After Three Drops…
The first thing to note from the drop test is that these drop tests shouldn’t be taken as some sort of gospel on the survivability of either device. AndroidAuthority, who performed the tests, seemingly did a great job of dropping both devices the same way for each of the three drops, but it’s still a tiny sample of just one device.
At the same time, many of us are very curious about how our devices would stand up to being dropped, and the real take away for us was that both of these devices survived two drops onto concrete from about four feet (and change) with only a few scratches. That’s very impressive.
The fact that third drop shattered the displays on both devices shouldn’t be a surprise, though. In both cases, the third drop was face down, and the glass cracked from here to Sunday. It’s hard to know how much of that was a result of the third drop adding to the stresses of the first two drops, but it seems safe to say that dropping a smartphone in this manner is a bad idea no matter what.
Another important point is that while this test suggests the iPhone is constructed better than the Samsung device (see our note above about the small sample size), but that still being able to work with a shattered screen is a pyrrhic victory, at best.
Our takeaway was that both devices survived two falls, not that the iPhone was somewhat usable after the third fall left both devices shattered.
Also: For the love of all that is holy, stay away from the YouTube comments on this one. No good will come of exposing yourself to the miasma of craptacular suckitude masquerading as conversation on this video.
AndroidAuthority iPhone 4S and Galaxy S3 Drop Test