Smartphone makers are yet to figure out how to create indestructible phones, although some of them are slowly getting there. What’s worse, most high-end handsets nowadays feature glass-sandwich designs to support wireless charging — or because the competition is also doing it. That means you now have to worry about not breaking that rear glass panel in addition to the display.
However, some of today’s phones handle drops with more grace than others, and a blog set out to discover which phone is the sturdiest.
After spending $18,000 worth of phones Tom’s Guide ranked them by durability.
The Motorola Moto Z2 Force is the best when it comes to handling drops, even against concrete, but the phone isn’t water resistant and will fail water-related accidents.
The iPhone X did better than many of its rivals, including the Galaxy S9, Google Pixel 2 XL and Huawei Mate 10 Pro. The iPhone X placed third overall, but it was the top performer when it comes to non-rugged devices.
Tom’s Guide even provided a scoring system for the project, although there’s no way to create a completely objective scoring system for drops, and the following scores don’t guarantee that, in all possible real-life world scenarios, the Galaxy Note 8 will break easier than the iPhone X. However, the general conclusion does seem to be that the Moto Z2 Force can handle plenty of pain.
Just like with previous drop tests, the moral of the story is similar. You should use at least a screen protector with your phone if you hate cases. Pack a case too, if you rock a glass sandwich handset.
The tech blog then performed an even crazier stunt together with LiveScience, and that’s to drop the same phones from 100 feet, with the help of a drone. Now that’s the kind of accident that will surely shatter your phone, although, depending on how it drops, it might still work after repairs. Here’s a video of that:
