I love my wife, but how do I protect her phone from her?

[Issac Zachary]

So in May my wife's phone fell and the screen went black. It was a Pixel 3a XL. At the time it was just becoming 4-years-old. And since we couldn't get it to do anything I was affraid that a screen repair could be a waste of money. We had already replaced the screen on it a couple times before. We had an Otter case and a front glass screen protector too.

 

So I got her a phone she's really liked since then: a Pixel 7 Pro. And I got her a phone case (by Dbrand) and the nice, curved, glass screen protector, the one you put on with UV sensitive glue. Well, it wasn't just a month or so and she cracked the screen. But it still ran. As time went on more and more cracks, until finally, a couple weeks ago, she let it drop hard, and good bye screen. Now you can only see the notifications bar at the top and a weird white line under that.

 

Well, I got out the old flip phone for her. And although she told me to never repair her phone nor get her a new smartphone, I have sent this one off for repair after convincing her that it's not so bad and I want her to have a phone (and ouch, it kind of is so bad!! $$$).

 

But are there any cases, screen protectors, etc. that can help keep this from happening again? More than anything, I don't want her to feel bad every time she lets her phone fall out onto the ground. Or maybe there's a way to keep it from falling?

[whispous]

Attatch the phone to a cord in her jacket, like mittens.

 

Or a giant, bulky, giant, ugly fat case for the phone!

 

[Dutch_Master]

Perhaps a visit to a doctor to ensure there's no medical condition causing her to drop phones at a rate Linus would be jealous of?

[podkall]

My phone weighs 372g and I barely drop it.

 

20 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

I don't want her to feel bad every time she lets her phone fall out onto the ground.

 

I don't really see how rewarding her for that would be any better. She'd most likely start dropping it even more often.

[_Omega_]

just get cheap vinyl flooring... saved my GFs phone so many times its just a bit like you have a rubber floor, all just thanks to our landlord cheaping out on the flooring 

 

yes this is not the best solution, but maybe some rugs 

[podkall]

@_Omega_ or just get Nokia 3310

 

[Dutch_Master]

1 minute ago, podkall said:

Nokia 3310

That was actually my first reaction but decided the lady may actually need some smartphone functionality the Nokia doesn't offer. So, best to ensure you solve the problem at the source: the hands actually dropping the phone

[Alex Atkin UK]

27 minutes ago, _Omega_ said:

just get cheap vinyl flooring... saved my GFs phone so many times its just a bit like you have a rubber floor, all just thanks to our landlord cheaping out on the flooring 

 

yes this is not the best solution, but maybe some rugs 

Problem is, you're more likely to drop it while outdoors when fumbling with other things.

[AI_Must_Di3]

1 hour ago, Issac Zachary said:

So in May my wife's phone fell and the screen went black. It was a Pixel 3a XL. At the time it was just becoming 4-years-old. And since we couldn't get it to do anything I was affraid that a screen repair could be a waste of money. We had already replaced the screen on it a couple times before. We had an Otter case and a front glass screen protector too.

 

So I got her a phone she's really liked since then: a Pixel 7 Pro. And I got her a phone case (by Dbrand) and the nice, curved, glass screen protector, the one you put on with UV sensitive glue. Well, it wasn't just a month or so and she cracked the screen. But it still ran. As time went on more and more cracks, until finally, a couple weeks ago, she let it drop hard, and good bye screen. Now you can only see the notifications bar at the top and a weird white line under that.

 

Well, I got out the old flip phone for her. And although she told me to never repair her phone nor get her a new smartphone, I have sent this one off for repair after convincing her that it's not so bad and I want her to have a phone (and ouch, it kind of is so bad!! $$$).

 

But are there any cases, screen protectors, etc. that can help keep this from happening again? More than anything, I don't want her to feel bad every time she lets her phone fall out onto the ground. Or maybe there's a way to keep it from falling?

  Ok, im going to inject some honesty in here that you may not like, just going by what you are saying SHE said. This sounds like she was destroying the smartphone on purpose and there could be two reasons why: either she started chatting to someone that shes afraid she may take to a marriage ending place or shes already done that and is REALLY upset about it and is trying to remove them, the phone and everything to do with it from her life cause shes super regretful and really loves you and your life.

   Ive seen a few of these episodes like this and im seeing some of those hints in your post, which is nobody elses business of course, but you guys gotta get things like this straightened out. Your marriage will disintegrate if shes not allowed to release the truth, to you, and you guys work it out. Its totally forgivable if its a one and done type thing and your both truly committed to each other.

