It’s 2018, Donald Trump is president, people are launching cars into space, and yet somehow Samsung couldn’t find a way to get the Galaxy S9 and S9+ not crack when you drop them. (Don’t even get me started on every iPhone ever made. You’re better off dropping a baby than your iPhone X.) Anyway, SqaureTrade put Samsung’s latest smartphone to the drop test to see how it fared versus the Samsung 8 and the iPhone X, and the results were underwhelming.
While the newer models did beat out their predecessors as well as iPhone competitors, that’s no reason to start forgoing a case on your new device. Despite the fact that Samsung boasted that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ was designed for “enhanced durability,” SquareTrade’s tests prove that these new models aren’t exactly concrete-friendly. To be fair, the tests were conducted from a drop height of six feet, so unless you’re Yao Ming, chances are you aren’t texting from that height.
The folks at SquareTrade also put the phones through their “bend test.” The S9 bent under 230 pounds of pressure, whereas the S9+ caved at 210 pounds. So if you’re a linebacker for the NFL, best not to keep these newer models in your back pocket, I guess. Then there was the “tumble test,” which I guess is the equivalent of throwing your phone in the dryer. Both models performed slightly better in this test. However, if you put your phone in the dryer IRL, chances are you put it in the washing machine first, in which case you're SOL.
