Is dropping a smartphone from a higher height really more dangerous for the device? Is he less likely to escape unscathed? Well it depends, we’ll explain why.
Last January, we learned that an iPhone 14 Pro Max had survived a fall of nearly 5,000 meters from the open door of an Alaska Airlines plane. The aircraft, fully intact, was discovered on the side of the road, leaving many people wondering how such an unlikely survival was possible.
Determined to get to the bottom of this physics-defying feat, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal decided to test the durability claims with a series of controlled drop experiments. And according to the results of his experiment, some electronic devices can withstand drops from extreme heights well.
An iPhone can survive an extreme fall
As a reference, Stern dropped an iPhone 14 and a Samsung Galaxy S23 from a height of 300 feet onto a grassy field, without a case. Remarkably, both flagship phones suffered no real damage except for some superficial scratches and dirt.
To understand why the 5,000-meter plunge didn’t turn the Alaska Airlines iPhone into a broken relic, Stern consulted two physics experts: former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober and Professor Rhett Allain of Southeastern Louisiana University. According to them, two key principles at play: terminal velocity and deceleration forces. As Mark Rober explains, “ It doesn’t matter if the phone falls from a height of 90 meters or from space. The result will be the same because of what is called terminal velocity “.
Allain explained that due to their compact size and shape, smartphones quickly reach a maximum speed of approximately 96 km/h in free fall, with air resistance preventing further acceleration. This maximum speed, combined with the cushioning effect of landing on grass, results in relatively low deceleration forces at impact.
“ The grass cushions the object’s fall, allowing for slower deceleration. Harder surfaces like asphalt, or your bathroom tiles, cause much more abrupt deceleration “, explained Allain, emphasizing why it is much more dangerous to drop a phone from desk height.
So, although a fall of 5000 meters may seem catastrophic, the combination of terminal velocity limitations and a grassy landing location created conditions in which the iPhone was able to escape unscathed without any problem. Another iPhone was also found intact after a similar event.