Drop tests are always something intriguing to watch. When a new smartphone comes out, particularly the top-of-the-line ones, they usually cost somewhere between $500 and $700. With these sorts of price tags you want to know that your precious expensive toy can stand up to every day wear and tear, and a drop test gives us the most extreme example of such wear and tear. In the video below there were two tests conducted: the first was dropping from chest height straight on the bottom of the device where the speakers are located. Besides some pretty bad looking scuffs and scrapes the LG G3 seems to have come out of such a visceral experience with the concrete without too much damage, and the device is certainly left functioning just fine. The removable battery and back seem to have taken quite a bit of the force off of the main unit by popping off as soon as they hit the ground too, which is great for the phone itself.
Dropping the phone flat on its face has unfortunately proved another thing entirely. LG’s G3 drops on the face and you can pretty clearly see some chunks of material coming off of the phone as it hits the pavement; a moment that will surely stop the hearts of anyone who’s invested that much money into the phone. Upon picking the phone up the tests show that the digitizer is completely unresponsive and the screen has been shattered in a number of areas. This is rather unfortunate but it shows that LG really hasn’t improved drop ratings since the G2, which suffers the same fate if dropped at the right angle. Maybe it has something to do with fusing the digitizer to the glass, or maybe it’s whatever LG has to do to get those bezels so thin on the side, but whatever the case you know that you’re going to need to protect this phone if you ever want to see it live through a rough drop.
While it’s a shame to have to cover up such a beautiful phone with a case, there are actually quite a few nice looking cases out there. I had a case on my LG G2 and quite honestly it made the phone even more comfortable to hold than it was when without the case, and that’s something to be truly happy about.