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Are you a glutton for punishment? Are you a sick human being who enjoys watching innocent electronics being tortured? Well the video sitting right above is just for you. TechSmartt has taken the all new HTC One M8 and put it through their knife and hammer test, giving us a good idea of the device’s durability.
Test items range from a set of keys scraping across the front and rear, to a hammer being driven deep into its sternum. It was nothing short of cringe-worthy.
So How does it hold up? Well, let’s just say as long as you have a light case to protect its backside, the phone should hold up just fine in day-to-day use. Just don’t be too careless with it — this thing isn’t easy to repair.
[via AndroidForums.com]
Still don’t see the point of this other than watching someone destroy a phone I can’t afford.
Mostly to test the durability of the phone, but close to the end, it’s just to destroy it.
Waiting for a (correct me if I missed it) “Watch as this man talks on his HTC One m8/Samsung Galaxy S5” article. :p
well there’s your awesome aluminum.
i decided to take my keys to the back my crappy plastic S3…not a scratch.
props on the screen though. it held up to some decent punishment.
Aluminium is a soft metal, so it’s always going to scratch very easily.
This is no surprise, except maybe to HTC fanboys.
correct, and the s3 would not scratch with a butcher knife taken to its side?
Of course it would but plastic is the same colour right the way through so scratches are less noticeable, Aluminium on the other hand has a coating on the surface and once you scratch through that the scratches stand out allot more.
There is also the fact that you can replace the plastic back on a Galaxy S3 for £5 where as a HTC One would have to written off and replaced.
So… The when the phone isn’t damaged, looks don’t matter… Looks only matter after you drop a phone?…
While I think the removable back point is a valid one, in my experience 95% of drops effect the edges and corners of a phone, not really the back.
#1 No idea what your talking about.
#2 The side of the phone is part of the mid frame, you can replace that as-well, would cost a little more than a battery cover but it can be done.
#1. People say “i dont care about the way my phone looks or feels” in one post, and then the next very next post they say “oh the galaxy s looks much better after it’s dropped a couple times, that’s why i dont want aluminum…” don’t you see the irony there?
#2. I didnt know you could replace the side frame, i have never seen that before, that’s cool though. Can you replace the face plate too?
I said scratches are less noticeable on plastic and the back cover as well as many other parts of the Galaxy S4 for example can be replaced.
Nowhere did I say it looks better when it’s been dropped, don’t be silly now.
Face plate? If you mean the front of the phone than yes.
I suppose the point here is that after a drop and depending on the level of damage, you can repair a Galaxy S device. Obviously there will be a point where it’s not worth repairing.
But with a HTC One and phone with metal unibody design repairs are next to impossible or difficult. You either put up with the damage or get a replacement.
scratches being less noticeable = aesthetics after a phone is damaged does it not? That’s how you get scratches anyway… from dropping the phone.. i was just putting 2 n 2 together.
Your giving me a headache.
Lol OK.
Drop your S3 and see how easy the screen broke
my focus is on the absurdity of the aluminum hype.
what hype? no one ever said it was indestructible . People said it looked and felt so much better in their hands and it really wasnt really much less durable. Are you implying that if you took a butcher knife to the side of your s3 that there would be no cuts?
except that look is gone once its all scratched up by simply putting the phone in your pocket with your keys. not so with the S3’s “cheap” plastic.
you can put a case on the phone to protect it but that kinda defeats the purpose don’t you think?
except that’s not what the test was… the test didnt put the phone in a sock with a set of keys and jiggled it a little bit. The test took a key and he forcefully tried to scratch and scrape it with the intent of scratching, that would never happen in your pocket unless you got into a motorcycle accident and went skidding around on the pavement.
also again, people complain that they dont care about looks so its not a pro that the One looks good and then their argument is the gs3 looks better after you scratch it with a butcher knife (which we have yet to see) so that’s a pro for the gs3? Seems pretty contradicting.
