The Apple iPhone 8 went on sale in Taiwan on Friday, 22 September 2017. It didn’t take too long for someone to do an accidental drop test though. An owner in Taiwan dropped his spanking new iPhone 8, shattering the entire front display, less than a day after purchase.
According to Oriental Daily News, the painful incident happened on Saturday morning, 23 September 2017. The phone had slipped out from the owner’s pants and fell to the ground.
As you can see from the pictures, the front is completely shattered. Thankfully the back stayed unscathed.
He had asked netizens where he could get the damaged phone repaired.
Netizens jokingly responded with, “congratulations for being the first,” and “you’re the first to repair,” “repair costs will be enough to buy an iPhone X.”
In a separate incident, an iPhone 8 Plus display unit suffered a broken glass back after users imparted excessive force on a security buckle holding the device.
Apple this year ditched the aluminium backing found on the previous generation iPhone 7 in exchange with glass. The change enables the new iPhones to have wireless charging capabilities.
The glass though, isn’t just any glass. Apple claims the new glass is reinforced by a steel and copper structure with a 50 percent deeper strengthening layer using a dual ion-exchange process. I hyperventilated reading that, but know that it’s “the most durable glass ever made in a smartphone.”
Cnet has done some drop tests with the iPhone 8, to see how it fares against the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6.
As reported by The Verge, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus glass back is more expensive to replace than the screen. Under AppleCare+, a broken back doesn’t qualify for the USD29/MYR122 screen replacement. Instead, it’s subject to an “other damage” fee of USD99/MYR416 (plus tax).
The good thing about AppleCare+ is that it gives users two screen replacements and two miscellaneous incidents at US29 and USD99 respectively.
Do it a third time and it will cost USD349/MYR1,467 for the iPhone 8, and USD399/MYR1,678 for the iPhone 8 Plus.
AppleCare+ costs USD129/MYR542 for the iPhone 8, while for the iPhone 8 Plus, it’s USD149/MYR626.
Well, this piece of news should bode well with protective case makers.
