iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S2 drop test

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I avoid issues like that by going for function over form.
 

professorhat

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Or just go for the one you prefer and buy a case so you don't have to worry about it? I've dropped my 3GS many times and it's not got a scratch on it. They're hardly expensive compared to the phones themselves.
 

Trefor Patten

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I know accidents will happen but, call me old fashioned, can't you just take care of things that you own? I collect modern glass and most of it would be ruined if I dropped it from waist height, so I take care to ensure that I don't. As that flamin' meerkat would say 'simples'.
 

chebby

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Trefor Patten said:
I know accidents will happen but, call me old fashioned, can't you just take care of things that you own? I collect modern glass and most of it would be ruined if I dropped it from waist height, so I take care to ensure that I don't. As that flamin' meerkat would say 'simples'.

You have just 'jinxed' every bit of glass you own.
 

professorhat

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Trefor Patten said:
I know accidents will happen but, call me old fashioned, can't you just take care of things that you own? I collect modern glass and most of it would be ruined if I dropped it from waist height, so I take care to ensure that I don't.
Trefor Patten said:
I know accidents will happen but, call me old fashioned, can't you just take care of things that you own? I collect modern glass and most of it would be ruined if I dropped it from waist height, so I take care to ensure that I don't.

Whilst I agree with the principle, the difference is you probably don't tend to walk about the place with your modern glass collection held to your ear (and most likely distracted with life going on around you). If you did, that would dramatically increase your chances of accidentally dropping it.

However, with a good case on your phone, you don't need to worry about that as it's protected.
 

Trefor Patten

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Whilst I agree with the principle, the difference is you probably don't tend to walk about the place with your modern glass collection held to your ear (and most likely distracted with life going on around you). If you did, that would dramatically increase your chances of accidentally dropping it.

However, with a good case on your phone, you don't need to worry about that as it's protected.

You are absolutely right Professorhat. I am just of an age where I get a bit impatient with whiny people who complain that £400 worth of phone/camera/binoculars etc 'broke' when they dropped it. If things are precious, take care of them. Perhaps by buying a case. My glass collection is kept out of reach of pets and little people. I keep my iPod in a case and make sure my camera is attached to (at the very least) a wrist strap. ;)
 
Paul Hobbs said:
Not really suprising that the plastic thing faired better than the glass thing really is it :)

Well, the screen is glass in both phones. I would have imagined that they use Gorilla glass which is extremely resistant to breaks, chips & scratches. I've dropped my phone a few times without any problem. My OH has the iPhone 4S, but she's not careless like me. ;)
 

Andrew17321

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Trefor, a wrist strap isn't enough. I had my camera attached with a wrist strap when I tripped and fell on top of it while on holiday. The lens mechanism jammed up totally, and, as it was some years old and not that expensive, I bought a replacement in the Duty Free on my way home.

When I got home the broken camera worked fine again! My grandson is now the proud owner of a second-hand Nikon Coolpix.

Andrew
 

MajorFubar

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Trefor Patten said:
You are absolutely right Professorhat. I am just of an age where I get a bit impatient with whiny people who complain that £400 worth of phone/camera/binoculars etc 'broke' when they dropped it. If things are precious, take care of them.
Indeed. I’m at an age where I get annoyed when I’m waiting to pick up my primary-school kids at home-time and I overhear a whiny mother complaining that their nine year old kid has broken his ‘4S just three weeks after she bought it, and so she’s going to have to buy another for him. Firstly what the **** is a 9 year old doing with a £400+ phone in the first place, irrespective of whether you have pockets deep enough to buy it, and secondly, how is so casually replacing it with another teaching him to value and respect anything when stuff comes so easy?

As a nation, never have we been more materialistic than now, yet conversely, never before do we seem to have valued expensive possessions less.
 

The_Lhc

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MajorFubar said:
Trefor Patten said:
You are absolutely right Professorhat. I am just of an age where I get a bit impatient with whiny people who complain that £400 worth of phone/camera/binoculars etc 'broke' when they dropped it. If things are precious, take care of them.
Indeed. I’m at an age where I get annoyed when I’m waiting to pick up my primary-school kids at home-time and I overhear a whiny mother complaining that their nine year old kid has broken his ‘4S just three weeks after she bought it, and so she’s going to have to buy another for him. Firstly what the **** is a 9 year old doing with a £400+ phone in the first place, irrespective of whether you have pockets deep enough to buy it, and secondly, how is so casually replacing it with another teaching him to value and respect anything when stuff comes so easy?

Yeah, I sit next to a bloke at work who regularly has that conversation on the phone with his kids, at least 4 or 5 times a year, be it phones, mp3 players, PS3s, etc etc and he just keeps replacing them! Either he has the clumsiest kids in the world or they do it deliberately to wind him up. I'm leaning towards the latter...
 
