suddenly think of an interesting question

[louis2008]

suddenly think of an interesting question.

It's often said a phone could get damaged when dropped from height. Well, what is actual electronic part that would get damaged by strong impact? From my knowledge many parts in the electronic circuits are well mounted or soldered that should not be affected easily by shocking. Or is in most cases the damage is about appearance of the phone e.g. scratches, breaking the glass, rather than the functionality?

 

[Fox Mulder]

The most fragile part, and most commonly broken, is the display glass. The digitizer underneath the glass is fragile too and can be damaged from impact so it stops working. Also the outer case of the phone can be broken or distorted (some have backs made of glass which can break) and this damage can in turn affect the main board or other internal components. The battery can also suffer damage from a strong impact which may not be immediately apparent but can cause it to fail later..
If the phone is water resistant, impact damage from a fall or drop may affect the seals so it can then leak.

 

[ocnbrze]

there are plenty of youtube videos that compare durabilities of various phones.

here is one:

you can see that most of the damage is on the outside and the glass.

 

[nickdalzell]

About every phone I see out in public is shattered or cracked. Sometimes back to front. The weird part is most of the ones with shattered displays have cases on them, so it's kinda odd. Now maybe not, since those same people put the phone in their back pocket so 1/4 of the phone sticks out since they're all so huge today.

They never learned the hard lesson I did with that old Pocket PC back in 2004, or they just don't care. Since I pay outright for my devices, I take great care of them and haven't had a shattered glass unless the device angered me to the point I literally took a hammer to it.

 

[Davdi]

Likewise, I always buy my devices upfront and put them in a (Usually Faux) leather flip case. The only time I've had a screen crack was on my originall1st gen Moto G years ago - the only phone not in a flip case.

 

[mikedt]

The only times I've ever actually damaged a phone was a Samsung Galaxy S that had a cracked screen, but the front glass wasn't broken. I didn't drop it, but we were moving some heavy furniture and the phone was in my trouser front pocket. Every Android phone I've had, I've always had it in a case.

And the other time I busted a phone was a Nokia N95 Symbian phone, that also had a cracked screen while it was in my pocket. But that phone was a rather stupid design, where the actual LCD display itself was completely exposed, with no covering glass or plastic. Fortunately for that device, replacement LCDs were quite cheap and I had while-you-wait repair.

Looking at other people's phones, the colleague I work with has an iPhone, and that's got busted glass front and back, but it still works and he seems happy with it.

 

[nickdalzell]

I used to have one of those belt clip thingies for my Nokia 5185i I used up till 2010. Thing popped off each time I sat or crouched. That poor Nokia had to have the battery (which was also the back of the phone) duct-taped to the phone just to keep it powered on since after so many drops the battery snaps were long broken.

Back in those old crazy Nokia days we had a guy at the Cingular Wireless store who could literally fix any phone in seconds. You could hand him a busted LCD Nokia 5100 and he'd have it fixed in less than a minute. Still amazes me looking back on it. FAST. Nowadays phones are made where folks just toss them into the garbage to get their 'next upgrade itch' going. Even though today phones have even less features than that N95 did.