Gorilla Glass my arse!

LOTL2

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Picked up my new Maxx a couple nights ago and was waiting on my Diztronic TPU case to show up today.
Well before i could get that case on, i was at work and had the phone in my shirt pocket. I bent over to work on this machine and out came the phone and dropped about 2' onto the concrete floor. Cracked clear across the entire screen and chipped the edge in a few places.

I know that the Gorilla glass is only supposed to be scratch resistant, but i dropped my Droid X i dont know how many times in the last 3 years and hardly a scratch. Granted it was in a TPU case the all but two or three times.

So another $100 to Asurion for the deductible and hopefully ill have a brand new phone sent to me.
Im a little leery that they will send me someones return or worse yet a refurb, but hopefully the phone is so new that ill get a new one.

Moral of the story if your going naked, you better have some insurance. The edge to edge glass im starting to think is not such a great idea. I work around (and under) a lot of machinery and in some nasty places. I suspect that the crack wouldn't have happened if i had the TPU case on it, as it looked like it landed on its edge. The case does cover the edges just enough.
Now as easy as it chipped in the other areas concerns me that if i drop the dam thing right on its face onto something hard, itll easily crack. I have to think that the glass used on the Maxx is at least as good if not better than what was used on my Droid X.

Who knows maybe it was just a fluke and it landed just right. Maybe it isnt and i should be looking at a Lifeproof or Otterbox case or another phone?
 

ahamick

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I don't know if the same applies to the droid maxx but my original RAZR maxx had a 1 year warranty that came free from Motorola directly that covered broken screens. I used it after a year but only paid $100 because if it is under a year old it would have been covered for free. I learned about the free moto warranty on these forums.

Maybe the droid maxx has the same thing

Posted via Android Central App
 

LOTL2

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I don't know if the same applies to the droid maxx but my original RAZR maxx had a 1 year warranty that came free from Motorola directly that covered broken screens. I used it after a year but only paid $100 because if it is under a year old it would have been covered for free. I learned about the free moto warranty on these forums.

Maybe the droid maxx has the same thing

Posted via Android Central App

Just finished a chat with Motorola and the Maxx is not covered for physical damage. They did say other phones were covered, but the Maxx isnt. For $175 they would repair it. Thanks for the tip, but i guess itll cost me $100.
 

LOTL2

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God dam Verizon! Freakin Asurion has no phones to ship and said they are on back order. I called Verizon and asked them what i was supposed to do in the meantime. They reactivated my Droid X and then told me that i couldnt return the Maxx if i wanted to once i got the replacement from Asurion. Between the sales weasel trying to sell me on stuff and being charged sales tax on the full price of the phone, im officially in the verizon customer service haters club!
 

anon(40376)

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The X with gorilla glass was built like a tank, and so was my Razr Maxx HD. Both were always in a Seidio case so that helped. However, a 30 foot drop off a roof onto a concrete slab, killed the phone. Very slight bend in one of the corners, took a while to even see it. The gorilla glass remained intact; however, the digitizer under the gorilla glass shattered, making the phone useless. This photo makes it look like the outer glass is broken, but it is not, it is the underlying digitizer. They do sell the digitizer and glass as an assembly for around 250 bucks, or only the outer glass for about 20 bucks. It appears you cannot get just the digitizer. Lucky for me, I had insurance through my Wells Fargo Platinum card that covered a replacement phone up to 600 bucks. (Takes about four weeks from time of initial claim to get the claim approved and notification a check has been mailed.)

The insurance company does not want the phone, so as soon as I get the check, I will be dissecting the Droid Razr Maxx HD just out of curiosity.
64bf709a-6f08-449d-ab02-c7d8917bd9da_zps4e86271e.jpg
 

russel5150

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This is the first smartphone I'm not running a defender on.. I did get a bumper to keep the screen from hitting a flat surface. But I know it can still break.. I got the insurance.. That I hope I never need lol

Using my Moto Droid Maxx
 

emanwis

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I debated going without a case but then bought the bumper from Verizon. I actually like it and its red stripe. I'm not sure it would stop the glass from shattering but at least it protects the edges and has a small lip on the front.

