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iPhone 6 Dropped from Orbit Makes the Ultimate Drop Test

dgstorm

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It is unlikely the above drop test will ever be topped by anyone or anything. It's possible that you may be able to perform a test from a slightly higher altitude, but this one is definitely the first to do a drop test from orbit!

The folks from Urban Armor Gear wanted to show off their iPhone 6 rugged case, so they got the bright idea to literally drop it from a weather balloon at over 100,000 feet above the Earth. To put this in perspective, this is 19 miles above the Earth's surface!

The most shocking thing was that the smartphone actually survived the drop and was functioning normally afterward. That's a pretty good demonstration of the UAG cases, wouldn't you say?
 
I'm not sure that's an accurate test. An iPhone dropped from that altitude would be hitting the ground way faster than it looked in the video. I'm not even sure the iPhone ever hit the ground; it looked like the arm grip that was holding the iPhone probably absorbed the brunt of the impact. Cool concept, but maybe they should have released the iPhone from the high point, and let it free fall and see what happened.
 
Once the iPhone is dropped from a height sufficient to reach terminal velocity any additional height makes no difference at all. This drop test is completely meaningless as a true measure of the toughness of the case. A drop from around a thousand feet would have had the phone hitting the ground at the same speed.
 
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That does beat Otterbox's 5 story drop. But 5 stories has more practical application than 19 miles. Who would be 19 miles up to begin with?


Sent from my ancient but trustworthy iPhone 5.
 
You can drop a phone from a couple of feet and damage it.
 
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