it's time for the 2021 smartphone
durability awards it feels good to
finally close out 2021 not quite as
crazy as 2020 but still you know good to
put it behind us it's been a pretty big
year we installed some off-grid solar
panels on my barn plug some fruit trees
into the ground
introduce two new jerry rig knife
flavors and introduce jerryrig jr into
the world
all while pulling the guts out of a
military humvee
an electric motor
building batteries
and getting it rolling under its own
electric power
it's been a busy year but we've also had
a lot of time to durability test and
tear down plenty of smartphones
unfortunately though it has not been a
good year for smartphone durability
we've had more phones break this year
than any other year the rog phone 5
catastrophically kicked the bucket
along with the legion dual 2 just
snapped in half
and a brand new phone called the carbon
1 mark ii lived out its few minutes of
life right here on my desk
[Music]
we've had a lot of smartphones break
this year but what makes it a little
awkward is that none of the folding
phones which you would expect to be
fragile ended up breaking along with the
ipad which we would also expect to be
fragile
survived the durability test so today we
will be giving out these smartphone
durability awards of 2021 should be
pretty interesting let's get started
[Applause]
[Music]
let's start things off with the most
repairable smartphone of 2021 and that
goes to no one's surprise the fairphone
4
which is actually designed to be taken
apart has a removable battery and
replacement parts available directly
from the manufacturer fairphone is miles
ahead of everyone else when it comes to
repairability interestingly enough
though apple announced a new program
starting in 2022 called self-service
repair where people can start to fix
their own iphones so it'll be
interesting to see how that goes but as
for 2021 the fairphone 4 takes first
place
runner-up though would probably be the
pixel 6 pro with just some adhesive one
screw and one little ribbon holding the
screen to the body a screen repair could
probably be done in about 60 seconds so
runner up for most repairable phone goes
to the pixel 6 pro
now as far as the least repairable
smartphone of 2021 that has to go to the
iphone 13 pro max while the screen
repair itself is relatively easy the
problem comes with the different screws
of different sizes as well as the
digitally locked parts
but the biggest issue in what wins this
phone the least repairable smartphone of
2021
is the rear glass replacement the glass
is permanently installed onto the phone
and impossible to replace
and apple charges 599
for them to fix it and it's one of the
most common things that would ever break
on an iphone of course if the rear glass
ever does break instead of paying 5.99
for the replacement you can just grab a
tear down skin far easier and after all
pretending not to be broken is what life
is all about it'll be interesting to see
if apple's repair program does include
these pieces of glass and hopefully
someday apple will build their phones in
a way that can be repaired until then
though this glass ridiculousness is what
earns them the least repairable
smartphone of 2021.
the most innovative smartphone of 2021
was a hard one we didn't have the
craziness of last year with the lg wing
as it would flip out in a t-shape with
its dual screens everyone here kind of
played us safe
samsung however managed to do something
relatively unique
waterproofing their folding phones both
the flip 3 and the fold 3 all while
building it strong enough that they
survived the durability test and i could
completely disassemble the flip and put
it back together in one working piece so
even though it's been around for a few
generations now those improvements make
the samsung galaxy flip 3 the most
innovative smartphone of 2021
but what about the best looking
smartphone on the inside the galaxy flip
3 does look pretty sweet with this gold
contact pad and multi-colored
motherboards along with the iphone 13s
magnets on the back surrounding its
copper coil
it was pretty hard to decide this year
because we also have the microsoft do o2
which looks pretty stealthy inside
with its black motherboards and long
batteries stuff we don't normally see
inside of smartphones
but if i had to pick just one it would
probably be the legion duo 2 which
probably had the most packed inside of
it of any other phone this year
with his dual internal cooling fans
copper duct work rgb lights ultrasonic
triggers and a stepper motor with a
pop-up camera it was just a super cool
all-round phone i mean yeah it did kind
of open up unintentionally during the
bin test and didn't exactly live very
long but other than that i think the
legion dual 2 is the best looking
smartphone from the inside even if it
was dead and that sounds kind of creepy
which brings us to the least durable
smartphone of 2021. now we did have a
lot to pick from
but if i had to pick one it would again
go to the legion duo 2. this thing
started off heavy and solid and i just
thought you know it gave me no
indication that it was going to snap in
half until it snapped in half
and it might very well be the easiest
phone to snap in half of all time giving
the next bit robin from back in 2016 a
run for its money and that phone was
plastic so while this might be the
coolest looking phone from the inside it
doesn't help a whole lot when you can't
survive on the outside the legion duo 2
wins the least durable smartphone of
2021 i also have another award called
the delusive award which is given to a
smartphone manufacturer who kind of
had some misleading advertising but i
think so far this year 2021 most
smartphones arrived as they were
advertised so we'll put that award on
the back burner save it for maybe next
year it's not an award you want to win
as far as the most durable smartphone of
2021 it comes to no one's surprise yet
again that goes to the kyocera duraforce
ultra 5g this guy is a tank with a
rubberized plastic body that can survive
five foot drops onto concrete it also
has a pure sapphire display which is
scratch resistant to a level eight on
most scale of hardness exponentially
harder than a tempered glass moh6 it's
also not just water resistant it's
waterproof and liquid damage is covered
under warranty since it has a sticky
rubber gasket inlaid between the two
halves of the phone to keep water out
it's protections like that that we
usually only see in underwater drones so
while it might not be the sleekest
looking phone of 2021 it is by far hands
down the most durable remember that any
one of these smartphones on my desk
including the one in your pocket could
be considered the most durable as long
as it has a case and a screen protector
personally i always have a case on my
own phone which is the galaxy note 10
from back in 2019 you know in the before
times
smartphones these days are really good
and end up lasting for a really long
time so it's a good idea to protect your
investment you don't have to buy a new
phone if your current phone isn't broken
and that concludes the smartphone
durability awards of 2021. i'm curious
though you know obviously these are my
opinions i'm curious to hear yours do
you think a different phone should have
won a particular award let me know down
in the comments up to this point in the
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