Apple's new flagship smartphones, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C have broken the record for the best opening weekend for an iPhone launch to date, according to Apple. However, if you are, or are planning to be, the proud owner of a new iPhone device, you should know the new iPhones are the less durable than their predecessors.
A company called SquareTrade, which provides protection plans for expensive gadgets, tested the new smartphones along with some of its major competitors. The company mainly tested the devices abilities to handle drops and dunks in water. The tests showed that, although not the worst in a durability test, the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C devices didn't do as well as last year's iPhone 5.
SquareTrade reviewed each device based on eight factors including the materials of the device's front and back panels, the size and weight, the device's ability to withstand drops from five feet and be submerged in water for ten seconds. The company uses robots to conduct the tests in order to make sure the conditions of each test are consistent across each device.
Phones were rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with a higher number reflecting a higher risk of the device breaking. The phone that did the worst on the durability test was Samsung's flagship smartphone, and rival to the iPhone, the Galaxy S4. Samsung's smartphone scored a 7 on the scale, while the iPhone 5S scored a 5.5 and the iPhone 5C scored a 6.
The real winner of the durability tests was, surprisingly, Google Inc.'s Moto X.
"We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game, but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents," said Ty Shay, chief marketing officer at SquareTrade.
The Moto X scored a rating of 4.5, surviving the tests with only the slightest dent, according to reports from CBS News.
