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My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for
by jjoonathan 9y ago
My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide.
The universe doesn't necessarily obey my intuition, of course, but since it differs quite dramatically from yours I thought I'd mention that there's an alternative model of the problem which supports the actions Essential Products is taking.
- pricechild 9y agoI think the point was that even when the phone is dropped on a corner, the glass cracks? Toughening the corners doesn't seem to help that.
- jjoonathan 9y agoThe glass cracks from a corner drop because the aluminum flexes and/or deforms much more than the glass, effectively focusing the force onto a small part of the glass's edge, which is the weakest part due to the hardening. Increasing stiffness and decreasing deformation spreads the force out across the edge, multiplying the effective strength. There's a reason why cracks almost always seem to start at the edges. In the most severe cases of direct impact of the face on a sharp/hard protrusion, you get a radial crack pattern, but by my estimation those are a tiny minority.
- raesene6 9y agoNot sure we're differing that much. My point was that the titanium shell they're providing doesn't (to me) remove the need for a case as they're saying it does. Any drop which damages the glass of a phone is a problem. A phone with a cracked screen is at the very least damaged and potentially entirely unusuable. My point was that they're addressing something which isn't the weak point in the system. Aluminium might scuff, but that's generally just a cosmetic issue. If a phone manufacturer wants a phone which doesn't require a case, they need to address the glass problem.
- jjoonathan 9y agoMy point was that by addressing the corner problem they are addressing the glass problem because glass breaks primarily due to poorly diffused corner impacts, not face impacts.
- raesene6 9y agoAhh I see, interesting theory, but I guess I'd want to see some drop tests of the full phone before I was convinced to have a phone with no case.