Wife's week old Razr Maxx screen shattered

[scott9050]

My wife just called me and was upset. Her Razr Maxx was in her purse at work and she pulled it out to make a call and the screen was shattered. I asked her if she had dropped her purse or if anything had knocked against it and she said no. She also has nothing in her purse that should have been able to break it.
Part of why I encouraged her to upgrade to this phone was the Gorilla glass was said to be strong. Apparently from what I am reading a lot of people are having the same problem but Motorola and Verizon are refusing to do anything.
I have found a source for a new screen and digitizer and will replace it myself, but for now she will go back to her trusty Droid X which is built like a small tank. She has had this phone for all of 8 days.

 

[scott9050]

Update: My wife just got off of the phone with Verizon and they are going to exchange it free of charge since it is only a week old.DancingNexus

 

[FoxKat]

I'm very sorry to hear of your wife's phone situation, the phones are designed to be more durable with a gorilla glass but the glass is not unbreakable. One thing that I believe contributes to the screen shattering is that the phone is a very thin form factor, and although each layer of the phone is laminated to the next in a similar design to plywood, which is supposed to strengthen the phone, the phone is still somewhat more flexible than the typical phone prior to this design.

Another thing to consider is that the phone may have simply cracked in your wife's pocketbook but the damage that cause the cracking could have occurred as a result of a drop our ding prior to that day creating stress in the glass and just the fact it was in the pocket book against other items and suffering pressure may have been enough to cause the glass to fail.

Finally I don't know your wife, and I don't mean to imply, but I've seen some women toss their pocketbooks around pretty roughly and when they come into a room drop them from arms length to the floor or toss them onto a table. Any 1 of these dings or bangs could have either been the direct cause for, or a subsequent cause to the failure.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk with speech to text translation. Please excuse any minor grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors.

 

[94lt1]

This is why I keep all of my devices in an otterbox defender

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!

 

[FoxKat]

Update: My wife just got off of the phone with Verizon and they are going to exchange it free of charge since it is only a week old.DancingNexus

That's great news, now I would suggest you add insurance to the plan. I might also suggest a protective case like the otterbox defender for instance.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk with speech to text translation. Please excuse any minor grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors.

 

[scott9050]

Yeah, she just added the insurance to the plan. I guess I have to accept that the new Maxx and my Galaxy Nexus are much more fragile than the Droid X model we both came from.

 

[cbreze]

I read an article a while back that stated certain properties of gorilla glass and it's strengths and one sort of flaw. The flaw had to do with drops or pressures applied to the edges. This is the weak area and can cause the entire piece to shatter. A drop that hits it more or less centered on the glass, away from edges is usually not going to break as a drop or pressure on the edge would be much more likely to shatter the piece of glass. I've dropped mine a few times before I got a case and cringed each time as I picked it up to examine. Lucky I guess, no breakage. If it hits just right tho, it shatters. Glad you got it replaced. Sometimes Verizon comes thru as they should.

 

[Cripton805]

I think your wife, like many women out there blame their issues on something else. Jk

No, but really. My girlfriend uses up all her insurance claims every year. Somehow she just breaks everything... she broke my 360 controller, her phones, her makeup, her hair machines, etc...

.Its always a product failure in her eyes.
I have NEVER broken any of my 30+ phones. Except for water damage 1x by accident or warranty issues.
Including my Razr.

 

[FoxKat]

I read an article a while back that stated certain properties of gorilla glass and it's strengths and one sort of flaw. The flaw had to do with drops or pressures applied to the edges. This is the weak area and can cause the entire piece to shatter. A drop that hits it more or less centered on the glass, away from edges is usually not going to break as a drop or pressure on the edge would be much more likely to shatter the piece of glass. I've dropped mine a few times before I got a case and cringed each time as I picked it up to examine. Lucky I guess, no breakage. If it hits just right tho, it shatters. Glad you got it replaced. Sometimes Verizon comes thru as they should.

I would confer with this information. The weakest part of any glass that's been molded, free-flowed, and especially cut is the edges. Since there are microscopic stress fractures that accompany the cutting process, it's nearly impossible to make the edge as stress-free as the uncompromised middle of the glass. Even heating the edge to melting point doesn't remove all stress since there will be temperature differences at the time of edge treating which remain as stress once cooled. In all drop tests you see where they demonstrate the Gorilla Glass against a "normal" glass screen, the ball drops square in the center, and in a bend test, it's across the entire surface - again with the fulcrum squarely in the center of the screen.

