dont know what the circumstances were in that case. When they go the really go big time.

[Shadrack]

My mate dropped his 4 on to a carpeted floor the other day, it landed on one of it's corners he said and the back of it just shattered completely. He showed me it today and it was just a mess, you could see the cracks spanning outwards from the corner it hit so it definatly started there. Some one in work dropped theirs to and that also shattered but I dont know what the circumstances were in that case. When they go the really go big time.

If it is just the back, then it is a cheep repair from Apple. They only charged me $30.

[HawkMan]

Break more frequently than what? Every other phone in existence?

Any phone with a large glass screen can fall and break. There probably have been studies to compare the statistics but I don't think that the iPhone 4/4s is anymore shatter prone (excluding the back glass) than other phones. At least not by a significant margin. Now, if you are a cluts I wouldn't recommend it or even a smartphone (unless it is cheep). But it can really happen to anyone. My girlfriend shattered the glass on her HTC EVO just the other day by dropping it on tile. It was an accident but my iPhone has hit the same tile and not shattered. It could of, but hasn't yet.

Pretty sure I already clarified, any other phones without edge to edges glass with tiny hard metal bezel/frame. And without big round corner, particularly with glass all the wy to the cage on these big round corner.

Also the back glass alone makes it twice as fragile as any other phone, even if it is a "cheap" repair(nice with lots of disposable funds) of course if you don't live in a big American city within apple store, you now, with their new procedures, need to pay for repair shipment.

[Draconian Guppy]

Break more frequently than what? Every other phone in existence?

Any phone with a large glass screen can fall and break. There probably have been studies to compare the statistics but I don't think that the iPhone 4/4s is anymore shatter prone (excluding the back glass) than other phones. At least not by a significant margin. Now, if you are a cluts I wouldn't recommend it or even a smartphone (unless it is cheep). But it can really happen to anyone. My girlfriend shattered the glass on her HTC EVO just the other day by dropping it on tile. It was an accident but my iPhone has hit the same tile and not shattered. It could of, but hasn't yet.

Yeah there are several "drop tests" for the iPhone 4/4s vs. the S II and SIII and in almost every other test, the iPhone always breaks/shatters the last..

Anyway, the whole point of this thread is NOT to point out that the glass breaks... It's to point out that even though, it does break, they do withstand a beating. Because there are hundreds of stories out there on how easily the glass back and front of the iPhone breaks, this thread aims to point out the beatings the phone can take.

@Hawkman... Mine hit a steel pipe from my height give or take 1 meter (while I bent down) directly on the corner, it kinda left a mark/dent where it hit, but you can barely notice it.

[Slammers]

I literally don't know anyone with an iphone 4/4s that hasn't broken their screen or backing glass at least once. To be fair, i probably only know about 10 people with iphones, but I literally can not think of one of them that hasn't had their glass shatter on them. I HAVE seen them be dropped and not be damaged though, and they can definately withstand a small amount of force, but its still something that would put me off buying one seeing I hold an active lifestyle. I have seen one get nudged off a knee high table and the whole screen was wrecked :cry: Such a rediculous design, to have glass all the way too the edge, sacrificing strength just to look nice.

[Matrix XII]

I've seen lots of iPhone 4 broken glass, except with mine it's never happened. I do have a screen protector on the back and front, but it's survived numerous drops on concrete.

Hopefully that gives people a little faith! ;) lol

[Josh_LosAltosHills]

in the past 2 weeks Ive had my 4s take a 2 ft drop on a wood floor and the screen shattered. was $100 to let apple fix it and my ipad 3 had a similar fate and it was $300 for apple to give me a replacement. But my 4 has been dropped numerous times (nieces use it as a gaming toy) and its still going.

[still1]

My friend replaced his iPhone twice in less than one and half year and that's the only 2 times he dropped his iphone.

First time Apple replaced it for free and send time he had to pay $150.

I guess you are very lucky

[Shadrack]

Pretty sure I already clarified, any other phones without edge to edges glass with tiny hard metal bezel/frame. And without big round corner, particularly with glass all the wy to the cage on these big round corner.

Do you base that on your own experience with the iPhone? Are there studies that have been done that show that the iPhone 4 is more prone to the front screen glass breaking than phones of a different design (which pretty much does mean every other phone in existence since no other phone has the design characteristics you are describing other than chinese knock off iPhones.) Or are you just basing that on your personal Engineering judgement and expertise?

Physical dropping aside and screen shattering issues (which I maintain my position that it is just a reality of any phone that uses a glass screen); I would argue that the iPhone 4 design will take normal wear and tare better than a plastic smartphone design. I base that on the fact that all my previous phones looked terrible after two years of usage whereas my iPhone 4 still looks like a new phone (besides the small scratches and the dimple on the screen from dropping it which you can only see if you hold it up to the light). I also base that on my engineering judgement because of the selection of materials (glass/aluminum/steel) is much better for normal wear and tare than plastic.

[ozgeek]

My mum has a iphone 4S for over a year. She is the type of person who stresses out and presses the home button every second, yet the iphone is still like new. I seen it myself. (like I said in my number 2 post in this thread, my iphone 4 is still perfect fine. I just jailbroke it), my sister has a 4s too though I don't know how she uses her. My dad has a iphone 3GS for 3 years, while it did take a beating, cracks visble on back, the phone still works.

[techbeck]

All phones can crack since it is all glass in the front. However, since iPhones are glass front and back...they are more prone to cracking than other devices. With the iPhone 5 being metal in the back now, hopefully this would help the problem. I have not seen an iPhone yet that has not had a crack either on the back or front of the device.

[Shadrack]

All phones can crack since it is all glass in the front. However, since iPhones are glass front and back...they are more prone to cracking than other devices. With the iPhone 5 being metal in the back now, hopefully this would help the problem. I have not seen an iPhone yet that has not had a crack either on the back or front of the device.

So you've seen 1 iPhone and it was cracked? Seriously? Shall I take pictures of my iPhone4 and the iPhone 4 of my co-worker next to me so you can increase your life experience to include "seeing an uncracked iPhone on the back and front of the device?"

[techbeck]

So you've seen 1 iPhone and it was cracked?

Where did I say that I only saw 1 iPhone? Learn to read what I said before replying.

[monomellow]

I dropped mine at home on wood floors and tiles and it's still fine. I had screen protector no covers.

[Shadrack]

Where did I say that I only saw 1 iPhone? Learn to read what I said before replying.

I just find it hard to believe that every iPhone 4 you've ever seen ever was cracked. I was being sarcastic because that seem to fit well with you exaggerating.

[Shaun N.]

I've had an iphone 4 and im now using an iphone 4s and ive never cracked a screen

[Xilo]

I've dropped my iPhone and now Galaxy S2 so many times on concrete, ceramic tile at home, etc.

I don't use any form of protectors. Have yet to get a scratch on the screen. Have yet to get any real scratches on the plastic.

What the hell do people do to crack the glass and such?

[.Neo]

I just find it hard to believe that every iPhone 4 you've ever seen ever was cracked. I was being sarcastic because that seem to fit well with you exaggerating.

Yeah, techbeck claimed the same thing in another thread. I'm having a hard time believing him as well. I've seen my a share of damaged iPhone screens, but all of them or even a majority? No. Maybe it's a case of seeing only what you want to see and blocking out the rest.