The Toughest (And Weakest) Phones Currently On the Market (tomsguide.com) 112
New submitter Daneel Olivaw R. shares a report from Tom's Guide: To measure each phone's toughness, [Tom's Guide] dropped it from both 4 and 6 feet onto wood and concrete. After each test, we recorded the damage to the phone. If a phone was rendered unusable -- the screen totally shattered, for instance -- then we stopped dropping it. [More details on the testing process can be found here.] Each drop was worth a maximum of 5 points; if a phone made it through all of the rounds unscathed, it would earn 35 points. The more severe the damage per drop was, the more points were deducted. If a phone was rendered unusable after a given drop, it would earn no points, and would not undergo any subsequent test. In total, there were seven tests. [...] If a phone died in the 6-foot edge drop, it was penalized an extra 10 percent. If it died in the 6-foot face drop, it was penalized 5 percent. And if it died when dropped into the toilet, it lost 2.5 percent. We then divided the total score by 3.5, to put it on a 10-point scale. Here are the scores of each device:
Motorola Moto Z2 Force - Toughness score: 8.5/10
LG X Venture - Toughness score: 6.6/10
Apple iPhone X - Toughness score: 6.2/10
LG V30 - Toughness score: 6/10
Samsung Galaxy S9 - Toughness score: 6/10
Motorola Moto G5 Plus - Toughness score: 5.1/10
Apple iPhone 8 - Toughness score: 4.9/10
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 - Toughness score: 4.3/10
OnePlus 5T - Toughness score: 4.3/10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro - Toughness score: 4.3/10
Google Pixel 2 XL - Toughness score: 4.3/10
iPhone SE - Toughness score: 3.9/10
Motorola Moto Z2 Force - Toughness score: 8.5/10
LG X Venture - Toughness score: 6.6/10
Apple iPhone X - Toughness score: 6.2/10
LG V30 - Toughness score: 6/10
Samsung Galaxy S9 - Toughness score: 6/10
Motorola Moto G5 Plus - Toughness score: 5.1/10
Apple iPhone 8 - Toughness score: 4.9/10
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 - Toughness score: 4.3/10
OnePlus 5T - Toughness score: 4.3/10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro - Toughness score: 4.3/10
Google Pixel 2 XL - Toughness score: 4.3/10
iPhone SE - Toughness score: 3.9/10
iPhone X is a surprise (Score:2, Funny)
It's still never leaving it's case.
Re: iPhone X is a surprise (Score:1)
Please tell me you mean the glass case at the mall kiosk.
Re: iPhone X is a surprise (Score:4, Insightful)
What a bullshit RNG test this was. They should have performed the same tests on at least twenty of each model for the test to have any meaning.
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It isn't a surprise it is where I kinda expected it to be.
Despite the Slashdot hate of all things Apple, and MacRumors undying love of Apple. Apple actually makes a decent competing product that deserves to be in the price range that it is in. However it isn't #1 in any particular measure but near the top in most measures. Normally if there is any few particular aspect that you want out of a phone, there are normally phones better then the iPhone. But as an overall phone Apple tends to keep up with the r
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Why? Just because the SE looks a bit like the 4 it doesn't have to be made of the same materials.
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With Apple, the price of the product includes both the phone and the restrictive walled garden.
Whether the price is justified or not depends on your attitude toward walled gardens.
Turns out, walled gardens are very popular among garden gnomes owned by Shire folk, but in truth, some of them have never wandered close enough to the garden boundaries to figure out there's a wall after all. That garden gnomes own
That's why you get a metal case (Score:2)
Like this for example [www.ebay.ca]. There are others with a 17mm mount over the camera so you can screw on lenses like this. [www.ebay.ca]
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Metal? Wouldn't it be better to have a rubber or elastic polymer case that can absorb shocks rather than just transmit them?
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"Accelerating over a large distance and suddenly stopping is how hammers break stuff."
Actually, it's just a practical way to exert a lot of force. A hydraulic press exerting the same force that builds up over weeks will break stuff just the same. The suddenly stopping has nothing to do with it. A common misconception. Neither does accelerating over a large distance. How would the material know what the hammer was doing before? Or whether it was accelerating or just moving by a constant velocity?
