I Accidentally Dropped My iPhone 8 Plus 15 Times In 10 Weeks To Realize It's One Tough Cookie

This might not be the best time to say this but I'm not clumsy. Far from it. I pride myself in taking great care of my gadgets and gear. I swear.

iPhone 8 Plus meets the ground

So what went so horribly wrong with my handling of the iPhone 8 Plus? Before you start blaming it on butter fingers, let me point you to the iPhone 8 Plus' slippery glass back panel, and how it can make the iPhone 8 Plus wriggle out of your hand like a fish out of water at the most untimely of moments.

In the Uber (3 times from 2 feet)

I've had the iPhone 8 Plus slip out of my hand while travelling in an Uber on three occasions. When I'm fully awake, I try to read stuff or watch videos on my iPhone 8 Plus nestled in my hand resting on my left knee -- or if I'm feeling adventurous, I try to balance the 8 Plus on my knee, with the phone's right edge reclining against the left front seat and left edge cosying up to the rear left door. However, it's when I get drowsy that the knee-seat-door cosy trinity turns into an overpowering Bermuda Triangle, instantly crashing the phone down to the car floor.

Tiny dent on the bottom edge of the iPhone 8 Plus

In the train (5 times from 2.5 feet)

Early morning red eye trains are a double-edged sword. I try to aim for the window seat, and on days when I'm successful I prop the iPhone 8 Plus on the window sill, catching up on news and stuff. But something about the comfy window seat and cold morning breeze has me nodding off in a wink. I just can't help it. Of course, it invariably leads to me waking up to a crash and bang sound of the iPhone 8 Plus lying on the train's hard metal floor. This has happened way too many times for comfort, much to my embarrassment. Ouch.

iPhone 8 Plus fallen on the train

On the bed (3 times from 3 feet)

For some inexplicable reason, I like to charge my phone while it's lying on my bed. Who doesn't, duh? The charging cable dangles precariously from the edge of the bed to the wall socket, tugging at the iPhone 8 Plus like a sweetheart. There's a fair bit of tension between the two ends. And whenever the iPhone 8 Plus gets an incoming call, the phone vibrates to cause a tug of war with the cable, inching closer to the edge with every vibration. I either wake up or enter my bedroom with a start upon hearing the tumbling iPhone 8 Plus noise.

Another tiny dent into the bottom edge of the iPhone 8 Plus

On the table (2 times from 3.5 feet)

My mum has a strict no-phones-at-the-dinner-table policy, especially on evenings when the family eats dinner together. What message or phone call can be so urgent that it can't wait for half an hour, she argues. She questions my life decisions at the dinner table, wondering why I choose to photograph the tasty plate of puran poli or hot curry in front of me instead of digging right into it -- yeah, my mom's not a fan of Instagram, but how did you guess? Anyways, twice the iPhone 8 Plus has come crashing to the hard marble floor, slipping off our dining table's slippery plastic sheet. What did my mom say on both of those occasions? "Serves you right!"

Hard to see bumps on the iPhone 8 Plus

Heart in my mouth slips (2 times from 4 feet)

There remain two occasions in the past 10 weeks where my iPhone 8 Plus took more than just a minor scratch. Once, when I had temporarily kept the phone on top of a car -- a still Santro -- and it slipped and fell on a chipped cement road. Secondly, when I was trying to hurriedly get out of a car, and the iPhone 8 Plus just flew out of my shirt's front pocket -- it spun through the air in full slow motion and hit the road at a really awkward angle, as I stood there in horror. It resulted in the following screen fracture.

hairline screen fracture on the iPhone 8 Plus

Phew!

I know the iPhone 8 Plus comes in a strong, aerospace-grade 7000 Series aluminium shell, and that it has a new steel substructure underneath, and has the most "durable glass ever in a smartphone." But all of that doesn't mean anything if the phone doesn't withstand daily knocks and bumps.

tiny scratches on the edge of the glass back panel on iPhone 8 Plus

Apart from a couple of hairline fractures on the iPhone 8 Plus' screen and rear glass panel, and two or three hard-to-see knocks on its curved edge, I'm glad the iPhone 8 Plus has survived crashing down on a variety of surfaces -- marble, metal, hard plastic, jagged rock and rough cement -- with only tiny imperfections to show for its troubles. Despite the additional glass surface on its back, nothing has shattered or ended up in a catastrophe, which is what I was fearing the most. Thanks to its tough build quality, I'm glad to see the iPhone 8 Plus has weathered the battle of knocks and bumps quite well.

And it lives to fight another (clumsy?) day.