Sent from my Droid Maxx
 

Haalcyon

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I feel your pain...just hearing that story makes me cringe. This isn't directed at the OP but I think people may be pulled into a false sense of security that their phones have Gorilla Glass. I read posts about folks not wanting to use screen protectors or any kind of case. I worry for them.

Sony XTZ
 

skatergirl

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I am using the Incipio Dual Pro and I like it though it is not heavy duty. I also finally gave into a screen protector yesterday. :'(
 

alee

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Dropped my phone on Tuesday and cracked the screen as well. Same deal as OP... Asurion has no phones. Luckily my phone is still functional, so going to have to limp for a while. No screen protector is going to protect you from this type of incident. About the only thing it will do is keep the glass from completely coming apart once it shatters.
 

Haalcyon

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I keep my screen-protected S4 in a slim Belkin case (which I love). When I'm out and about it goes in a leather belt clip. Now, if that belt clip were to fall off my backpack or jeans/pants pocket and hit the concrete there's no guarantee, but I'm optimistic, that the phone wouldn't suffer much damage. Accidents happen, no matter how careful we are. A little protection and phone insurance is not a bad idea, but is not fool proof either.


Note 8.0
 

LOTL2

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Just a note about the Asurion insurance. They only allow 2 claims within a 12 month period and then they will cancel your policy. Hard to believe we pay what we pay and put up with Verizon's Business practices and this kind of crap happens.
If not for them having the best coverage in my area, id be long gone.
On another note, i called Motorola today to see if there was any chance i could persuade them to send a new phone to Asurion. Not a chance in hell and was a total waste of time.
 

skatergirl

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Dropped my phone on Tuesday and cracked the screen as well. Same deal as OP... Asurion has no phones. Luckily my phone is still functional, so going to have to limp for a while. No screen protector is going to protect you from this type of incident. About the only thing it will do is keep the glass from completely coming apart once it shatters.

alee ... did you have a case on your phone?
 

alee

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alee ... did you have a case on your phone?
No although in this instance, having a case (not a screen protector) would have helped.

The problem is physics ... the larger the surface area, the less torsional rigidity (resistance to twisting and flexing) there is. In this case, this roughly means bigger screens on their own break more easily than smaller screens. If you try and twist and break a small square of glass, you'll find it's hard to twist it and break. The larger the glass, with the same thickness, the easier it is to break when it twists. It is also for this reason that when you transport a flat screen TV, you carry it upright, not flat like a stretcher -- you have your greatest chance of breaking the TV glass when flat because of the forces acting on the screen are operating over the largest surface area.

How does this apply to your phone screen?

As screens get larger they will fracture more easily. An off-axis fall is basically going to create both an impact point and will also flex in the chassis. For the glass to withstand the fall and not break, you need dampening (something to absorb the bulk of the impact), and you need a strong body that won't flex when impact occurs. The stronger unibody designs (iPhone, iPad, HTC One, etc.) all reinforce the glass by preventing it from twisting. In the case of the Maxx, the plastic casing is the weakest link. When the screen begins to flex, the plastic back isn't enough to stop it and you get the crack. You may see phone reviews for other phones referring to "creaking" -- this is basically a sign that the phone is not rigid.

A rubber case would have probably helped here because it would both absorb the energy of the fall and any case in theory should increase the structural rigidity of the entire phone. But it's still no match for a unibody design like the HTC One. I'm not saying they're indestructable, but with 2 devices with the same size, shape, dimension and glass thickness, the one with a unibody will be less likely to have a torsion-induced screen crack.

This concludes your physics lesson for today. ;)
 

like2angle

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A quick note on the screen protectors...
There is a sensor to the left of the ear piece speaker that must be left uncovered as well as the microphone on the lower left, bottom edge of the digitizer. Some of the "Droid Maxx" screen protectors block these areas so keep that in mind when purchasing them.
I always keep my phones in a TPU case and use screen protectors, cheap insurance.

My heart goes out to those of you that have damaged phones.
 

Dreamliner330

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That sucks dude! :(

Case and screen protector day one...always. Next time, buy a case from the Verizon store and return it later if you pick up a Diztronic.
 

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