The Galaxy S5 is almost upon us, and with just over one week to go before it hits the retail market on April 11th, we’re braced for a tidal wave of coverage relating to Samsung’s latest and greatest.
The guys at TechSmartt have kicked off the countdown with a drop test video that pits the new handset up against the preceding Galaxy S4, and given the robust construction of the waterproof Galaxy S5, we’d expect it to wipe the floor with its older brother. But did it? Find out after the break!
Drop tests aren’t necessarily a solid gauge of whether a device is good at surviving accidental falls from various heights, mainly because the manner in which a device hits the deck – the main determinant of whether you’re going to have a scuff or a write-off – is based on pot-luck. Moreover, drop test comparisons such as these are carried out, predominantly, in an unfair fashion, so even though we’d naturally expect the newer Galaxy S5 to be a little stronger than the GS4, the video embedded below should be used purely as a rough guideline.
One undeniable trend portrayed through these drop tests is that by and large, devices are getting stronger. A couple of years back, a test of a handset’s ruggedness would end up with at least a shattered screen, but as you’ll see from this clip by TechSmartt, both the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5 emerged largely unscathed.
Even when TechSmartt reached that inevitable moment in the show whereby the devices would be run over by a car’s tyres, both handsets remained fully operational, and even though the damage was evident, but were still perfectly usable.
Samsung takes a lot of flak for its build quality, with some consumers frustrated by the fact that the likes of Apple and HTC ship premium handsets comprised of aluminum while the Galaxies remain laden in polycarbonate. But while, as explained earlier, this drop test video is not a sure-sign that your Galaxy S4 or S5 won’t die if you let it slip from your grasp, it does show that in terms of build quality, perhaps the slander that the Korean company is subjected to is largely unfounded.
Anyway, check the drop test clip below, and be sure to leave your comments via the usual channels.
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