There is a YouTuber, JerryRigEverything who is quickly becoming the de facto durability tester for smartphones and with the Samsung Galaxy S8 about to become widely available, it is probably not much of a surprise to see it now being put through its durability paces. What might be more of a surprise though, is how well the Galaxy S8 manages to hold up during its testing.
As per usual, JerryRigEverything tests the scratch, burn and bend resistance of the Galaxy S8 and overall, it seems to pass all of the tests with varying degrees of flying colors. When it comes to the scratch resistance, JerryRigEverything notes that the Galaxy S8 does not start to show scratches until a level 6 on the Mohs scale – largely thanks to its Gorilla Glass 5 front panel. In fact, JerryRigEverything also notes that most of the rear aspects are also well-protected by the glass on the back of the device, with the exception of the uniquely-positioned fingerprint sensor. Which although was able to be scratched, the scratching did not seem to negatively affect the use of the fingerprint sensor. Moving on and when it comes to the burn test, the Galaxy S8 proved to be unusually resistant and managed to withstand two separate 30-second periods of direct contact with a flame. While marks did show up, they quickly resided again with only the third attempting resulting in a noticeable burn mark. Likewise, while bend tests often cause the big headline news with some smartphones, that was not the case with the Galaxy S8, which managed to more than adequately survive the notorious bend test.
In fact, the only major criticism that JerryRigEverything did highlight – which the YouTuber notes is really only a minor criticism – was that the earpiece/speaker is a little more recessed than what would be liked, and so you should expect a collection of dust and debris. Overall though, and as far as durability tests go, the Galaxy S8 seemingly is not only one of the most attractive devices to hit the market, but also one of the most durable. Although, it is worth pointing out that this was the Galaxy S8 being tested and while the same results should be able to be extrapolated to the Plus model, it would be interesting to see if the additional size affects the results of the bend test in any noticeable manner.