Chinese smartphone survives 20 foot drop without any major damage

Neowin reports on the drop test captured in a video by Bluboo. It is one of several similar demonstrations the company has made in the past. The manufacturer may be little known in the west but is one of several emerging Android smartphone brands in the Chinese market. Like many of its contemporaries, its creations have a reputation for a low price and a design that may make you think you're looking at a Samsung or Apple device from a few years ago. The company's newest phone, the Xtouch, is set to be released next month. It's a 5-inch handset with a Full HD display, octa-core Mediatek processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and 13-megapixel camera that uses the popular Sony IMX214 sensor. It runs Android 5.1 and includes a fingerprint sensor on the front. The specifications suggest it will be a competent phone with very acceptable performance. The results of the company's vicious 20 foot (6 metre) drop test show it will also have the durability to match, thanks to its metal body and Gorilla Glass 3-coated display. The highly-dramatized video shows the Xtouch being dropped from a balcony onto a tiled stone floor below. The phone is shown to be in working order before it falls and hits the ground, rebounding from the surface to hit the floor again. Heavy case scratching is evident on the sides but the display is intact. The Bluboo logo appears, indicating it is rebooting, but the device appears to be functional once Android is loaded. It goes without saying that owners won't be able to replicate this every time with every fall but it does demonstrate that the Xtouch should have the strength to survive a drop onto a table or pavement. Bluboo has a reputation for heavy public stress-testing of its phones and has previously dropped the Xtouch from a height of 1.7 metres. Recently, it also demonstrated the phone surviving two hammer tests involving it being placed on top of a hollow concrete block that was then hit. The block cracked and split in two but the Xtouch survived, again without any display damage. Bluboo is also claiming that the Xtouch is the first smartphone to use 3D printing in its manufacturing process. The Bluboo Xtouch will retail from $149.99 but probably won't be easy to find outside of Asian markets. The company's website does have an online shop and list of global agents but the broken English translation ("charming appearance make you drunk", "the whole real world is just under the screen") indicates Bluboo isn't really targeting the U.S. and Europe just yet. Marketing issues aside, the phone does appear to be a very capable handset though. The Mediatek processor is a competent rival to the Qualcomm Snapdragon series used by most phones popular in the west and the rest of the specifications are fairly standard details that wouldn't look amiss on the spec sheet of any new smartphone this year.
Source: Chinese smartphone survives 20 foot drop without any major damage