Also, if this poll isn't referring to calendar year, then I need to update my bin.
How often do you drop your phone?
- Thread starter Jeff J
- Start date
I never buy top of the line phones for that reason too. I ask myself, does this thing do anything that a lower tier model that costs 1/4 to 1/3 of the price doesn't do tolerably well? And I can tolerate quite a bit for a few hundred dollars. But then I put my phone in a case, less because I trust a case to protect my phone if I drop it that because fo the last few years phones have been made slippery. You can get cases that are much easier to hold, so that's what I get.
I think I might have actually dropped my phone like 2 or 3 times over the last 10 years maybe. Aside from that, I/my wife have knocked it off the Qi charger a couple of times grabbing for it in the dark for a notification or something.
No problems except one time it happened to hit something as it fell off the charging stand and the screenprotector cracked. A couple minutes to replace that and it was back like new.
No problems except one time it happened to hit something as it fell off the charging stand and the screenprotector cracked. A couple minutes to replace that and it was back like new.
Screen protectors protect your phone from scratches.
People tend to think if the protector breaks and the screen doesn't, it saved their phone. That's definitely not usually true, if ever. Since the protector is thinner, more brittle, and overall much weaker than the phone screen, the protector will crack at way less force than it takes to break the phone screen. I suspect it offers no protection at all against breaking.
To reduce the chance of breaking it needs to absorb and spread any force, not break. So it needs to be thick and resistant to breaking.
I've never had a screen protector crack or break. I don't buy glass screen protectors.
Almost never. But when phones started getting glass backs, mine would slide off surfaces or out of my pocket while sitting. It got to the point that when I got my current phone, I caved and got a case, because I was so tired of my phone not staying put. Since then, I'm back to my phone basically never falling.
I wish I could get a flagship-level phone with a plastic back, and skip the case.
I wish I could get a flagship-level phone with a plastic back, and skip the case.
Another never here. I just don't think of my cell phone as an attachment to my body, or something I need to be checking at all times. When I do aerobic exercise my phone stays at home. When I am home my phone is somewhere at easy reach but definitely not on me. When I go to bed it's somewhere where it won't bother me with an unnecessary noise or whatever. I use my phone when I need it, otherwise is somewhere else. I don't feel pressured by answering a text when I hear the notification sound. I will answer when I am idle and when I feel like it. Phone calls are a no-no with me, as I simply do not answer them. Text me and ask me if I am up for a phone conversation first. I am not much of a mobile person, anyone can tell. My favorite communication tool is email by a long margin. Unobtrusive, and (usually) well thought out messages.
Ironically, having honestly answered 'never' (in the last year*) I dropped the fucking thing coming out of the gym this morning. Decent case on it, so no harm done!
*I've had an iPhone of some kind since the 3G in 2008. Dropped the 4 that replaced it two years later — landed on a corner, on concrete, and pinged a chip out of the edge of the screen. Still usable, but I've used a case ever since. Dropped a brand new 6 in the toilet — it fell out of my shirt pocket when I leaned over to flush. Definitely not water/pee proof, that model.
Home insurance covered the replacement. That's it for drops in seventeen years…
*I've had an iPhone of some kind since the 3G in 2008. Dropped the 4 that replaced it two years later — landed on a corner, on concrete, and pinged a chip out of the edge of the screen. Still usable, but I've used a case ever since. Dropped a brand new 6 in the toilet — it fell out of my shirt pocket when I leaned over to flush. Definitely not water/pee proof, that model.
Home insurance covered the replacement. That's it for drops in seventeen years…
I don't drop mine very often, and almost never from any real height.
I have a basic case for it, both because I'd really hate to have to get a new phone, and also to make it easier to hold onto. This Pixel is slick, yo.
I have a basic case for it, both because I'd really hate to have to get a new phone, and also to make it easier to hold onto. This Pixel is slick, yo.
Given how many people I have seen just live with a broken or cracked screen (who never used a screen protector) and my experience with them having saved my phone at least once and my wife's phone at least 4 or 5 times, I'll keep spending the $10 for a set of two of them every couple of years.
Even if they really are just keeping it from getting scratched, that's great all on its own. I don't want a scratched sceen either.
Maybe a couple of times per year, although I've (knocking vigorously on wood) never cracked a screen.
This thread reminds me of a couple of Onion articles about this:
https://theonion.com/new-iphone-geared-towards-college-aged-girls-comes-with-1819595381/
https://theonion.com/woman-who-cracked-3-separate-iphone-screens-expecting-b-1819575019/
This thread reminds me of a couple of Onion articles about this:
https://theonion.com/new-iphone-geared-towards-college-aged-girls-comes-with-1819595381/
https://theonion.com/woman-who-cracked-3-separate-iphone-screens-expecting-b-1819575019/
I think I saw that ad the other day. Didn't it end along the lines of dropping it again once you see the price? That didn't strike me as the ringing endorsement that they thought it was...
Anyway, put me in the less-than-weekly camp. I seem to drop mine at home far more often than I do outside.
In terms of screen breakage we've been lucky, knock on wood. The last time we had a broken screen was when my daughter was really little and The Missus had given her her 3GS to play with. She dropped it down a flight of concrete stairs. Thankfully, that was one of the last generations of Apple hardware where the actual screen wasn't bonded to the glass - it was just the glass that was cracked, and a replacement digitiser/glass part from ifixit was pretty cheap, on the order of $30 or so.
I have little interest in phones, so I inherit The Missus' leftovers when she upgrades, which these days is about 3 years. I think I'll be insisting on a screen protector from now on, as after doing the switch last autumn, I was less than impressed to find two fairly big scratches on the screen. It turns out that it fell on lava rocks (long cold) when a bunch of them were on a jolly to Hawai'i island. She has a selfie stick that doubles as a tripod with a narrow base, and they were taking a group photo when it got blown over.
Looking at ifixit, replacing that would be $200.
![:\](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/civis/data/assets/smilies/slash-1x.png "Slash :\")
You're asking me to COUNT that shit?!?! Nah we're not doing that.
So far I have yet to break my nose or face in the process.
So far I have yet to break my nose or face in the process.
No way. Glass phone cases crack just like they were designed to do. Spiderwebs aren’t only for the display anymore.
The glass is also slippery, so if it’s uncovered, it’s only a matter of time.
At least 3 times a week for me. I'm hopeless
I have a Galaxy Fold 5, with a Samsung slim pen case and a Amazon random special tempered glass screen protector for the outside screen. The screen protector works well (I got a crazy drive-by shooting style crack pattern when the phone landed dead flat on rocky asphalt, but the phone was fine)
Samsung engineered this folding phone WELL. It stands up just as well if not better than any conventional phone I've had in the past.
I have a Galaxy Fold 5, with a Samsung slim pen case and a Amazon random special tempered glass screen protector for the outside screen. The screen protector works well (I got a crazy drive-by shooting style crack pattern when the phone landed dead flat on rocky asphalt, but the phone was fine)
Samsung engineered this folding phone WELL. It stands up just as well if not better than any conventional phone I've had in the past.
In the multiple decades of phone ownership, dropped from my person? I'm pretty sure just once. Pushed off the bed or nightstand onto carpet, maybe 5-7 times. Still have all my old phones save the first Motorola t68i in great condition sitting in closets.