It started when I felt a little edge – a lack – on Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra The perfect level of glossy Gorilla Glass.
I held my finger on something I couldn’t see. I ran my finger stray back and forth on the screen, which was currently showing my Twitter feed. Did you feel anything? No…no, wait…here it is.
I stopped reading the angry tweets and started scanning the screen while my mind went back to a couple of days ago.
Standing in my kitchen, I fumbled with my 6.8-inch Android 12 smartphone (which I used frequently, especially for stellar photography slides), it slipped out of my grip and splattered onto the tile floor just a meter from the bottom.
“What was that? Was that your phone?” My wife called from the other room.
I quickly grabbed the prone device from the ground. It’s in a Samsung rubber sleeve, so I wasn’t too concerned. I looked at her, noticing any breaks, and yelled again, “Yeah. It’s okay.”
“Why do my phones only crash?” I asked my wife.
First, I don’t drop phones. In the nearly 20 years of testing it, I’ve never broken the review unit. I once dropped a 12.9-inch iPad Pro on a glass table, shattering the screen, but this was an unwieldy tablet. I don’t drop phones…or rather I didn’t.
Now, on the train, my finger ran over what I realized was a crack, I understood what I had done.
Looking closely, I could see a tiny slit creeping up from the top of the phone, top right of the selfie camera, roughly two-thirds of the way down the screen face to the right edge.
When the phone is on, you can hardly notice it unless a letter is located directly under the crack and splits into slightly joked halves.
This was not supposed to happen.
With the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung has built a brick of the phone away from the original Galaxy Note design base. It’s a big, solid, solid device, but it’s not a hassle to carry around.
The phone is covered with Gorilla Glass Victus + (which is Classified by Corning To handle drops up to 2 meters). It covers that back and my now damaged 6.8″ AMOLED screen. Plus, I had a case.
This subtle notch, which starts at the top of the phone above and to the right of the selfie camera, takes roughly two-thirds of the way down the screen face to the right edge.
You may be wondering why I didn’t come to this conclusion when I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The truth is that I don’t do drop tests with review units, devices that have been provisionally handed to me by manufacturers with all expectations will be returned in reasonably pristine condition.
I’m happy to dip them in water, but I don’t drop them on concrete knowing that even if they don’t break, they’ll get some ugly scuffs. I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this with equipment you don’t own.
The review process also reflects how I would use these products if I had them. In general I do not drop technology (or really anything).
I’m still, here I am, having an unplanned drop test result and the results aren’t good.
A three-foot (or one meter) drop of a wrapped smartphone should not cause this crack. However, I understand that with any glass device, all you have to do is find the optimum pressure point and where the physics are right for breaking even the toughest screen.
At least that’s a clean crack and not a break – you know, the ones that make the screen unusable and even dangerous to touch (those little bits of glass). That’s a break, although it’s big, but you really have to look closely to see it or turn off the screen, which seems to make it stand out the most.
It is also worth noting that the cracked screen does not in any way affect the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s faster and more fun to use than ever – until my digital crosses that fine, sharp edge. This break also means that the device is no longer sealed against the elements. I wouldn’t confidently drop it in a bucket of water or even use it in the rain for a long time.
I’m disappointed in myself for my foolishness, and a bit of my Galaxy S22 Ultra for not being equal to this short fall.
It’s not a fancy look for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, but I would caution against assuming all S22 Ultras are prone to fragility. My guess is that the fall caught the top edge of the phone and that the first drop on the screen might have had a different outcome.
On the other hand, grab a cover on your Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and stick to it — tightly.