Galaxy Z Fold 3 Drop Tests Prove Samsung's Boast Again

It has been about a month since the Galaxy Z Fold 3 first landed in consumers' hands. The jury is already out, and Samsung's latest and greatest foldable has had mixed but mostly positive reviews. One aspect of the device that very few reviewers dare to test out is the device's durability, mostly because of the $1,800 price tag attached to it. Fortunately, there are a few that do take the plunge and try to confirm or refute Samsung's claims about the phone's durability.

Samsung's durability claims revolve around the 80% stronger foldable display, the use of Gorilla Glass Victus on the outside, and the Armor Aluminum frame touted to be 10% stronger than 7000-series aluminum. Of course, these all sound great on paper, but the real test is whether the expensive phone will survive drops, even carefully set up but still excruciatingly painful scenarios. Good thing PhoneBuff was willing to take one for the team and dropped the Galaxy Z Fold 3 no less than ten times to find out.

The good news is that the foldable phone survived the heart-stopping tests, completely functional even with cracked glass on the outside and a very small number of dead pixels on the inside. The inner main display even survived being dropped on concrete from a height of 1 meter (a bit over 3 feet) and on steel from 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet). That's partially thanks to the slightly raised aluminum lip around the display as well as the pre-installed screen protector (that shouldn't be removed).

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the glass-covered exterior, which cracked after the first drop. The outer cover display still worked, though, but you should probably protect your fingers from the glass shards. These tests don't exactly speak well of the Gorilla Glass Victus but, then again, these drop tests are unforgiving.

All throughout the ten drops, the hinge continued functioning with no problems. Anecdotes from other owners confirm these tests, revealing minor dings and scuff marks on the Galaxy Z Fold 3's frame after accidental drops. The main display often ends up unharmed, though it sounds a bit ironic that something that can survive such a drop test wouldn't have the same luck against your fingernail.