Horror of Horrors: Dropping Your Smartphone

[Jason Dunn]

A couple of weeks ago, I was getting out of my car, and the T-Mobile Dash in my jacket pocket wasn't shoved in all the way because I had just had it out when receiving a phone call. Imagine the look on my face when I saw the Dash slam into the parking lot pavement. I grimaced, but thankfully the screen is ok and scratch free. I tend not to use any sort of case or screen protector for my smartphones because I value how thin they are and don't want to bulk them up. This incident had me re-think that a bit. At any rate, the brunt of the blow was taken on the bottom back of the Dash, so that lovely rubber is a bit scuffed up now. Everything still works thankfully, including charging, but being the type of person I am every time I look at the aesthetic damage I cringe a little.

What about you? Has your smartphone survived a dangerous tumble, only to emerge (mostly) unscathed? Have you dropped your smartphone on any interesting surfaces and been surprised it still worked? Tell me about it, and I'll select the best story: the winner will receive a Smartphone Thoughts micro light and a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate. In order to win your smartphone has to have survived the experience - I'll do another contest later on where I'll ask about how your smartphone got killed.

And speaking of putting your smartphone in a dangerous position, here's a picture I took of the aforementioned Dash at CTIA 2007 - it was going for a ride.

[jctune]

When Microsoft Smartphone 2002 was all the rage, I left my well cared for SPV100 on the hood of my truck. I drove from home to the hardware store and back - and when I got home I realized what I had done.

Luckily, the hardware store isn't very far from my house - so I traced my steps and found the pieces of my phone scattered about the first intersection.

The phone was in four pieces, the battery door, the battery, the phone itself, and the SIM card/SIM card holder. Luckily there were no scratches on the screen, and no one had run over the phone as it sat in the intersection for about 15 minutes (residential streets - probably only a couple of cars every 5 minutes).

Put it back together again and it worked just fine. The only thing that broke was one of the little nubs that attached the SIM card holder door to the phone.

This was before these phones were available in the US - I had bought this one as soon as Arne at ppcw.net started selling them.
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Cameron

[smthng]

Where to start... my current Blackjack has only taken a tumble once or twice and has survived both relatively unscathed.

My previous SMT5600 is another story... First dump was from a shirt pocket down a flight of stairs. Cracked the external LCD cover and caused a few scuffs on the corners, but otherwise unharmed. Second dump was from a shirt pocket into a toilet (luckily BEFORE any business was taken care of). A little torx driver and a fan brought it back to life, except for the 7 key, which was intermittent from then on. Third dump was also a toilet (also from a shirt pocket - you'd think I'd learn eventually, eh?). Again, a fan and a torx driver fixed it up. Forth dump had it bouncing out the door of my Jeep into a stream. Same fix. Fifth dump had it falling out of my pocket while riding down the interstate on my motorcycle. This was the closest to "true death" that my SMT ever got. Luckily, it was in a leather case, so it was held together, but a few keys popped out and the volume buttons stopped working.

The final dump was when my belt clip broke while off road in the Jeep again. It bounced a few time before plummeting down a 30 foot drop. Managed to get to it and retrieve it, but the screen crack had gotten much worse and the power button no longer worked, which wasn't real easy to work around. I ended up pulling it apart and found that the micro-switch had broken free from it's mount on the motherboard. The third attempt at soldering it worked! I also fixed most of the other dead keys at that time (except the 7 key, which is still quite erratic). That was the final drop for my SMT5600 before my wife finally said my phone was too ugly and I needed a new one. It does still work and I occasionally use it for testing stuff, but otherwise it's having a nice retirement.

I invested in a Vaja case for the Blackjack, which so far has stopped me from putting it in a pocket, so it's relatively unscathed.

[SteveHoward999]

Not a SmartPhone story, but ...

My first PDA was a Toshiba E330. It was my first introduction to Windows Mobile, and I loved it. I was showing it off to my friend in the kitchen of her house and I dropped it on the stone floor. I picked it up, Amazingly it was fine.

I was back in the same house a few days later and was showing the same PDA to her husband. Dropped it agin, on the same stone floor!!!!

STILL it was OK. Just a little looseness on the cover. Amazing.

[spdev]

I've dropped my Moto-Q phone three times now and each time I grimmice when I pick it up to look for damage. For all three times, my phone fell out of my front shirt pocket when I was bending over (to pick up something or tie my shoes, etc.). Fortunately, the phone still works and the screen wasn't damaged. The only evidence of damage was some small scuffs on the corners of my phone.

I know that one of these days I'm going to totally destroy my phone by dropping it down a street drain, down the toilet, etc. and I hope my company will buy me a new one to replace it!
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spdev
Smartphone Developer
My Blog: Pocket PC Developer Thoughts

[SteveHoward999]

[Arne Hess]

[kkauffman]

I've got a 2GB card on my SP5m WM5 phone and have it loaded down with a ton of music.

One night I took it to the hottub to relax and listen to some tunes. Long story short, the cord got caught on my elbow as I changed positions and the phone got pulled into the hottub.

I quickly removed it, but it was under for a good 7 seconds or so. The screen had a really cool puddle in front of it and I freaked. Unfortunately my buddy was borrowing my special tool set that had the screwdriver that would have allowed me to open the phone up and dry it out immediately--and properly. Alas, all I could do is place it on the floor in front of the refrigerator so that the warm exhaust from the fridge would (hopefully) evaporate the water.

The next morning the phone powered up, the blob was mostly gone, but 30% of the keys/joystick didn't work. I decided to turn on the WiFi since that tends to generate a lot of heat--and hoped it would further evaporate out the water. It worked--by 2PM or so the functionality of all the keys returned.

Unfortunately over the next week I noticed that my phone discharged _extremely_ quick...after a full day of use I used to have 80% battery remaining--now I was having about 20% battery remaining.

I disassembled the phone and took a toothbrush to gingerly "scrub" the circuit boards in case some small particle was causing the phone to discharge. Re-assembled, popped it on the charger and tested it the next day.

It's been 6 months since that fateful run-in with the hottub and my phone is as good today as it was the day I got it

[takhyon]

The OEM case that came with my SDA had a clip that slipped easily off the belt. So, I bought a case that had a loop for the belt, not just a clip. No way the case could come off the belt.

I was loading my luggage into a rental car and had to come around a pole in the parking lot. The case with the phone in it stuck against the pole and out popped the phone out of the case and fell on to the ground. My pristine phone was no longer pristine. It had scratches all around except for the screen. The good thing was it still works fine.

[Jason Dunn]

Wow. Some great stories guys, keep them coming! I'll do the drawing sometime next week...