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"Accelerating over a large distance and suddenly stopping is how hammers break stuff."
Actually, it's just a practical way to exert a lot of force. A hydraulic press exerting the same force that builds up over weeks will break stuff just the same. The suddenly stopping has nothing to do with it. A common misconception.
Only if you completely ignore inertia and material elasticity.
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Like I said, a common misconception.
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*facepalm*
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"Accelerating over a large distance and suddenly stopping is how hammers break stuff."
Actually, it's just a practical way to exert a lot of force. A hydraulic press exerting the same force that builds up over weeks will break stuff just the same. The suddenly stopping has nothing to do with it. A common misconception. Neither does accelerating over a large distance. How would the material know what the hammer was doing before? Or whether it was accelerating or just moving by a constant velocity?
Like I said, it's balancing kinetic energy through energy conservation. At the end of acceleration your kenetic energy is 1/2 x mass x velocity^2 and this is the same as the force x distance. When you stop the kenetic energy is zero again. This is also force x distance. So force1 x distance1 = force2 x distance2 so therefore force1/force2= distance2/distance1. Stop suddenly and you need to apply a great force, slowly and the force is less. To smash something with a hammer you need a hard surface, or
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How has no one said the word "impulse" in this conversation yet?
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I agree with both. I got a case both elastic on the edges yet with a stiff back. I'd say it weighs a goodly percent of the iphone8s, but it handles the butt: I sit on it all the time, with no concern. I considered getting just an edge bumper, but I knew that, for one reason or another, I'd end up sticking it in my back pocket, forget about it, then sit on it and shatter it.
Re: That's why you get a metal case (Score:1)
People who sit on their phones are just idiots.
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All people are idiots, wether they sit on their phones or not.
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The one I got has a silicone rubber inner lining. I was too lazy before to find the specific case... This is the one I got. [www.ebay.ca]
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I'd like to see tests with various cases and bumpers. Very few people use their phones without some kind of case.
Similarly, screens should be tested with protectors applied.
Kind of benchmarks vs. real world performance.
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I don't understand why I would want to pay more for a phone to get one that's super thin, then spend more still to get a metal box to put it in rather than buying a more rugged phone in the first place.
Oddly, rugged phones tend to be cheaper with an otherwise comparable feature set.
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Fuck this summary/ad (Score:5, Interesting)
The ten toughest non-ruggedized phones.
You'd think that would have made the summary.
No I didn't RTFA....nobody saw me, can't prove anything.
Re: Fuck this summary/ad (Score:2)
It's all about the touchdown.
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The top two are semi-ruggedized. The first one has a shatterproof screen, the second has metal brackets. It makes the iPhone X the winner of the non-ruggedized phones.
Chance... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Chance... (Score:5, Insightful)
^^^ +1
You can drop a phone JUST RIGHT only a few feet from soft ground and have it shatter, or the same phone from 5 feet on concrete and it survive fine. A sample size of 1 tells you almost nothing. I would venture it would take at least 10 drops, each test being a NEW phone, before you could get even a slight chance of knowing anything useful. And even then, it would only tell you about that height and that material it was dropped onto. Of course, that would be VERY expensive testing!
Even discounting the sample sizes of just ONE phone, dropped REPEATEDLY, who actually carries a phone without at least SOME type of case? Nobody I know...
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Exactly this.
I had one phone that I dropped from 25' up on to concrete and it survived just fine, but a month later I dropped the same phone one foot on to packed dirt and the screen shattered. It's all about how it lands
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idk, we knew nothing before, so it's something. They put some thought into it. Somewhat more thought out than what I did when I was looking at buying a new phone. I'm at the apple dealer, I toss my caseless BB on the ground and it goes bouncing along the carpet. I say to the salesman, "can you do that with your iPhone?". He says yes and does so. In this case it was a "poorly designed test", though, because he didn't take the case off, and he made sure it landed flat on its back.
So, the trick is to add this
Re:Chance... (Score:4, Interesting)
I carry my phone without a case, for the same reason I'd carry a baby without one... don't drop it.
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so you don't use a car seat for your baby because you don't crash your car, right?
