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Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

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Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#101

Post by pricechild »

jjoonathan wrote: post #90
raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide. The universe doesn't necessarily ob…

I think the point was that even when the phone is dropped on a corner, the glass cracks?

Toughening the corners doesn't seem to help that.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#102

Post by zmix »

I want: - 4 buttons on the finger's side, one jogwheel/microswitch at the thumb. Buttons are configurable/contextual. Of course, also touch-screen

- expandable flash

- best mobile camera to date

- Android (no bloat, unlocked, easily rootable)

- no bezel

- great battery

- size of Xperia Compact Z3 but thinner

- withstands rain and beach

- upperclass CPU/GFX/RAM/Flash

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#103

Post by raesene6 »

jjoonathan wrote: post #90
raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide. The universe doesn't necessarily ob…

Not sure we're differing that much. My point was that the titanium shell they're providing doesn't (to me) remove the need for a case as they're saying it does.

Any drop which damages the glass of a phone is a problem. A phone with a cracked screen is at the very least damaged and potentially entirely unusuable.

My point was that they're addressing something which isn't the weak point in the system. Aluminium might scuff, but that's generally just a cosmetic issue. If a phone manufacturer wants a phone which doesn't require a case, they need to address the glass problem.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#104

Post by raesene6 »

BatFastard wrote: post #100
raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

It uses Gorilla glass 5 which is the more resilient commercial glass ever made for a phone. And the titanium case gives it significant rigidity. So this should be one tough bastard!

It'd be good to see that, but to me I'd want to see drop tests on the full phone to have some comfort that I wouldn't need a case...

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#105

Post by pawadu »

peeters wrote: post #94
pawadu wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the guy that designs their web site and the guy that works on phone security are even remotely related?

What does it matter? If a website for a new router only supported Internet Explorer, I definitely would know either I'm not their target market, or they know nothing about that market, or they don't care.

Funny you mentioned that, ASUS latest routers try to mimic OSX UI.

It still works on Chrome but you never know what the next firmware upgrade brings...

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#106

Post by jjoonathan »

pricechild wrote: post #101
jjoonathan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide. The universe doesn't necessarily ob…

I think the point was that even when the phone is dropped on a corner, the glass cracks? Toughening the corners doesn't seem to help that.

The glass cracks from a corner drop because the aluminum flexes and/or deforms much more than the glass, effectively focusing the force onto a small part of the glass's edge, which is the weakest part due to the hardening. Increasing stiffness and decreasing deformation spreads the force out across the edge, multiplying the effective strength.

There's a reason why cracks almost always seem to start at the edges. In the most severe cases of direct impact of the face on a sharp/hard protrusion, you get a radial crack pattern, but by my estimation those are a tiny minority.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#107

Post by nerdponx »

raesene6 wrote: post #39

I like the idea of tougher phones, but to me it misses the mark to talk about the titanium phone case surviving corner drop tests, it's the glass that's the problem. The number of people I've seen wandering around with cracked phone screens from drops is quite high, and is the reason I put a case which covers the front on every phone I buy. So having no phone case here just means you get the usual after market screen…

For what it's worth, my Rhino Shield "crash guard" case [0] has saved several iPhones from multiple waist-high drops onto concrete. Shock transfer into the screen simply does not seem to be an issue.

It doesn't cover the front, it just extends a few mm in front of the screen to prevent "flat front" impact. It's still susceptible to smashing the screen on a corner, but how often does someone really drop their phone screen-first on the corner of a stair?

0: https://rhinoshield.io/

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#108

Post by jjoonathan »

raesene6 wrote: post #103
jjoonathan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My intuition says that it's very difficult to get a phone to impact glass-first and that 99% of all drops are going to see it dance on the corners, if only for an invisible fraction of a second, before flopping/sliding down on the glass. My intuition also says that those corner impacts are going to be a much greater threat to the hardened glass than the final face-first flop/slide. The universe doesn't necessarily ob…

Not sure we're differing that much. My point was that the titanium shell they're providing doesn't (to me) remove the need for a case as they're saying it does. Any drop which damages the glass of a phone is a problem. A phone with a cracked screen is at the very least damaged and potentially entirely unusuable. My point was that they're addressing something which isn't the weak point in the system. Aluminium might s…

My point was that by addressing the corner problem they are addressing the glass problem because glass breaks primarily due to poorly diffused corner impacts, not face impacts.

Re: Essential Products – Andy Rubin’s new hardware company

#110

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

peeters wrote: post #94
pawadu wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the guy that designs their web site and the guy that works on phone security are even remotely related?

What does it matter? If a website for a new router only supported Internet Explorer, I definitely would know either I'm not their target market, or they know nothing about that market, or they don't care.

I would argue that the percentage of people who care about websites working with JavaScript disabled is so low that no hardware company considers them a target market
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