As I leaned over the railing, coronary heart pounding and palms shaking, I questioned how I ended up right here. A flagship $699 telephone in hand, able to be hurled to its demise. Let me clarify.
I am huge on telephone instances and take a look at them for a residing. One of the vital widespread enterprise techniques employed by case makers is to promote their drop safety. Buzzwords like “influence absorption,” “heavy-duty,” and even “navy grade” are thrown round on a regular basis.
Do they really imply something? And what even is navy grade? I made a decision to make use of my Pixel 8 because the sacrificial lamb and put 4 extremely well-known and respected manufacturers to the take a look at.
I wished to bump these instances round and fling them from the heights the manufacturers declare they will survive, going so far as driving over the hardest case that I discovered.
The 4 instances I selected for this drop take a look at are the Poetic Revolution, Dbrand Grip Case, Quad Lock MAG Case, and BURGA Powerful Case. These instances vary from mid-range to costly pricing.
Poetic ensures 20ft military-grade drop safety and full-body rugged defenses.
BURGA guarantees dependable, on a regular basis safety in opposition to drops, bumps, and every day put on, which I might say must be your common unintentional telephone drops out of your palms.
Quad Lock guarantees the identical on a regular basis safety from its MAG Case.
Lastly, Dbrand assures us that the Grip Case has military-grade influence resistance, however offers no precise figures when it comes to drop or influence resistance.
A tumble and roll within the sack to test scratch resistance
To begin off, I grabbed a number of heavy objects, random issues like my energy financial institution and keys, and chucked them in a bag together with the Pixel 8. I shook the bag prefer it owed me cash and repeated the method with every case.
I will not lie, I used to be a bit of nervous in regards to the pointy keys and energy financial institution as they’re fairly stable steel objects and I normally hold them in separate compartments of my bag to be secure. I used to be completely satisfied to study that the scratch-proof claims are correct, however clearly solely the again of the telephone is protected. Poetic was the one exception to this rule, because it comes with a built-in display guard. I had a display protector on, so there have been no scratches on the display with any of the opposite instances both.
The truth is, the one bother I had throughout this a part of the take a look at was taking off the darn powerful instances. Poetic gave me essentially the most bother, and I ended up cracking a nail taking it off.
The actual take a look at — dropped face first onto tiled flooring
Lastly, the enjoyable half arrived. I made a decision to drop the powerful instances providing on a regular basis safety from 5ft onto exhausting tiled flooring. That is truly greater than the everyday “navy customary” of drop safety.
Knowledgeable case maker SUPCASE detailed this customary, the place “the telephone case undergoes 26 drops from a top of 4 toes onto a plywood floor laid over a concrete base with a metal backing” to qualify.
Every one of many 4 instances survived unscathed, so for the following take a look at, I moved on to the hardest contender: Poetic.
In contrast to BURGA, Dbrand, and Quad Lock, Poetic takes issues lots additional and guarantees heavy-duty 20ft drop resistance, which is about two flooring of a mean constructing.
With a mighty heave-ho, I hurled the Pixel 8 within the Poetic Revolution case from the second ground of my mother and father’ home.
The built-in display guard stayed glued to the highest of the telephone even after such a horrible drop, however the case itself got here off from the influence. Nonetheless, the Pixel 8 nonetheless labored completely afterward, with not even a scratch or crack to be discovered.
The one harm was a barely discernible dent within the digital camera bar within the entrance, however it didn’t intervene within the practical operation. The aesthetics of the telephone had been largely intact too.
Unbelievably, the telephone was nonetheless working. The digital camera lenses did not shatter. I may nonetheless take footage and make calls.
I made a decision to check simply how impregnable the Poetic Revolution telephone case actually is and perhaps took issues too far with the ultimate problem.
I drove over the Poetic Revolution heavy-duty telephone case with a automotive
(Picture credit score: Namerah Saud Fatmi / Android Central)
And for my final trick, I made a decision to actually run the Poetic Revolution case over with a automotive.
My coronary heart was in my mouth as I watched my dad drive over the telephone in his MPV that seats seven. I used to be hesitant earlier than chucking the telephone off the second ground, however this was much more horrifying.
As soon as the deed was carried out, I picked up the telephone and…
Hallelujah! The telephone was nonetheless working! The touchscreen responded because it ought to, I took a number of footage, despatched a voice notice on WhatsApp, and watched some YouTube movies.
Certain, the telephone was a bit of dusty, however I washed off the dust. Every thing was correctly — till I took the case off and checked the bottom of the Pixel.
(Picture credit score: Namerah Saud Fatmi / Android Central)
It damage to see the underside a part of the glass again with spiderweb-like cracks spreading up. Clearly, the Poetic Revolution case has its limits. One should not drive over it with a automotive, however that is on me. Poetic by no means mentioned you possibly can.
I’m nonetheless impressed that this was after a number of back-to-back drop exams, that too within the searing sizzling 45°C (or 113°F) Arabian summer time. I can nonetheless use the Pixel 8 to do every part it must do. I even washed it with water, although I don’t suggest you to try this with a cracked glass again.
It prices superb, the display works, the cameras are practical, the mic information correctly, and the audio system sound as they need to. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules are working usually too.
All my ruthless drop testing proved {that a} good case can save your telephone from catastrophe. The underside line is, at all times get a very good high quality telephone case. These drop safety numbers clearly aren’t advertising and marketing slop. Simply make sure that it is a dependable model like Poetic, not some off model knockoff, so you possibly can belief that the model truly drop examined their case.
