The iPhone 6 is made to withstand drops and survive water submersions.
A video went viral on Friday manning, showing a man dropping his iPhone 6 on the ground right after purchasing it. Supposedly, the man was the first person in Australia to get his hands on the new Apple device, and in a cringe-worthy moment of clumsiness, he left the box carrying the device slip out of his hands. Surprisingly, though, the iPhone did not break.
In the past, iPhones have been infamous for their glass screens, which can easily shatter if the devices are dropped on a hard surface from a considerable height. For years, one of the most common items on eBay was a completely functional iPhone that just happened to have a broken screen. But the fact that the Australian iPhone buyer did not break his device by dropping it on the sidewalk indicates that, perhaps, Apple is becoming better in the durability department of smartphone design.
That indication is confirmed by a recent USA Today report, which says that recent tests have proven that the new iPhone 6 models perform better than past iPhones or Android devices in durability tests. The company responsible for the tests is called Square Deal and they provide protection plans for phones.
So how does Square Deal test phones? According to the USA Today, the company uses eight criteria, including weight, size, grip, and the overall durability and quality of the front and back panels, screens, or cases of the phone. In addition, Square Deal uses a “slide test,” where testers push phones across tables or other smooth surfaces to see how far the devices move. The seventh test involves dropping the phones on the ground from four feet up, while the eighth and final assessment submerges the devices in water for 10 seconds.
The phones are then graded on a 10-point scale. The fewer points a phone gets, the more durable it is. The standard 4.7-inch iPhone 6 beat the competition with a score of 4, while the bigger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus scored a 5. Last year’s iPhone 5S ended up with a 6, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 scored 6.5. The iPhone 6 Plus lost points because it came apart during the drop test. All the phones, however, survived being dunked in water.
Apple made several leaps forward with the iPhone 6, including longer battery life and higher processing power. Evidently, better durability was also one of the improvements.
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