The A third-party solutions provider catering to customers of Apple's mobile devices, iFixYouri has recently acquired an authentic iPhone 4 enclosure whose glass panel failed to withstand a fall from just a few feet, creating an opportunity for the firm to question Apple's heightened durability claims.They dropped it on "the sidewalk" - probably cement, but without any internal components. This makes us wonder, if the glass breaks this bad with less than 10% of the original weight, how easy will the actual device break? How much stress will there be applied on the internal components? We complained before about capacitative screens cracking, but this is actually the worst we've seen so far. Looks like Apple neglected quality control (again) in favor of of pushing the device on the market as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, iFix is using this experiment to generate attention and challenge Apple's stated claim that the iPhone 4's all-new design and build quality are "like no other mobile device." The iPhone maker said earlier this week that the device's aluminosilcate glass front and back are "chemically strengthened to be 30 times harder than plastic, more scratch resistant and more durable than ever."
iFixYouri contends that while the glass may be 30 times stronger than plastic and able to withstand bending, its durability still falls short on sudden impact, which is "what causes 95% of glass shattering. Not because you bent the glass in your pocket, not because you dropped it and it bent, but really because of sudden impact."
Fail by design
iFix also argues that iPhone 4 sports a design flaw that "will bite in the future". They say that, the glass that sits on top of the unit's aluminum frame, is not recessed and protected the way it was in the previous models. More or less surprisingly, Apple has already announced that it will sell its very first set of iPhone protectors alongside the iPhone 4, dubbed Bumpers, in 6 colors for "only" 29.99. Obviously QA has failed in iPhone yet again. We can only hope that the iPhone 4 body won't simply crack the way 3G and 3GS used to. In our opinion these bumpers are nothing else than a low-end fix that shouldn't be needed on any premium device.Update:
Shatters after launch too
Looks like the guys from iFixYouri are back and more determined than ever! It took them four attempts this time to crack the screen - it appears that unless you have the misfortune to drop it right on one of the glass edges, it won't crack. However this seems to occur quite easily and it's even more worriable that the device stopped working after the second attempt. Looks like the case is not able to protect the internal components like it should.
