Introduction
Everything depends on timing. I had the opportunity of asking Samsung’s representatives at their party in Barcelona if they would be willing to give us for “durability testing” an M110, which is the company’s first heavy duty phone. They were.
We have already published a review of the soldier-like phone, now we were curious of how much could such a handset take with this kind of rubber covering and heavy-duty case. The whole test would have had a meaning with a single M110 too, but we sacrificed a conventional device for the sake of the good cause: a Sony Ericsson K300i had to suffer the same tough tests as its pair designed especially for this purpose.
To tell the truth we have also been planning the involvement of a Nokia 5140i and a Siemens ME75, but all of our GSM shop contacts failed in acquiring any of these, and browsing the ads we hardly found such phones, or the other party lived too far – at least compared to us. So its M110 versus K300i, systematic murder.
Hirdetés
First test
The chosen spot for testing is the mine-lake at Budakalász, which is almost completely deserted at this time of the year. There is, however, plenty of sand, water in infinite quantities, rammed earth and rocks symbolizing hardness. The place is ideal to carry out all the tests.
The location
As a first test we threw down the phones from a 3-4 meter tall sand wall. After the first video recording failed, we had to repeat this process several times. The sand wall had lots of stones, a few branches and weeds, so we can’t say that the devices didn’t fall on a hard surface.
Samsung M110 after the “mountain march”
After some bounces, somersaults and slides, both devices were perfectly intact and functioned properly, none of them had been worn out by the stunts. The M110 was covered in dust in just a few moments; no one could have told what its original color was.
The little Sony Ericsson also bounced skillfully
Second test
The second test had two parts, let’s call them pressure test. First we tried using the simple treads of our shoes, and then we used some muscle. There were no problems other than dirtiness.
Then came the Toyota, which weighs 890 kilograms according to its license – after a few misses, we succeeded in driving through the phones turned with their displays upsides. The result is surprising, but we learnt that not only the M110, designed for this purpose, withstood the terrors, but the K300i is capable of a similar performance, the spectacle with the car caused no problems to the handsets, although the Sony Ericsson’s keypad wasn’t just as perfect as before the test. Nevertheless, all buttons functioned properly; they just needed some trickier handling.
At this point my colleague Bocha started worrying if we won’t be able to kill the devices, though we came with that purpose. We didn’t give up.
Third test
The first mash, which finally rendered both phones basically unusable, was the result of the common work of gravity and human muscle. First I hurled both phones against the ground with great force, then Bocha tried throwing them as high as possible.
Throwing them forcefully against the ground had no visible results in case of the Samsung, but the Sony Ericsson gained two huge cracks around the display and as a bonus, the phone’s back slipped off. Both devices functioned in spite of needing a reboot to find the network, so the task was still given: one of them has to pass away once and for all.
Bocha jumped around a bit and threw the handsets 7-8 meters high, from where they arrived to a hard ground. This show brought about the day of defeat in means of usability, as the Sony Ericsson “rejoiced” us with a completely broken display, and although the Samsung seemed to be intact from the exterior, it couldn’t access the network, it complained about a SIM card error. Upon taking off the back (this stuck on the phone more than it was before) it turned out that the SIM’s socket broke, so the phone cannot detect the presence of the card, so the Korean phone also gave up the fight in means of usability.
Although the Sony Ericsson’s display wasn’t functional anymore, the device could still access the network, we accepted a call with it, so basically it worked, which is commendable result for a phone that is made for average users.
Final solution: death
We soaked the somewhat working phones in the lake for cleaning – after taking them out nothing visible has happened: the Samsung was still missing the SIM card and the K300i was still on the network if needed, however the effects of water cause permanent damage in the phone only after a couple of days.
For cleaning? Oh come on… we decided upon the sequence of the tests in advance with Bog, who intended the lake thing as a coup de grace. If I remember correctly, he said "we will just send them in the water, haha", but he turned away from this naughty thought after I asked him if he’ll swim after them - Bocha
A little bathe feels good after work
As both phones were still a bit functional, we turned to our brutal self. As for me, I dropped a fist-sized rock on the “face” of the Samsung, laying on another rock, which caused the death of the display: the LCD and the thick Plexiglas of the front cover both broke definitely.
M110 and the rock
Bocha appeared neat the K300i with a rock the size of three (more like eight - Bocha) bricks and dropped it on the helpless phone about eight times (that’s three - Bocha), he could be hardly kept down by the end.
The result? Anything can be broken apart if needed. The K300i finished the tests in small pieces, while the M110 remained somewhat in one piece, but of course this wasn’t functional either. It seems that both devices resisted hits quite well; the K300i was the most surprising. If the display would have had a bit stronger Plexiglas, it might have resisted a bit further, but the M110 has disappointed us in some way. No matter the fair cover and the really resistant case, if as a result of the hits internal problems cause the end.
We washed the completely dead phones for one last time in the lake, than came home in order to finish the 2 minute long short video by which we present the experienced horrors to our readers.
Bog & Bocha
Translated by Szaszati
We thank the opportunity of murdering the Samsung M110 to the national representatives of the manufacturer.
Further pictures about the event
M110 after the stone dropped on it #1
M110 after the stone dropped on it #2
Before the first rock-drop
After the first rock-drop, the little Samsung would like to get out
Before dropping the rock, the last seconds of the Sony Ericsson
Samsung’s final state
K300i’s final state
We did a good job
