Galaxy S10 buyers around the world will receive their preorders this week, as three of the four Galaxy S10 models that Samsung unveiled two weeks ago will hit stores. When the Galaxy S10 does arrive at your door, you should remember that the phone is made of glass, just like its predecessors and many high-end smartphones. While it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 6, the most durable smartphone glass coming from Corning, the Galaxy S10 won’t handle all types of accidental drops with grace, so you’ll need protective gear for it.
A video posted on EverythingApplePro a few days ago shows a drop test comparison between the Galaxy S10 Plus and the iPhone XS Max, which are the biggest, newest flagships you can buy from Samsung and Apple, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the glass on both phones will shatter and crack when dropped against a hard surface like concrete from various heights. The rear glass shell or the front panel are equally prone to damage, although the video shows that the Galaxy S10 Plus is the first to crack. The curved edges of the screen are still susceptible to cracks, these drops show, even if they’re made of Gorilla Glass 6.
The Galaxy S10 Plus’s screen was damaged after a drop from around just three feet, and the more they dropped it, the more damaged it got to the point where the display wasn’t usable. It will be interesting to see how the Galaxy S10e does in drop tests, considering the phone features a flat screen, the first flat screen on a Galaxy S handset in years. The iPhone XS Max’s display was also cracked, but the phone was still usable after numerous drops, handling everything much better than Samsung’s handset.
We already know that replacing the screen or back panel of a glass iPhone like the iPhone XS Max is pretty costly, and you should expect the same thing for the Galaxy S10 phones, especially for the screen glass. Unlike its predecessors, the Galaxy S10 sports a more sophisticated display that includes an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. That’s the kind of component that might stop working after the screen cracks, and which could increase the cost of repairs.
The good news, however, is that Samsung will ship all Galaxy S10 models with a preinstalled screen protector, so you at least have some protection right out of the box. That said, it’s unclear whether the Galaxy S10 Plus phone in the video below has a screen protector, or whether it was removed.