   As far as the solution goes, @podkall's answer with the 3310 is about the best idea cause youve done everything else to protect the phone and it still gets wrecked and it WILL continue to get wrecked it sounds like.

[podkall]

2 hours ago, AI_Must_Di3 said:

As far as the solution goes, @podkall's answer with the 3310 is about the best idea cause youve done everything else to protect the phone and it still gets wrecked and it WILL continue to get wrecked it sounds like.

honestly there's a certain spec of phones that are specifically target audience of a construction worker, (because allegedly you can drop the phone from quite decent height and it barely feels a thing, unless it's like straight up display facing on a sharp object I guess)

 

for example I have DOOGEE S88 Pro, and that phone has integrated durable case, glass and is slightly waterproof

 

so a phone like that would work, maybe a different one, the phone I have isn't bad, it's just very obvious that they've cut corners around some things, there's a lot of bugs this phone has that others wouldn't have

[Issac Zachary]

On 1/20/2024 at 4:12 AM, whispous said:

Attatch the phone to a cord in her jacket, like mittens.

 

Or a giant, bulky, giant, ugly fat case for the phone!

 

I found a "Military grade phone case" that might work, I hope. It looks like the case comes out past the screen a fair bit, so that should help with the edges of the screen at least.

 

Amazon.com: VENA vCommute Wallet Case Compatible with Google Pixel 7 Pro (2022), (Military Grade Drop Protection) Flip Leather Cover Card Slot Holder with Kickstand - Space Gray : Cell Phones & Accessories

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks to all for you input!

[ccnow]

The thing is...she should feel bad when she drops her phone.

 

The thing is an expensive, sensitive electronic device. It should not be dropped.

[Issac Zachary]

4 hours ago, ccnow said:

The thing is...she should feel bad when she drops her phone.

 

The thing is an expensive, sensitive electronic device. It should not be dropped.

She does feel bad when she drops her phone. She doesn't feel worthy of even owning a smartphone right now.

 

On the other hand, even I have a love hate relationship with smarphones. They're one of the greatest yet stupidest ideas every invented. Just yesterday I heard something on the porch. I looked out and saw a fawn that had climbed up and was looking right back in the window at me. What did I do? I grabbed my smartphone so I could take a picture. But as I did I didn't grab it right and it slipped from between my fingers and dropped to the floor. At least it didn't crack or get damaged, even though it hit tile. It's also been a long time since I've even dropped my phone. But what is a person supposed to do? Not use their phone? Not try to take pictures of that fawn on the porch because he or she could drop the phone and break it?

 

When my wife's phone fell and broke last she had taken it out to watch a video on taking care of orchids. She thought it would be a good idea to prop her phone up on the counter by where she was working, yet at some point it slipped and hit the edge of the sink. How does my phone fall from waste level to the floor and not break yet hers drops 3 inches to the edge of the sink and the screen stops working is beyond me. But in any case, it's not like my wife gets angry and starts throwing dishes and phones. Quite the contrary.

[Poinkachu]

12 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

On the other hand, even I have a love hate relationship with smarphones. They're one of the greatest yet stupidest ideas every invented. Just yesterday I heard something on the porch. I looked out and saw a fawn that had climbed up and was looking right back in the window at me. What did I do? I grabbed my smartphone so I could take a picture. But as I did I didn't grab it right and it slipped from between my fingers and dropped to the floor. At least it didn't crack or get damaged, even though it hit tile. It's also been a long time since I've even dropped my phone. But what is a person supposed to do? Not use their phone? Not try to take pictures of that fawn on the porch because he or she could drop the phone and break it?

All I can say is : Keep your calm and focus on the thing you want to preserve the most.

 

Quote

When my wife's phone fell and broke last she had taken it out to watch a video on taking care of orchids. She thought it would be a good idea to prop her phone up on the counter by where she was working, yet at some point it slipped and hit the edge of the sink. How does my phone fall from waste level to the floor and not break yet hers drops 3 inches to the edge of the sink and the screen stops working is beyond me. But in any case, it's not like my wife gets angry and starts throwing dishes and phones. Quite the contrary.

Screens have bad compatibility with edges. That's why.

