The Samsung Galaxy S4, which hit stores worldwide over the weekend, doesn't do too well when dropped. The folks at SquareTrade pitted Samsung's latest flagship against the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3, and found it to have a breakability rating of 7 out of 10 (10 being the most breakable). The Galaxy S3 followed its older sibling, scoring a 6.5.
SquareTrade is a company that markets smartphone warranties and does its testing based on thousands of damage reports from customers. It uses a special contraption to drop each phone from a certain height, which makes us smartphone appreciators cringe a bit. As well as being dropped, the phones were given a slide test and water test.
In a 4ft drop, the iPhone came out with the fewest scratches. The Galaxy S4 had the biggest crack, with the Galaxy S3 not falling too far behind. In the grip test, the iPhone 5 again fared better, as its smaller size compared to Samsung's offerings allowed it to grip the table easier. Finally, the Galaxy S3 lost audio in the dunk test, while the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 were still able to blast Harlem Shake.
At the end of the day, the iPhone 5 came out victorious as the least breakable of the three smartphones, scoring a 5 on SquareTrade's breakability scale. Damaged smartphones are a reality, so if you find yourself on the clumsy side, a case might do you just fine - no matter what smartphone you're sporting.