Believe it or not, it's much more difficult to fracture the center of glass than you might think, and in terms of impact pressure it's many times higher than the same type of hit to an edge. The stresses mentioned above play a part, but even more important is that when hit in the middle, the glass would have to fracture in many directions at once to break so the surrounding glass around the impact point acts as a vice to keep the glass from cracking and vibrations centered there, and then as a buffer to allow the vibrations to travel in all directions evenly. Conversely if the glass is hit on an edge, there is really only one direction the fracture must travel to relieve the stress - any direction that is perpendicular to the edge, and there's a "free plane" (the edge) that allows the stress to be relieved immediately.

When hit with a BB, for instance, the stress must "fan out" from the point of impact and find its way to the opposite side of the glass quickly. This is why if your windshield is hit by a stray stone, you most often get that circular, cone-shaped mark on the glass. It"s the vice-like properties of the glass around it which can't expand to distribute the stress that causes the impact to move through the face of the glass and to the back of the glass in a widening pattern.

Still, there are times when those micro-fractures along the edge can be under such extreme pressure - albeit extreme in relation to the lack of stress further on in the glass, that can suddenly and without apparent influence and warning just decide to release that stress and you have a crack. There have been many posts of people who went to bed at night and their phone was fine, but the next morning it had a crack on it. The same story plays out with phones in pockets, on desks, virtually anywhere.

Things that can contribute to setting the crack off (the catalyst), are changes in temperature (especially if different across the face of the glass or if changing from two extremes quickly), vibration of any kind, bumps, drops or even the slightest pressure. In the case of the pocketbook fracture, it could have been even a soft item resting against the screen that triggered the failure and due to a relatively low amount of pressure, but simply enough to deflect the glass and enhance the stress at an edge.

Finally, twisting flat pane glass is even more stressful than simply bending, and so a phone that is for instance sitting on a coin on the desk and a downward pressure causes one or two corners to dip further than the other three or two, will cause torsion stress that will "tear" at the edge, setting off the fracture. This can happen very easily in a front or rear pocket while bending or sitting down. Many have reported their phones cracking in their pockets after bending down to pick up something.

 

[BroidDrionic]

material science essay

Reminds me of materials science in college, you should charge people for information like that! Haha

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[FoxKat]

Reminds me of materials science in college, you should charge people for information like that! Haha

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Thank you, sir! I am happy to assist when I can. :biggrin:

 

[jkaod]

Reminds me of materials science in college, you should charge people for information like that! Haha

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Just slip a dollar in the shoe phone please.

 

[scott9050]

I think your wife, like many women out there blame their issues on something else. Jk

No, but really. My girlfriend uses up all her insurance claims every year. Somehow she just breaks everything... she broke my 360 controller, her phones, her makeup, her hair machines, etc...

.Its always a product failure in her eyes.
I have NEVER broken any of my 30+ phones. Except for water damage 1x by accident or warranty issues.
Including my Razr.

We have both had smart phones for about 8 years and cells going back to 1998. Neither one of us has ever broken a screen until this one. It is very possible she set her purse down and the edge managed to take what would otherwise be a benign blow to just the right place. According to my wife the phone rep did not seem to be surprised about it.

 

[azdrifter]

It's one of them situations where your wife just might have been sent that certain phone that would be the one to break. You know the lemon of the bunch and then again it is Gorilla GLASS which means it is resistant to cracks but not unbreakable. The good news is that it is being replaced and as far as the Verizon rep not being surprised that does not surprise me at all I think if you throw a ball of yarn into a VZW store most of the reps will be kept entertained for a while ,LOL :icon_eek:

 

[FoxKat]

It's one of them situations where your wife just might have been sent that certain phone that would be the one to break. You know the lemon of the bunch and then again it is Gorilla GLASS which means it is resistant to cracks but not unbreakable. The good news is that it is being replaced and as far as the Verizon rep not being surprised that does not surprise me at all I think if you throw a ball of yarn into a VZW store most of the reps will be kept entertained for a while ,LOL :icon_eek:

^^^ What he said... (and regarding the VZW employees...or a little plastic ball with a bell in it, or one of those fake mice on a string!) :biggrin: