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iPhone 5 Gets the Drop Test Treatment

An early iPhone 5 drop test proves that while the phone is not invincible, it stands up relatively well to a four-foot fall.

September 21, 2012

As painful as it is to watch an iPhone 5 being dropped from four feet onto the hard concrete, bouncing a couple of times before coming to a stop, it is also inevitable for most phone owners.

Digital accessories maker Cygnett tested the new device's ability to take a beating, so you don't have to.

In its drop test video (below), Cygnett industrial designer Shannon Brown almost mockingly lets the phone fall, then carries it to the camera to show a close-up of the device's cracks and scratches. But the damage seems minimal compared to some of the completely cracked screens you might have spotted over the years.

The screen remained relatively unharmed, breaking apart only in the top right corner next to the earpiece and only slightly in the bottom right corner. A few scratches across the backing and sides are hard to decipher in the video, but as Brown points out, "the aluminum bezel has taken quite a bit of a battering."

A second drop test reveals a flawless iPhone, after being protected by Cygnett's shock-absorbing WorkMate case.

Earlier this summer, SquareTrade with the Apple iPad and Google Nexus 7, which saw better results for the Nexus 7. That might be due to a different weight distribution, allowing it to fall more evenly than Apple's device, which tended to land on a corner and crack the glass more easily.

If you're still waiting on your own 4-inch-screen, dual-core A15 iPhone 5 with 8-megapixel panorama camera and 4G LTE connection, you may want to steer clear of Cygnett's video below. Or you can get a sense of what not to do with your new smartphone.

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