observe gadget blogger Ryan Block hit a nerve last hebdomad when he suggested that Apple ’s iPhone 4 hold yet another potential fault , one that makesits glass back susceptible to shatter . Now , autonomous warranty provider SquareTrade has published figuressuggesting that the iPhone 4 ’s glass is more prone to breakage than that of its predecssor .
According to SquareTrade ’s numbers , 4.7 percentage of iPhone 4 substance abuser have report accidental damage to their devices within the first four months of possession ; that ’s up from 2.8 percent of iPhone 3GS owners over the same introductory period . Among those , wiped out glass is overpoweringly the number one type of fortuity : 82 percent of iPhone 4 owner reported cracked methamphetamine hydrochloride , compare to 76 percentage of iPhone 3GS owners . That works out to roughly 82 per centum more low screen for iPhone 4 exploiter than for iPhone 3GS user .
However , SquareTrade does n’t separate in these figures between the breaking of the front and back meth for the iPhone 4 , signify that one possible account is merely the increase amount of chalk surface on the phone . The firm does say , however , that at least a quarter of the call of broken glassful “ involve the back CRT screen ” and that the the legal age of stroke only affect one side of the phone .
As for Block ’s title that particulates trapped in a sliding font can scratch the back of the iPhone 4 , SquareTrade say its data point does n’t discover which — if any — reveal screens were the result of that kind of damage .
Based on the data from the first four months , SquareTrade projects that the accident rate of iPhone 4 owner will rise to 15.5 pct at 12 month of ownership , compared to 7.8 per centum of iPhone 3GS owner . That said , SquareTrade also maneuver out that the iPhone 4 ’s 0.5 percent non - accident malfunction rate — or so tantamount to that of the iPhone 3GS — is much low than most consumer electronics equipment , and more reliable than competitors such as BlackBerrys ; the firm say that it will have more information on that before long , along with information about the latest Android handsets .
At the iPhone 4 ’s founding in June , Apple lay claim that the handset ’s glass was 30 times harder than plastic and comparable to sapphire crystal ; inits teardown , iFixit pegged the material as an aluminosilicate interchangeable toCorning ’s Gorilla Glass , which is supposedly extremely durable and starting line - resistive .
While it for sure seems that the iPhone 4 ’s drinking glass may not be as damage - proof as ab initio expected , it remains unreadable whether the high pace of screenland breakage is due to just the fact that there ’s far more Methedrine on the iPhone 4 than on its harbinger . Like a firearm of pledge buttered on both face , there ’s really no “ good ” way to drop an iPhone 4 .