 

 

The way I see it even if you buy her a so-called military grade 360 degrees enclosure, the front side of the enclosure is still gonna be thin material, since making it too thick might make the phone touchscreen unusable. So, at some point, if she drop it often enough, there will be cases of drop at bad angle / condition and the screen will crack.

 

Maybe buy her a phone case that has a sling on the back side for her to slip her fingers into, you know, to help secure it while on hand.

As for props, buy her proper props. Although there is phone cases with inbuilt prop on the back side too.

The finger loop and/or mini prop can also be bought separately, although it will then have to be double taped to the back of the case.

 

But yeah, ultimately it comes back to the user.

 

Though phone size sometimes contribute to drops IMO. If it's too big for one's hand, having a secure enough grip (especially in hasty moments) might be a challenge.

 

Brute force way ? idk... buy seriously cheap phones I guess.

[Ulvhamne]

I drop phones all the time. I've been using Caterpillar phones the last decade or so, and they generally last long enough for the battery to go bad a couple of times. I buy a new one when there are features I want, such as air quality monitoring, IR cameras and such and then I give the old one to a niece or nephew. 

I've dropped phones screen down a bunch of times into gravel, tool boxes and various other things, and they seem to survive. 

I think my next phone will be a Volla X something or other running Ubuntu, but that's just me being nerdy. 

[ccnow]

17 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

She does feel bad when she drops her phone. She doesn't feel worthy of even owning a smartphone right now.

 

On the other hand, even I have a love hate relationship with smarphones. They're one of the greatest yet stupidest ideas every invented. Just yesterday I heard something on the porch. I looked out and saw a fawn that had climbed up and was looking right back in the window at me. What did I do? I grabbed my smartphone so I could take a picture. But as I did I didn't grab it right and it slipped from between my fingers and dropped to the floor. At least it didn't crack or get damaged, even though it hit tile. It's also been a long time since I've even dropped my phone. But what is a person supposed to do? Not use their phone? Not try to take pictures of that fawn on the porch because he or she could drop the phone and break it?

 

When my wife's phone fell and broke last she had taken it out to watch a video on taking care of orchids. She thought it would be a good idea to prop her phone up on the counter by where she was working, yet at some point it slipped and hit the edge of the sink. How does my phone fall from waste level to the floor and not break yet hers drops 3 inches to the edge of the sink and the screen stops working is beyond me. But in any case, it's not like my wife gets angry and starts throwing dishes and phones. Quite the contrary.

I agree with your premise but I disagree with your position.

 

I think smartphones have had a net negative impact on our lives, but whether or not to continue allowing that to happen is up to you and your decisions. It's part of the reason I made the decision to go with a Razr 40 when the time came for a new device. I wanted a low-distraction device that made using my phone a conscious decision. I've been happy with the results.

 

You dropping your smartphone when you went to take a photo of the deer isn't the fault of the smartphone.

 

You ask what a person is supposed to do - not use their smartphone? - this is an incredible sentence, as if the need to take photos of things is so great and unable to be conquered that it simply forced you to drop your phone. A person is supposed to take care of their things.

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, ccnow said:

You ask what a person is supposed to do - not use their smartphone? - this is an incredible sentence, as if the need to take photos of things is so great and unable to be conquered that it simply forced you to drop your phone.

The question relates to the questions: What is the purpose of a smartphone? Why did I buy a smartphone?

 

Obviously no one needs a smartphone. We could all go back to 1990's style cellphones, or even as a society go back to home phones and pay phones. We could even get rid of phones altogether. Mankind survived for how many thousands or millions of years without smartphones?

 

But if I buy a phone to take pictures of deer, and my wife buys a phone to watch videos of how to garden anywhere she wants, yet the phone is made of glass.

 

Imagine if other objects ended up being made of glass. Glass spoons and forks, for an example. Would you stop eating because you're afraid of breaking your glass silverware?

 

I guess there are alternatives. I could swap out my phone for a camera that's a bit more robust. I'm sure there's some device with a plastic screen and batteries that we could setup for my wife to see her YouTube gardening videos anywhere she wants.

 

But going back to the smartphone. What's the point in "taking care of your phone" if that means not using your phone for the very reason you bought your phone in the first place? No one needs to make phone calls, so I guess I'll take care of my phone and not use it for even that. Sheesh!

[ccnow]

20 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

The question relates to the questions: What is the purpose of a smartphone? Why did I buy a smartphone?

