MotorolasShatterproofPhone

You’ve just bought your dream cell phone for e-reading, calls, social media, you name it. You can’t wait to show it off to your friend. But it’s icy outside, and while you’re making a quick call, you drop it. Sure enough, your $500 phone falls on its screen, against the sidewalk. Welcome to Crack City.

Now you must either give up on the phone or face a nasty repair bill or other damage to your wallet.

What’s going on? Murphy’s law? Have you offended the gods? The answer is more mundane—simple physics (somewhat related to the buttered toast phenomenon), reflecting such variables as the way people tend to hold their phones and the typical height above the ground.

Android Pit has the details, including one of the best counter-measures: just let the phone fall, rather than fumbling further to prevent catastrophe.

Needless to say, screen protectors won’t hurt, such as the tempered-glass one I bought to augment my case to help safeguard my Google Nexus 6. Or you can succumb to Motorola’s marketing campaign and buy a phone said to be shatter-proof. See CNN video above.

Here, at least, hype is truth, as long dents on the phone don’t count.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Ugh! Most cell phone “cases” are useless. I use a full envelope sleeve, taking the phone out of the sleeve only when I use it. The little ribbon taker-outer tab? Totally worth it.

    I learned my lesson on this with PDAs years ago. I do miss the flip front Rhinoskin sheet aluminum cases, but my current fake leather one is adequate.

  2. The best case/screenprotector that I’ve so far seen is the Red Pepper case for the Samsung Note 4.

    I’ve been using it for about a year now. The case completely encloses the phone, water- and dust-proof, but still provides access to all buttons and connectors when needed.

    I don’t know what the material that covers the screen is, but after a year of use, it’s still free from any scratches, where I previously had problems with stick-on screenprotectors that relatively quickly showed scratches. Also, because it’s not sticking to the actual screen, there are non of the usual issues with air bubbles or dust between the screenprotector and screen.

    I guess the worst you could say about it is that it looks somewhat clunky, but that’s more than made up for by the fact that it does a great job of protecting your phone.

    The availability of a similar quality case is going to be pretty much one of the deciding factors when I look for a new phone in the future.

    You can find it at relatively reasonable price from various sellers on ebay. e.g. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/231554379104 (This is simply the first seller that turned up when I was searching for it, I’m in no way advocating for this seller beyond the fact that it was the first search result when I searched.)

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