I agree that the hard case is not very good. I ordered both a hard and soft case to compare them and like the soft case a lot better in terms of overall feel though it I doubt it provides more protection. I managed to crack my screen shortly after purchase. The phone was in the soft case at the time but had no screen protector installed. Damage was similar to yours. (I bought an extra screen in case it happens again.)
To really protect the phone it would need to be in some kind of full enclosure. The cases currently offered won't protect the screen from a frontal impact.
i like the soft case, it protrudes from the front of the phone so it at least offers limited protection vs. flat surfaces, though i wouldn't rely on it vs. gravel, etc
I agree that the hard case is kind of awful. The soft case is all around better.
That said, I don't think we can be mad at Pine64 for this;
On the one hand; I don't think any case Pine64 comes up with (especially for $10) would ever be able to protect your phone from a full drop. Really, most phone cases aren't designed to provide that level of protection. They really only protect you from scratching up the body of the phone and maybe light drops (less than 12 inches). A drop-proof case would be better left to a company that makes cases for a living, like Otter.
On the other hand; Aren't there different tiers of hardness/shatter resistance to glass? It would make perfect sense for the screen of a $150 phone to be easier to shatter than the $$$ "Gorilla Glass Victus" of Samsung phones or the "Ceramic Skin" glass of the latest iPhone.$$$
03-26-2021, 09:50 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-26-2021, 09:51 AM by KNERD.)
Just yesterday I had dropped another cell phone I have on the pavement. A cheap $50 USD ZTE. The glass sticks out well above the rear back cover. It hit at an angle on the side where the edge of the glass was the only part of the phone which hit the hard pavement. While it took cosmetic damage, the glass did not break at all. This ZTE fall was also more than DOUBLE the height fall of the fall which started this thread.
So yeah, after two broken screens on $200 vs zero on a $50, yeah we can be mad.
I suppose the case available is what it is, I personally try to acquire the huge heavy duty rubber and ABS plastic cases which often triple the thickness of a phone as in the past I have had to work in austere environments with little chance of resupply or repair parts.
I hope the keyboard case will be mechanically strong enough to both survive and do a great job protecting my pinephone.
I haven't tried out the soft and hard cases but, any cursory understanding of physics would inform one to purchase a soft case over a hard case. The damage done to a phone (or anything) on impact is going to be due to the power profile of the impact and, basically, power=energy/time. A soft case is going to increase the amount of time in this equation, hence lowering the power profile of the impact. There is other physics at play here, but that is the main issue with any concussive impact. So, take it from someone with a physics degree, tend towards a soft case unless you have irrefutable proof that a hard case will provide more protection.