From what i saw the phone looked pretty durable through any kind of normal situation … a drop test would have been perhaps more useful than a hammer test, but that’s not what he did.
no it wasn’t what the test was and it didnt have to be. i took some keys to the back of my S3 after watching this…not a scratch. so my S3 wouldn’t be all scratched up and visibly marked from jiggly keys or a motorcycle accident and the phone went skidding on the pavement. i had a itouch a few years back that i only had for a few months before i sold it. scratched all to hell(no motorcycle accident). that’s just what aluminum does. looks nice, until its all scratched up. put a case on to protect it, purpose defeated.
the knife test was useless as it already failed to hold up to keys and no one is going to walk around with a butcher knife in their pocket.
i really don’t care too much about the look of a phone. i’m more concerned with what it can do. most people are gonna throw a case over their awesome looking phone anyway. you do all the R&D making a durable, great looking, slim, aluminum design all for people to throw a bulky, plastic, rubbery case on it. such a waste.
and for $600? forget it. the oneplus 1 will have all the specs this phone has for under $400. don’t know about anyone else but i don’t find aluminum to be worth an extra $200.
i will say(again)the screen test, which is much more important for durability anyway, held up well. i was impressed by that.
what im saying is, this test is not at all what would happen because he forcefully rubbed a set a keys back and forth vigorously which isnt close to simulating the result of a pair of keys being in your pocket. Also you are sadly mistaken if you think your s3 or would survice a motorcycle accident scratch free, there are quite a few broken screens from simple waist high drop tests, cases wouldnt even exist if that phone was that durable…
i used to have an ipod touch too, and honestly i’ve dropped it a ton of times, and it was perfectly fine. Yeah there were some visible white scrapes on the back but you couldnt feel them, it just looked worn. In fact i even ran my ipod touch through a washer machine once, let it dry out over a week, and it worked just fine. I didnt crack the screen until it slid off of a slanted art desk from about 4 feet up and fell on the marble-like floor. I considered that ipod much much more durable than my cheap palm pre that had plastic chunks fly off the corner of the phone after its first drop the first day i had it (im not saying the s3 is as poorly made as the palm pre im just saying plastic doesnt automatically mean more durable).
That’s fine if you don’t care about the look of your phone, and i argue half of people use cases, not even most… or even if it is most its closer to 60/40 depending on the phone than it is to 90/10 like some people make it seem when they argue….
You dont have to care about the look of the back, look of the front usually isnt covered by a case, its also has to do with the feel of the device(if you are not using the case).
The oneplus1 might be a very nice phone… but that phone might not be available on all carriers, and we also don’t know a lot about how it is on paper vs how it is in hand until we see some review videos…. also, most people are still on contracts so that $200 difference in price isnt an issue for everyone as it would probably be a $50 difference on the carrier IF its available on all carriers….
And i think the most important thing is people keep arguing that the ONLY reason on would chose htc one over gs4 was because of the aluminum… no, the two devices were pretty much a toss up and we both really good phones, for the most part what it came down to was splitting hairs and personal preference issues. If i see two phones that are both equally fast, can do the same crap, but one looks prettier in my eyes (device and skin) then i’ll choose that one, if i require sd card and removable battery then i’ll probably chose the gs4…
I’ve dropped my S3 a ridiculous number of times, it’s held up like a champ!
If you say so. The S3 screen was and is very weak because of the design of the phone.
Aluminum is about the look and feel to me. I dislike plastics.
fair enough, just don’t put a case on it okay ;)
Well first thing is aluminum isn’t indestructible so it wills scratch. Second is you have to take into account he key you are using, some are cut that come to sharper points and others are rounded, so you saying you took some key to test doesn’t really matter because it could be different.
not only is aluminum not indestructible but it is rather susceptible to visible scratches. the look and feel goes away once its all scratched up and the smooth feel is replaced by scratch grooves.
your second point is based on an assumption so, whatever.
Thanks to this video now I know not to put my phone in the same pocket that I carry my butcher knife and keys *_*
The dude tried to say the screen cracked on first strike with back of hammer. Definitely looked like 2nd hit to me. So I say the M8 passes with flying colors in durability!
That Verizon logo…
HTC should have used more premium plastic materials, PC, PC/ABS.
Put my note 3 is my pocket with keys all the time. Still looks great.
ZOMG, you just destroyed a perfect good new ONE!!!!!
You are a monster!
You should have given it to me, I’d handle with care.
Bastard! Can’t believe you did that! Haha
Oh crap, I can’t get this phone because I was planning on stabbing it with knifes and dropping hammers on it.
Loved the video but would have liked to have seen some every day drop simulations on pavement as that’s what happens to my phones the most. Happened this morning in fact bent over to pick something up and it slid right out of my front shirt pocket and hit the concrete
Tech Armor Ballistic Glass is the answer in my opinion!