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I also don't use a case (I don't like the extra bulk or any of how it hinders access to phone controls) but have to say shit happens.. I mean I grew up when car seats weren't mandatory and made it out just fine but enough others didn't that they added the regulations.
That being said: Out of the 10 phones I've had in 23 years I've only ever damaged 2 of them.. the rest died of old age (typically can't hold a charge anymore even with new battery or software updates exceeded the power of the phone making it pa
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You don't get a sample size of more than one, but you will likely drop your phone more than once. This isn't actually a bad test. They dropped the phones a number of times a number of different ways and assigned a score based on damage.
who actually carries a phone without at least SOME type of case? Nobody I know...
And? What are you testing, the quality of the case or the quality of the phone? The base quality of the phone has a lot to do with how well it will survive after you put a case on it. It may even have an affect on which case you chose to buy. In any case this is a baseline t
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I actually carry my phone without a case. I do, however, have the Motorola Z2 Force, and have the Motorola TurboPower mod stuck on it all the time (in efficiency mode, the battery life is insane).
I've dropped it, and had the mod and phone fly in separate directions. Outside of a couple minor scratches on the metal frame, there is no evidence this thing hasn't been used gently everywhere I've had it.
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a sample size of 1 can hardly be considered meaningful indicator.
Well, please feel free to drop your phone down the toilet and let us all know how well it held up.
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This was a "test" done by Tom's Guide, their test was useful as a fart in a storm.
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Well fortunately for you they dropped them a number of times in a number of ways.
Nothing from HTC? (Score:3)
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10/10 reference was... (Score:1)
The Nokia 3210 of course.
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Nokia 3595 - Toughness score = 10,000,000/10
And a better PHONE than any "phone" you can buy today!
iPhone X is stronger than it appears (Score:2)
The way I've gone with modern phones is, I use it mostly without a case until the first time it gets noticeable damage, then I get a case for the remainder of the time I use it.
I got the iPhone X at launch and so far it's held up pretty well. It's not like I've never dropped it, I've dropped it onto a number of hard surfaces including a pretty high drop onto concrete where it hit the corner. But so far, you really can't even tell it's been dropped.
If you think about it, it should hold up better than most
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What do I mean by mostly - for hiking I'm not insane, I have a pretty rugged case I break out that is way more than I'd want to deal with with in a city but it helpful around lots of jagged rocks.
Can you really call it hiking if your cellphone still works?
It's just a scenic walk.
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You should try a country with good mountain ranges.
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I live in a country with 1/4 the population density of Norway, and where Norway's tallest mountain wouldn't crack the top 100 of ours. We have 3 times more protected nature area than Norway has total surface area.
Seriously, the reason you have such great cell coverage everywhere is your high population density, and lack of major mountain ranges. It's easy to have good coverage in an area like that.
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If you can see civilization (including seeing cell towers) you aren't really "getting away from it all"
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Will it blend? (Score:1)
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I would give you points if I could for the Blendtec reference. Those things rock and are tougher than Chuck Norris (action figures)!
Just get something cheap and light (Score:2)
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It's like a bug hitting a windshield, not enough weight to go splat.
Q: What’s the last thing that goes through a bug’s mind when it hits a windshield?
A: Its butt.
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Anyway, if something isn't made you can't buy it so that may also explain why people don't buy phones with replaceable batteries or with feature X.
None of those are cool anyway (Score:2)
Not a single Japanese flip-phone on that list ...
dfdsfssssszs (Score:1)
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The force is not strong (Score:1)
The Z2 Force is not tough by any sane metric. I bought one to try out t-mobile, and the display literally got scratched sitting on a cluttered desk waiting to be sold. My Note 4 was pristine after three years of being shuffled around my desk, bed, and in the same pocket as my wallet and favorite pen.
No Samsung S* Active? (Score:2)
The Active variants of the Galaxy S line have treated me and my boys well since the S6 Active. I recently upgraded to an S8 Active so my youngest could inherit my old S6 Active. Now they do say they are looking at "nonrugged" phones at the top, but then they call the LG X Venture a "value priced rugged phone", so who knows.
No sense in being redundant. (Score:2)
If a phone was rendered unusable -- the screen totally shattered, for instance -- then we stopped dropping it
Then they could determine if it would blend.