Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are the most beautiful phones in the world right now. Their beauty comes at a cost though. Not only are the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ more expensive than last year's Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, they would also cost you a bomb should you crack their gorgeous Infinity screens. The first bit is understandable. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ ought to be expensive. The second bit is understandable as well. All that glass and all those curves ought to make for one fragile handset. What's hard to understand is why Samsung isn't offering an insurance cover with its new flagship Galaxy S phones. It is giving you a wireless charger instead.
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I don't know about others, but, I'll rather bet my money on an accidental cover. A wireless charger, I can still live without.
One look at the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ and it's pretty clear why Samsung isn't offering an insurance cover this time round. It did offer one last year with the Galaxy S7 Edge. All those who pre-booked the Galaxy S7 Edge -- post launch -- were eligible for one time screen replacement insurance for an added Rs 999. There's no such offer available with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. An iFixit teardown of the Galaxy S8+ explains why.
"All that glass and all those curves ought to make for one fragile handset. What's hard to understand is why Samsung isn't offering an insurance cover with its new flagship Galaxy S phones"
"Front and back glass make for double the crackability, and strong adhesive on both makes it tough to access the internals for any repair. Because of the curved screen, replacing the front glass without destroying the display is extremely difficult," says iFixit . They've given the Galaxy S8+ a repairability score of 4 out of 10 (where 10 is easiest to repair). It took anywhere between Rs 17,000 and Rs 25,000 to replace the cracked screen of a Galaxy S7 Edge. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ should cost you more. A new report doing the rounds on the Internet claims the screen replacement on the Galaxy S8+ will cost you 25 per cent more than the Galaxy S7 Edge.
The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, on first look, appear to be a hybrid cross between the Galaxy S7 Edge and the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. It's carved out of glass -- Corning's new Gorilla Glass 5 -- and metal. Only in the case of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, the metallic centerpiece that joins the front and back is virtually non-existent. And it's polished in a way that it gives out the impression that the whole thing is one continuous sheet of glass. And it is for the most part.
The fifth-generation Gorilla Glass is not just scratch-proof; it will make your phone virtually shatter-proof, according to Corning. It has been built to withstand drops, drops of magnanimous proportions, it says. The Glass 5 holds the distinction of surviving up to 80 per cent of the time when dropped face-down in Corning lab tests. But, there are still a good 20 per cent of cases where things could turn upside down. That's besides the fact that lab tests are lab tests and as accurate as they might be, real-world scenarios can (and will) catch you completely off-guard simply because you can't control them.
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A phone like the Galaxy S8 (and Galaxy S8+) even though it has the industry's class-leading glass -- and lots and lots of it -- isn't full-proof to cracking when dropped facing-down. YouTube is already full of videos of users having taken Samsung's new near bezel-less phones for a ride, and the results in most cases haven't been quite encouraging for potential buyers. An accidental cover -- even for a limited period -- could have perhaps helped gain their trust. And frankly speaking, Samsung needs it -- consumer trust -- now more than ever. It might have pulled off a non-exploding phone this time round, but, Samsung's new phones are certainly not without their flaws.
