Reading a recent thread about someone’s mother who broke her cellphone screen made me realize that in last 15+ years of owning multiple smart phones, I have never broken a screen on one. (Frankly I can’t even remember the last time I even dropped my phone.) Neither has my wife come to think of it since I would have been the one tasked to fix/replace it. Neither of us use any type of screen protector or heavy duty Otterbox type case.
However, it seems to be a common occurrence since there is a huge market for screen protectors, drop proof cases, droppage insurance, screen replacement services, etc.
Are there just a lot of repeat offenders out there? Is it mostly kids?
I don’t routinely carry my phone around with me all the time which cuts down the risk of dropping it. I have only ever dropped it once and that was onto my bed. I have never thrown one a long distance in a rage like in the movies either. I stopped buying cases and screen protectors for phones many, many years ago.
I bought the second iPhone model on launch weekend in 2008 and my smartphone is in nearly constant use (not that I have a problem). I bought my first ever case two years ago with my current phone. I’ve had a few drops but only one destroyed screen several years ago when one fell face down on a concrete floor. I had it replaced the next morning in the time it took me to eat lunch. Let me tell you, lunch without my phone was pure torture.
While I have never once cracked a phone screen, my wife takes up the slack by cracking the screen on every phone she’s owned. Twice she has rebroken a screen after she’s taken it in for repair.
One time, she actually managed to unknowingly drop her phone in the street and then run over and crush it with her car. I found it a little while later when I was leaving for work.
She’s had her current phone just over a year, and miraculously the screen remains unbroken. I assume it’s a matter of time. On the other hand, by noting that I’ve never broken any of my own screens, it’s possible I’m jinxing myself…
Only once. Had to crawl under my truck to check something while filling with fuel. My first smart phone, had had it all of two days. Wasn’t using a holster at that point in time, phone slid out of pocket unnoticed, ran it right over. The phone did not take that well at all.
My wife chose dexterity as her dump stat, so her first iPhone, and every one since, is in the toughest Otterbox they sell. I also use Otterboxes, but go for the slightly less clunky model.
When I was younger and had some sort of smart device, like a proto-Blackberry, I had it in the same pocket as my key ring, and at some point the keys pressed too hard against the screen and broke it. Ever since, I’ve been very cautious about carrying my keys and my phone in the same pocket.
Fortunately I’ve only broken one cell phone (and it wasn’t unusable afterwards and was able to use it until the contract expired a couple months later). I was first issued a work cell phone in 1991 when they were nearly the size of a brick, and had a phone work issued right up until I retired in 2022. The one I broke was in 2019 when it fell off the door handle pocket when I opened the car door at the airport, picking up my grandson who was flying in for a visit. It smashed the bottom of the phone and the screen but wasn’t unusable. Fortunately, the contract expired two months later and I got a new phone.
However, I’ve had my own phone since 2022 and so far, I haven’t broken it. (I also have a much stronger case)
I haven’t broken a screen yet, nor has my wife. [ avert avert avert ]
But based on phone use threads to date, we (the board) are probably outliers on cell phone usage overall. After all AFAIK, most of us prefer to post from keyboards on honest to god computers of various flavors!
If you’re doing a lot of one-handed communication on a smartphone, drops are going to be a LOT more likely, with the resulting damages to be expected.
Three years ago I was walking down the stairs at home, while reading a text message on my phone. I stumbled on the last step, cartwheeled forward, and landed face down on the basement floor.
I smacked my face and right hand on the concrete, so I had a black-eye and bruised right hand. But my left hand, holding my phone, never made contact with the ground. I saved my phone aty the expense of my face.
Only once, and I’ve owned… uh… 3 flip phones and at least 4 smart phones in the past 25 years. Maybe 5? I don’t remember TBH. The second smart phone I had I dropped on the pavement and cracked it pretty bad. I still waited a year or so to replace it. The crack was annoying but I got used to it after a while. It didn’t affect the functionality of the phone.
I now have one of those multi-layer Otterbox cases for my phone. It makes it big and unwieldly but so far, so good.
Never broken the screen. However I have broken the back glass twice. Phone gets juggled while I’m doing something else at the same time then lands on a corner on a cement surface. Bang, done, cracked. Crap.