 

Obviously no one needs a smartphone. We could all go back to 1990's style cellphones, or even as a society go back to home phones and pay phones. We could even get rid of phones altogether. Mankind survived for how many thousands or millions of years without smartphones?

 

But if I buy a phone to take pictures of deer, and my wife buys a phone to watch videos of how to garden anywhere she wants, yet the phone is made of glass.

 

Imagine if other objects ended up being made of glass. Glass spoons and forks, for an example. Would you stop eating because you're afraid of breaking your glass silverware?

 

I guess there are alternatives. I could swap out my phone for a camera that's a bit more robust. I'm sure there's some device with a plastic screen and batteries that we could setup for my wife to see her YouTube gardening videos anywhere she wants.

 

But going back to the smartphone. What's the point in "taking care of your phone" if that means not using your phone for the very reason you bought your phone in the first place? No one needs to make phone calls, so I guess I'll take care of my phone and not use it for even that. Sheesh!

Again, you're shifting blame here. You can use your phone to take photos of deer, there's nothing wrong with that.

 

But hold the phone, don't drop it. It's really that simple.

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, ccnow said:

Again, you're shifting blame here. You can use your phone to take photos of deer, there's nothing wrong with that.

 

But hold the phone, don't drop it. It's really that simple.

Patience is a virtue. I hadn't dropped my phone in ages. In fact, I've never broken a phone or tablet ever. I don't even use a case on my tablet, and I've been using it for years this way. Hopefully it will be ages before I drop a phone or tablet again, if not infinity and beyond.

 

My poor wife, on the other hand, is a bit impatient. That is part of the reason she tends to drop things. But there are pros to that. She's a go-getter, and will get anything and everything done that she puts her mind to. I, on the other hand, may procratinate to the point of never getting a project done because I feel I don't have all that I need to do it correctly.

[ccnow]

I'm going to go ahead and excuse myself from the conversation at this point. I just really don't understand what your wife being task-orientated has to do with taking care of her things. You asked for advice, and I've given all I can.

[Issac Zachary]

1 minute ago, ccnow said:

I'm going to go ahead and excuse myself from the conversation at this point. I just really don't understand what your wife being task-orientated has to do with taking care of her things. You asked for advice, and I've given all I can.

Thanks for your advice!

 

The point is, I'm not going to trade in my wife for one that's easier on phones after 18 years of marriage.

 

Never dropping a phone is a good solution. I only question whether it's realistic for every individual and whether it's really the only solution.

 

If we were talking about taking care of a dog, why of course you should either take care of it or not have one. But we also do not live in a society that expects every individual to own a pet dog.

 

We could go with my wife's solution, just don't get her a smartphone. She can't watch videos on her flip phone and she can't figure out how to text on it. But that is another option.

[podkall]

12 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Patience is a virtue. I hadn't dropped my phone in ages. In fact, I've never broken a phone or tablet ever. I don't even use a case on my tablet, and I've been using it for years this way. Hopefully it will be ages before I drop a phone or tablet again, if not infinity and beyond.

 

My poor wife, on the other hand, is a bit impatient. That is part of the reason she tends to drop things. But there are pros to that. She's a go-getter, and will get anything and everything done that she puts her mind to. I, on the other hand, may procratinate to the point of never getting a project done because I feel I don't have all that I need to do it correctly.

perhaps you could tell your wife to be a bit more cautious when doing certain things, and practice that,

because the thing is, you're right about some things here, grabbing a phone too fast can slip the phone mid-reach and drop it onto the ground,

 

on the other hand, a good, controlled and firm grip could minimize those results, not to mention fluid movements instead of snappy movements,

 

on the other hand @ccnow is also right, that you can't just blame the phone for falling for whatever reason, while the phone is most likely a flat and smooth surface object, but at the same time that's completely fine since we can grab even smoother objects like glass

 

and for comparison, if you dropped a knife, would you still blame the knife for being dropped? maybe knives have more rough handles with better grip but that doesn't matter, you don't really need to or shouldn't do fast movements with the knife, unless those fast movements involve you being good at cutting and simply cut the food fast

 

as for a note for whether smartphone is useful or useless, really depends on individual and his use case, because since smartphone is a small PC, there's lot of things you can do on it, which is both good or bad

 

4 hours ago, Ulvhamne said:

I've been using Caterpillar phones

show me how they look like, maybe I'm using a similar phone (can't really find it on google, unless I'm looking right at it)

[Issac Zachary]

12 minutes ago, podkall said:

perhaps you could tell your wife to be a bit more cautious when doing certain things, and practice that,

Yes, that is quite obvious. How much it will help is another question.

