SquareTrade Galaxy S8 breakability test results: “Just don’t drop it!”

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There’s no doubt that the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones are beautifully designed devices. However, with all that edge-to-edge glass, one does have to wonder about the durability of the devices. While some users put their devices in a case the second they take them out of the box, others prefer the naked look to their devices which, of course, leads to more chance of damaging them when it comes to accidental drops. SquareTrade put both smartphones through their Galaxy S8 breakability test and found that they really didn’t fare that well in drop tests.

The company used a number of robots to perform drop, tumble, slide, and dunk the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and added the results to how easy the smartphones are to repair to get a score out of 100. The higher the score, the higher the risk of it breaking due to an accident.

“Samsung has had a tough year, making global headlines with major product defects and other scandals, so they had to knock it out of the park with the Galaxy S8,” said Jason Siciliano, vice president global creative director at SquareTrade. “While the nearly all-glass design of the S8 makes it a beautiful phone, it’s extremely susceptible to cracking when dropped from any angle.”

During their testing of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones, SquareTrade found the following:

  • Face Down Drop Test: The biggest enemy of glass screens continues to be sidewalks, with cracks on both devices appearing after just one face-down drop, along with small chunks of glass missing from the corners of the S8.
  • Side and Back Drop Tests: With all glass bodies, the S8 models were especially susceptible to the back-down drop, which caused cracks on their fronts as well. The S8 suffered the most damage during the side drop, losing the glass from its lower left corner, making access to software buttons a little dangerous.
  • Dunk Test: With an industry-leading IP68 rating, both phones did well in five feet of water for 30 minutes. There were some audio muffling and distortion following submersion, but after 30 minutes out of the water audio on both was almost completely restored.
  • Repairability: With strong adhesive attaching front and back glass panels, and the battery being difficult to reach, a repair on either the S8 or S8+ is difficult. Fortunately, once opened up replacing other components looks relatively easy.
SquareTrade-Samsung-S8-Breakability-Scorecard
Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ Breakability Scorecard

Despite the test results, SquareTrade also found that even though there were major issues with the Galaxy Note7, a large number of Samsung owners will be upgrading to the Galaxy S8 or S8+ in the next few months.

“We found that 89% of Samsung owners reported having a positive view of the brand despite recent controversies, and 36% plan on buying an S8 in the next six months,” Siciliano continued. “Just don’t drop it.”

Check out the cringe-worthy video below, and if you do pick one up you’ll probably want to take SquareTrade’s “just don’t drop it” advice to heart.

What do you think about SquareTrade’s Samsung Galaxy S8 breakability test results? Will these findings steer you away from picking up a Galaxy S8 or S8+? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

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