Gadgetory

the Samsung Galaxy s8 my durability tests have become a rite of passage of sorts for every new smartphone that comes out and this brand new flagship from Samsung is no different I'll put it through a few years worth of abuse in just a few minutes I'll make sure the phone can survive the test of time and see if the s8 is a worthwhile investment for those concerned with durability let's get started this orchid gray color is the one lucky enough to end up on my desk a new color variation for this round of smart phones it's nice to see something different than the standard black gold and silver that pretty much every manufacturer has the phone is cold and solid feeling in my hand so we're off to a good start the scratch test is always first my most picks do a pretty good job of seeing how scratch resistant the screen is plastic screens like the galaxy s7 active would scratch at level 3 last year's galaxy s7 edge scratched at level 6 which is pretty much the standard for smartphones at the moment a sapphire screen would get into the levels eight or nine on the hardness scale and I'm working on getting my hands on one of those phones but they're pretty rare the good news is the Gorilla Glass 5 on this galaxy s 8 scratched at a level 6 so your normal keys and coins won't do any damage to this glass there is no physical home button on the bottom of the screen aesthetically it looks pretty sweet I'm a fan of the larger screen size taking up the whole front face looking at the earpiece is where I run into my first issue definitely a minor issue but still something to think about the speaker grille is recessed slightly below the glass surface which is a very interesting design choice if it was protruding like on the galaxy s7 it would help protect the screen a little by not allowing the glass to rest directly on a surface if set face down or maybe through is flush like the LG G 6 at least it would look cool and uniform with the rest of the screen but recessed under the glass is just asking for it to collect all kinds of lint and dust and other goodies from your pocket or even makeup off your face recessed isn't the most ideal design choice the good news is is that the grille is made of metal so when it does need to be cleaned out it's pretty secure and won't be falling out on its own like we've seen with some of the other phones I've tested one more thing is the speaker size the s7 edge that I've been using for the past year is already pretty quiet and the grill on the s8 is less than half of the size so if they shrink the internal speaker inside of the SI it would be a terrible move I'll have to check that speaker size when I open up and tear down the phone tomorrow the sensors like the iris scanner and the 8 megapixel front-facing camera are all covered by the same glasses on the screen so my razor blade is not leaving any marks since the screen is harder than my razor blade now for the back of the phone the back panel is made of glass and the Samsung logo is printed on the underside of the glass so there's no chance of removing it from this side if we jump up to the flash and the focus sensors they are also covered by the same glass rear panel this is the first time I've ever seen a glass covered flash on a phone normally it's plastic I think that see-through window to the sensor is pretty awesome if there was a totally clear version of the essays I would buy it up in two seconds my favorite gameboy was the clear one back in the day and older me hasn't changed a bit would you buy a clear phone let me know in the comments the camera lens is also covered with glass and luckily my razor blade leaves no marks on it definitely scratch resistant the Galaxy s8 has a subtle ring around the camera that protrudes ever so slightly it's almost flush but the ring is definitely there it's made of metal and hopefully if you're the type of person who walks around without a skin or a case it'll be enough to help protect that camera lens if you ever set your phone down now the fingerprint scanner off to the right of the camera is definitely in a unique spot it'll take some getting used to after heavily sketching this fingerprint scanner I was able to set my fingerprint with no major issues it still unlocked the phone almost every time without looking though it was pretty hard to differentiate between the camera lens and the fingerprint scanner with my fingertip since they are pretty close together hopefully muscle memory will improve with time and I'll get better at it now it's time for the hypothetical apocalypse test the Galaxy s8 has a 5.8 inch Super AMOLED display now in the past when I roast an AMOLED display with my lighter like with the galaxy s7 it'll start to go white after about 10 seconds and never recover but there's Galaxy s8 lasted 30 seconds the screen still went white but then completely recovered I'm happy about the success but I'm also all about second chances but even after another 30 second round of flame the screen had no markings definitely impressive speaking of apocalyptic scenarios I talked audible into giving a free book to every single one of my subscribers so if dystopian novels are your thing and you like free stuff I highly recommend Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury or another book called 1984 by George Orwell both of these books reshaped my entire way of thinking and well thought-provoking books are the best kind of books if you use this link audible.com slash jerry-rigged all lowercase you get to keep the free book you download even if you decide not to use audible after your free 30-day trial it's a pretty good deal I'll also include the link right below this video in the description a burn proof phone would be incredible but in order to make sure I tried the flame test one last time it was only then on my third burn but I was able to get a permanent mark on the screen I would definitely certified this thing for a mild to moderate apocalypse but with any extinction-level events you're going to need a little more protection now the size of this phone are made from pure metal everything from the SIM card tray to the actual borders of the phone the phone might look a little beat-up at this point but it's still less violent than flying United all of the buttons are made from metal even fixed e are permanent new best friend that nobody asked for is also metal down at the bottom of the phone we have the USB C port which I prefer at this point the transition to USB C is pretty much mandatory on all flagships this far into the game there's also a headphone jack down here you can charge your phone and listen to music at the same time how ridiculous would it be if your phone couldn't do something basic like that another interesting thing about the galaxy s 8 is that the rear panel is structural it's embedded inside the metal frame instead of resting on top I managed to permanently borrow the rear back panel off of what's inside galaxy s 8 that we've cut off in a few days ago it looks like the graph coloring can be scraped off from underneath black even a cloudy computer surface behind the logo I think it looks pretty cool that clear galaxy should definitely be a thing it took several hard hits with my knife to destroy the back panel and when it finally did crack its spiderwebs similar to the LG G 6 where everything was still relatively intact much safer than the HTC you we're the large unlimited glass chunks were falling off all over the place and now it's time for the ultimate test of build quality the bin test two years ago the galaxy s6 was the first phone I ever did a durability test on and Samsung has never disappointed since when it comes to building physically solid devices there is almost zero flex to this thing and more importantly no seals are being broken either so everything is still water-resistant it's nicely you can count on your phone even if an irresponsibly large amount of pressure is applied to both ends the fleshlight complained for a few seconds about the abuse but other than that I'd have to say that the Galaxy s8 is an incredibly well-built phone and definitely a candidate for my daily driver my Twitter and Instagram followers got a spoiler free preview of the phone before this video went live so if you like seeing tech tested follow me over there and don't forget your free 30-day trial form audible for real it's free with audible you can read or listen directly from your phone so you'll always have something productive in your pocket link is in the description I'll see you guys tomorrow for the teardown thanks for watching I'll see you around