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Om.
Hey Jack.
What are you doing?
Oh, hey Maria.
I'm here getting ready for my stress test.
It's not a stress test for people,
it's a stress test for gadgets.
Gadgets.
Oh, looks like I got the wrong stress test.
Yeah, you'll like this one a lot better.
Follow me.
OK, you got it.
So we head to the Consumer Reports Gadget Stress Test Lab.
This is where we test gadgets-- mobile devices
such as smartphones, smartwatches, tablets--
to see if they can stand up to the manufacturer's claims
for durability.
And also to see if they can handle
the typical physical harm that consumers might put them
through.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We use these picks for it.
These are picks that are calibrated to the Mohs scale.
What is the Mohs scale?
The Mohs scale is a scientific standard
that is used to evaluate the hardness of minerals.
It works on the principle that a harder material will always
scratch a softer material.
Oh, I see.
So you kind of go through a soft scratch all the way
to a very hard scratch.
Correct.
So the scale is 1 to 10.
1 being very soft like talc, and 10 being very, very hard,
like diamond.
So why don't we start the test?
Of course.
All right.
And we'll start from scratch?
OK.
Maria starts with the number seven on the Mohs scale.
And this going back and forth, there's no scratch.
It's very smooth.
Does that mean that the watch is scratch resistant?
No, it means that the material of the watch
is harder than the material on the pick.
So Maria swaps out the seven pick for an eight.
It's scratching.
Now we know that a number eight can scratch this watch.
How does this then help a consumer
when it's time to purchase a watch?
Right.
Well, we're checking the watches comparatively.
So another watch that maybe doesn't scratch until nine
or maybe not even scratch at nine will have a harder surface
and will be less susceptible to scratches.
We could also do this kind of a test on phones.
Same thing.
If you don't want scratches on the face of your phone,
we could figure out which ones are
more susceptible to scratches than others.
OK.
So now that we know this, are there
any more tests we got to do?
Yeah, we have plenty of equipment in here.
Let's move on to the next one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Jack, this is our depth pressure chamber.
What exactly does it do?
We use this for a dunk test.
We use it to test devices such as smartphones or smartwatches,
or action cameras like this for the manufacturer's claim of how
deep underwater it can go.
In this case, this particular action camera
is supposed to be able to go to 33 feet underwater.
That's the manufacturer spec for it.
So even though it's not 33 feet, then how
do you simulate that to get an accurate reading?
So 33 feet under the water actually exerts pressure.
The water itself to exert pressure on the device.
In this case, we're going to simulate that pressure
with air pressure.
And that's what this tank does.
Oh, so you're going to use those.
Yes.
All right, great.
And I get to play lab assistant.
We have some compressed air here.
Would you turn on that valve?
Just swing it over.
All right.
Until it reaches the simulated pressure of 33 feet underwater.
OK, so in a real test we would leave it in for 30 minutes.
But for this demonstration we could take it out now.
All right?
So first we're going to release the pressure.
All right.
We're almost there.
Finally, the moment of truth arrives.
OK Jack, you want to take the lid off?
And then we'll take it out.
We'll dry it off.
Does it work?
Look, working.
It works.
Looks like it's working.
We can see your face in it.
Yeah.
Hi.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is our tumble tester.
We use this to test mobile devices
such as a smartphone or a tablet,
to see how it can withstand being dropped.
OK.
Here's a phone.
All right, let's try it.
Shall we use it?
Yeah.
And soon it's rumbling tumbling around.
It's going to rotate.
It's not moving particularly fast,
but it's enough to have the phone drop from end
to end repeatedly.
It looks like it's been completely wrecked in there.
Well, it's dropping about three feet, which would be like off
a table or out of your pocket.
About that type of a height.
The theory is that the phone will
drop in all different orientations,
so that you kind of get it everywhere.
And if it can come out of this alive after 50 or 100
of these drops, it's going to be pretty resistant to a drop.
It's hard to believe any phone could withstand
this kind of punishment.
And yet--
All right, let's see the results.
Let's take it out.
It passed.
It works.
Yep.
Do you feel that more manufacturers
are making stronger phones because of a test like this?
So what we do find is that there are
many phones that can pass this test, even after 100 drops.
They come out without damage, or there's
some that will just take a little bit of damage.
OK.
So we have one more test, Maria.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Jack, this is our drop tester.
So what is the difference between the drop
tester and the tumbler?
So the tumbler will drop the phone
in any different randomized orientation.
With the drop tester, we can orient the phone
to drop on its corner, on its edge, any edge that we want,
any kind of face that we want.
Well my phones, every time they drop,
they drop always on a corner.
On the corner?
I don't know why.
All right, let's try that.
So we're going to put it on the corner right here.
Here we go.
That was it.
That's it.
It landed on concrete.
And there's just a smudge on it.
So I'm looking to see if the phone actually
got scratched or smudged.
It turns out that was just concrete dust.
See, it wipes right off.
So the phone itself is not damaged.
The phone itself is still working.
That leaves Maria feeling pretty good about her work
here in more ways than one.
As an engineer, I appreciate that we're
doing this in a scientific way.
And as a consumer, it's important to me
because I just dropped my phone a little while ago.
So I'd like to know which phone will last longer for me
as well.
Thank you so much, Maria.
I really learned a lot from these demonstrators.
You're welcome.
Jack, don't forget your cell phone.
I don't want to leave this in there.
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