Ever wonder what would happen if you dropped your tablet face-down on a concrete sidewalk from about waist height? If your tablet happens to be an iPad 2, Motorola XOOM, or 7 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, the folks at Electronics Break have the verdict.
You should check out the video after the break for the complete details, but let’s put it this way — if you find yourself constantly losing your grip on your tablet around the house, I’d avoid concrete if I were you. Shag carpeting or a nice lush lawn might be a safer option. Or at the very least, you might want to get a good protective case for your tablet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW_swJiebIA
In the real world, I have 2 and 3 year old nieces that I nanny 40-60 hours a week. They spend a lot of time using the ipad. I am pretty sure there is not a day when they have not dropped it at least once. It is definately dinged up. And while they are usually not dropping it on concrete or from more than a foot or so (since they are only 2 and 3 years old) I am been very happy with how the ipad has stood up. It is over a year old. I thought I would have used my square trade warranty by now, but it works as well today as it did when I got it.
A foot or so over carpets and similar not so hard surfaces basically falls into the rough user category, most tablets should be able to take that level of abuse, but remember much of the fan fare for these tablets are for them being mobile use devices.
So for a large percentage of users that means using them outdoors where they can and often do fall onto hard surfaces and usually higher than four feet.
Now while many are advertising gorilla glass, it should be noted that it’s still glass and gorilla glass actually ranges from scratch resistant to shatter resistant. Meaning some are easier to break than others.
The difference in mass from the smaller tablets to the larger ones also effects how high a fall the device can survive and extent of the resulting damage.
This is of course one of the reasons why they sell protective cases, some of which can even let the tablet survive getting run over by a car, of course it will vary on the type of casing and how well it’s made.
Also there are ruggedized tablets for those who need it survive almost any calamity.
And perhaps more importantly — these guys wouldn’t be able to get anyone to watch their videos if they dropped them from a foot onto a soft carpet or pillow and showed that nothing bad happened.