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iPhone 8

When Apple announced the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, it moved away from using metallic for the back of its phones in favor of all-drinking glass construction. The company promised that this would take no impact on device strength, claiming its metal backs were more than resilient than ever. Multiple reviewers reported the phone scratched only from beingness tucked into a pocket. Scratch resistance and affect resistance aren't the same matter, though scratches can make a device more likely to break depending on their severity. Now, there's additional evidence the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus may non be as strong as what Apple claimed.

Third-party warranty company SquareTrade has tested the iPhone eight and 8 Plus direct against the Galaxy Note 8. SquareTrade tested all three devices in a variety of tests, including side drops, dorsum-down drops, confront-downwardly drops, a "shot exam" that simulates a phone flight off the roof of a motorcar, a h2o resistance test, bendability exam, and a repairability test.

SquareTradeBreak

The chart to a higher place shows Apple's scores relative to Samsung'southward Note 8, just at that place are some distinctions between the two. The Galaxy Notation 8 suffered much less damage than the iPhones in SquareTrade's face up-drop test, simply the test broke the device, rendering it inoperable. The iPhones were badly shattered to the point of being unusable, just were non destroyed by the autumn. Both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were well-protected from the side-drop test thank you to the metallic band effectually them. But the dorsum-drop exam was a disaster for both the larger iPhone Plus and the Note viii. Both shattered and lost glass as a outcome. The back-glass problem is significant, partly because it'due south extremely difficult to replace. Even the repair gurus at iFixit had major problems with the back of the iPhone, and they rate replacing it as "very difficult."

A video of some of SquareTrade'south exam results is bachelor below:

"Like the Galaxy S8 and Note8, our tests show that the all-glass iPhone 8 and 8 Plus break on the commencement drop on all sides. Wireless charging is the time to come, no doubt. But it seems that Apple and Samsung have made a choice—to sacrifice immovability in the name of innovation." said Jason Siciliano, vice president global artistic director at SquareTrade. "The iPhone 8 is an astonishing device and should be quite pop. In our recent Decade of Harm Study, we found that 44 percent of current iPhone owners program to upgrade to a new model this autumn. If you're one of them, congrats—but hold on tight."

Nosotros'd be remiss if we didn't annotation SquareTrade has an obvious financial incentive hither — the more people call up that a device is prone to failure, the more likely it is people will buy a third-political party warranty. With that said, SquareTrade has been testing and releasing reports on diverse iOS and Android devices for years. You tin can certainly argue the visitor has a general reason to portray phones as fragile, but that doesn't hateful information technology has a specific reason to call out any detail telephone as such.

And there are year-to-year improvements–the iPhone vii'southward face up-downwardly driblet results were worse than either the iPhone viii or the iPhone 8 Plus. It doesn't exactly strain credulity to imagine a glass back is more prone to damage than a metal ane, peculiarly given the style smartphone vendors have continually kickoff improvements to Gorilla Glass past making the screens themselves thinner and thinner. If a new iteration of a technology is xx pct stronger at the aforementioned thickness than the prior version, and you lot promptly make the screen thinner, you've outset much of the improved immovability y'all might take otherwise gained. Apple's decision to raise the toll of screen repairs also ensures the aforementioned service will generate more profit.

Luckily, at that place'due south a way to substantially prevent many of these problems: Get a decent case, with or without a screen protector, depending on your personal preferences. If you don't want a physical screen protector, nosotros recommend a instance with a bit of a gasket effectually the screen. This cushions the device from drops and helps prevent the screen from really coming into contact with the ground if you drop the phone. I seriously recommend every iPhone 8 and 8 Plus owner use a case. According to PC Mag, the glass dorsum on the iPhone 8 and viii Plus isn't protected under Apple'southward screen repair fee. That means you lot'll pay $100 for a replacement under Applecare, and a jaw-dropping $349 for the iPhone viii and $399 for the iPhone 8 Plus if y'all break it. Yep, that means you can buy an entirely new iPhone SE for less than the toll of replacing the glass back on an iPhone 8 Plus.