The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus handsets are, according to many people, amongst the sleekest-looking smartphones out there. Well, they might be well-designed, but how durable are they? SquareTrade is here to try and answer that question, as it’s the case every year, the company tests the latest and greatest smartphones Samsung has to offer in order to determine how durable are they. The company puts them through a number of tests, including drops from various heights, they test their water resistance, etc.
That being said, SquareTrade managed to get their hands on both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus in order to test them, and unfortunately, neither of the two devices did that great in their tests. That’s not all that surprising, however, as the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are not supposed to be rugged phones, not by any stretch of the imagination. These two devices come with minimal bezels, not to mention that they’re made out of metal and glass. The first test SquareTrade submitted the two devices to is the drop test, the company first dropped the two devices from 6 feet on their front and back sides. After the front-facing drop, the Galaxy S8’s front glass panel started getting loose, and star burst cracks appeared, same goes for the Galaxy S8 Plus. Following the back side drop, spiderwebbing and star burst cracks appeared on the back of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus as well. Following drops from 6 feet, is the tumble test. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus were tumbled around in SquareTrade’s machine for 60 seconds, the Galaxy S8’s glass cracked, spiderwebbing appeared, and the front-facing camera ended up being exposed. The Galaxy S8 Plus did almost the same, though its front-facing camera did not get exposed in the process.
SquareTrade also dipped the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus in water (5 feet) for 30 minutes, and audio got muffled on both devices, audio distortion also appeared. That’s not all that surprising, though, the phone needs to dry off before things go back to normal. SquareTrade also mentions that it’s rather difficult to remove the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus’ battery, and the company gave the two devices a repairability score of 76 and 77 (out of 100), respectively. If you’d like to check out SquareTrade’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus tests, check out the embedded video down below, and a rather interesting infographic is included in the gallery.
