4 ms·

For a lot of people, any non-normal state == bricked. Especially now, when the genius bar isn't open. And yes, there's a difference between a soft brick and a

For a lot of people, any non-normal state == bricked. Especially now, when the genius bar isn't open. And yes, there's a difference between a soft brick and a hard brick, and it depends on your ability to repair. Getting my phone stuck in a bootloop is usually a soft brick, but my Pixel went into one a few years ago for no apparent reason (likely mobo failure) and that was beyond my capacity to repair or diagnose, so it's bricked.

BubRoss 7y ago
Maybe you could call that broke, but that isn't bricked.
j4yav 7y ago
In my experience people call those sorts of things broken or not working, rather than (soft or hard) bricked. So people would say things like "the power went out in my house and soft bricked my TV until the power company turned it back on"? It's interesting how language evolves.
- huffmsa 7y ago
  No, downloading a bad patch for your smart TV that puts it in a bootloop or won't let you change inputs would be a soft(ware) brick. Hardware errors are hard bricks. This isn't a difficult delineation.
  - j4yav 7y ago
    That doesn't seem to align with where you said that any non-normal state is bricked, and that the difference between soft and hard bricked is your ability to repair it.
wlll 7y ago
I have literally never heard the term "soft brick" before. You're just describing "broken".
- zaroth 7y ago
  To be sure, a soft brick is a pile of clay or mud, not a brick at all. It has neither the form or function of a brick, and therefore is the perfect analogy to this vociferous misnomer.
- mannykannot 7y ago
  It is the sort of nonsense we have to put up with when people start abusing a well-established term to get attention rather than to convey information -- though, in this case, it seems some machines really have been bricked.
- snazz 7y ago
  It's somewhat common in the custom Android ROM community, where there are different levels of "brick".

BubRoss 7y ago

Maybe you could call that broke, but that isn't bricked.

j4yav 7y ago

In my experience people call those sorts of things broken or not working, rather than (soft or hard) bricked. So people would say things like "the power went out in my house and soft bricked my TV until the power company turned it back on"? It's interesting how language evolves.

huffmsa 7y ago
No, downloading a bad patch for your smart TV that puts it in a bootloop or won't let you change inputs would be a soft(ware) brick. Hardware errors are hard bricks. This isn't a difficult delineation.
- j4yav 7y ago
  That doesn't seem to align with where you said that any non-normal state is bricked, and that the difference between soft and hard bricked is your ability to repair it.

wlll 7y ago

I have literally never heard the term "soft brick" before. You're just describing "broken".

zaroth 7y ago
To be sure, a soft brick is a pile of clay or mud, not a brick at all. It has neither the form or function of a brick, and therefore is the perfect analogy to this vociferous misnomer.
mannykannot 7y ago
It is the sort of nonsense we have to put up with when people start abusing a well-established term to get attention rather than to convey information -- though, in this case, it seems some machines really have been bricked.
snazz 7y ago
It's somewhat common in the custom Android ROM community, where there are different levels of "brick".