It’s no fun when you drop your smartphone and it hits the floor. The glass front inevitably shatters, leaving you with the remnants of what was your daily driver. Yes, it’s an unfortunate situation, but without companies stress testing our beloved devices, the situation would be far worse. Enter Verizon, which has a dedicated evaluation lab that puts smartphones through torture tests.
Dubbed the Verizon Wireless Device Evaluation Lab, this lab is in charge of testing smartphones before Verizon makes them available for sale. In the video above, two tests are mentioned: the barrel test and targeted drop test. The former aims to simulate random drops, while the latter, as the name implies, simulates predetermined drops.
According to Big Red, “Before being allowed on the market, the physical capabilities of every device we sell are tested repeatedly with one goal: To ensure the best wireless experience for our customers when calling, texting, and connecting.”
To make sure the smartphone will last the two years it takes for a customer’s contract to expire, Verizon checks to see whether the handset can make calls, browse the Internet, and send text messages after being dropped 100 times. Verizon, shockingly, doesn’t want customers to constantly come back and pay to replace their phones before their contracts expire, despite what its customers may think.
Of course, Verizon’s testing is supplementary to the torture manufacturers put their phones through, which includes, in Samsung’s case at least, a dummy’s derriere dropping repeatedly on the handset.