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Paul Hobbs said:
snivilisationism said:
I avoid issues like that by going for function over form.

On any item that a person interacts with as closely as a phone, form and function are the same thing.

I include durability in the word "function". I have dropped many phones, and never had more than a case popping apart. I wouldn't touch a phone with a glass screen however good it looked
 

MajorFubar

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The_Lhc said:
Yeah, I sit next to a bloke at work who regularly has that conversation on the phone with his kids, at least 4 or 5 times a year, be it phones, mp3 players, PS3s, etc etc and he just keeps replacing them! Either he has the clumsiest kids in the world or they do it deliberately to wind him up. I'm leaning towards the latter...
More fool him. Nor is he doing them any favours re. teaching them about the value of things. In fact give it ten years and they'll probably be amongst that generation's young rioters, putting shop windows in because the social doesn't give them enough money to buy an iPhone 15. Ok bit of an extreme stereotypified conclusion, but such trees from little acorns do grow.
 

Paul.

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snivilisationism said:
Paul Hobbs said:
snivilisationism said:
I avoid issues like that by going for function over form.

On any item that a person interacts with as closely as a phone, form and function are the same thing.

I include durability in the word "function". I have dropped many phones, and never had more than a case popping apart. I wouldn't touch a phone with a glass screen however good it looked

Since the screens are created from the same material, it is the form of the Samsung that defends its screen from gravity. Is it not the form of an Airplane window that gives it its strength? (as opposed to a square design) Form is not just about how good something looks.

The S2 is technologically speaking superior to the iPhone, but from a design standpoint it is not a nice. It feels flimsy by comparison, but the thing that bugs me the most, a 95th percentile hand cannot reach all four corners with their thumb without stretching uncomfortably, forcing two handed use. That is a much bigger compromise in my opinion than the iPhones exposed glass edges. Wouldn't make a very good hit-whoring youtube video though would it? (Most iAnything destruction on youtube results in a profit to youtube affiliates, usually)

If you hadn't guessed, the old adage "form follows function" irks me :p
 

dannycanham

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Paul Hobbs said:
snivilisationism said:
Paul Hobbs said:
snivilisationism said:
I avoid issues like that by going for function over form.

On any item that a person interacts with as closely as a phone, form and function are the same thing.

I include durability in the word "function". I have dropped many phones, and never had more than a case popping apart. I wouldn't touch a phone with a glass screen however good it looked

Since the screens are created from the same material, it is the form of the Samsung that defends its screen from gravity. Is it not the form of an Airplane window that gives it its strength? (as opposed to a square design) Form is not just about how good something looks.

The S2 is technologically speaking superior to the iPhone, but from a design standpoint it is not a nice. It feels flimsy by comparison, but the thing that bugs me the most, a 95th percentile hand cannot reach all four corners with their thumb without stretching uncomfortably, forcing two handed use. That is a much bigger compromise in my opinion than the iPhones exposed glass edges. Wouldn't make a very good hit-whoring youtube video though would it? (Most iAnything destruction on youtube results in a profit to youtube affiliates, usually)

If you hadn't guessed, the old adage "form follows function" irks me :p

I cannot work out how you have come to the conclusion the S2 requires the use of both thumbs. It simply doesn’t. Hold the phone upright in the fingers, the thumb palm combination has more than enough reach. A top opposite corner requires more movement than common gestures (it requires movement of more than just the thumb), but a top opposite corner press is an uncommon press. I’d guess at one press every 50-100 gestures, and none at all basic phone use. So even if you held it with just the thumb reaching over to the front texting and phonecalls you do not use the top opposite corner. Holding the phone side on is designed for two thumbed use so you cannot be thinking of that.

Feels flimsy is a load of rubbish as well. It has a solid glass front. Not flimsy. It has a very thin back. Only flimsy when taken off the phone. Otherwise it is sandwiched to the components behind it which are all solid. Feels flimsy is a psychological issue for the first time user as there is an assumption that a thin backed product should feel flimsy. That is not the same situation as a thin backed product actually feeling flimsy.
 

bay24

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From recent experience (today) I have to disagree with both of your statements. Went out with my wife to get her a new phone today and she can not text on the galaxy with one hand using her thumb as it is too big, granted she has not got he biggest hands in the world but they are by no means the smallest.
On the strength side during the same demonstration the sales person managed to snap the back off of the display phone trying to get the security alarm off the back for my wife to hold it. Suggests to me it is not that sturdy.

Saying all that she got the Galaxy s2 over an I phone anyway as it was cheaper to get than the much lower spec iPhone 4 which has been out a year and a half.
 

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