11 minutes ago, podkall said:

on the other hand, a good, controlled and firm grip could minimize those results, not to mention fluid movements instead of snappy movements,

 

on the other hand @ccnow is also right, that you can't just blame the phone for falling for whatever reason, while the phone is most likely a flat and smooth surface object, but at the same time that's completely fine since we can grab even smoother objects like glass

 

and for comparison, if you dropped a knife, would you still blame the knife for being dropped? maybe knives have more rough handles with better grip but that doesn't matter, you don't really need to or shouldn't do fast movements with the knife, unless those fast movements involve you being good at cutting and simply cut the food fast

Am I blaming the phone? I guess so. The thing is a phone is a tool that will end up receiving a certain amount of wear over it's lifetime. The same with a knife. But when was the last time a dropped knife resulted in a $300 repair? A glass of water is more fragile too. But you can trade out a glass for a plastic cup. Are Catapillar phones made of plastic?

 

Phones have become more fragile over the years. I grew up with rotary phones. I never heard of a rotary phone being damaged from dropping it. Not that I'm blaming the phone, it's just an observation that one needs to address one way or another. If that means being more careful and that's that (forget the foam phone case that's as big as a pillow), then that's what needs to be done.

[podkall]

36 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

But when was the last time a dropped knife resulted in a $300 repair? A glass of water is more fragile too. But you can trade out a glass for a plastic cup.

that depends, it's also focusing on the wrong issue here

 

you don't really drop a knife, even if you're a clumsy person a knife will still be less likely dropped than a phone, and as far as repairs go, knife can destroy something else to then have a repair cost

 

for glass I wasn't talking about the breaking part, but the holding part, glass is similarly slippery to phone, but I guess it's slightly more bulkier which makes it easier to hold

 

36 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Phones have become more fragile over the years. I grew up with rotary phones. I never heard of a rotary phone being damaged from dropping it.

depends, there's 2 things to this again

 

firstly what kind of phone are we talking about, smartphones used to have glass so fragile it could crack even in indirect impact out of the force it has succumbed due to the crash

 

and rotary phones? you mean those you almost never picked up from the place they were, because you either just picked up part of it, or it was literally screwed into the wall or phone booth...

36 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Not that I'm blaming the phone, it's just an observation that one needs to address one way or another. If that means being more careful and that's that (forget the foam phone case that's as big as a pillow), then that's what needs to be done.

that is correct, not all problems have multiple solutions

 

though there are couple of solutions outside of the person being more careful, like I or someone else mentioned earlier there are phones which are specifically more durable

 

there's also something called gorilla glass, which some smartphones use, it promises the glass's ability to survive falls even from great heights

 

but depends which type of gorilla glass are we talking about, as there are several types, obviously the more resistant being more expensive

 

• there's even a cheaper solution, that could get combined with the gorilla glass, and that's simply using a phone case, that increases the depth of bezel on the display's side

 

Just to give you an example, this is a video featuring a Samsung phone, with Gorilla Glass Victus: (I'm not sure of the thickness varies on different phones, or of there isn't even better version that might even be "affordable"[talking about glass not phone, but phone can be on same topic])

 

[Issac Zachary]

On 1/23/2024 at 1:24 PM, podkall said:

that depends, it's also focusing on the wrong issue here

 

you don't really drop a knife

I get your point now. If I understand correctly the comparison is with certain tools that you're meticulously using you are less likely to drop them.

• So if you grabbed your phone like a precision tool chances are you won't drop it.
• But if you grab it like a ball you would juggle with, ready to toss it into a hand or pocket or up on a shelf or whereever, then chances are higher for dropping it.

On 1/23/2024 at 1:24 PM, podkall said:

firstly what kind of phone are we talking about, smartphones used to have glass so fragile it could crack even in indirect impact out of the force it has succumbed due to the crash

Perhaps true. My point was that smartphones are more fragile than what they replaced. However, a smartphone replaces a lot more than a phone. It's a small computer, a camera and a phone all in one. Before smartphones, people needed to carry around a laptop, a cellphone of any sort (flip phone, candybar phone, etc.) and two separate cameras (one for pictures and another for video back then). Admittedly, dropping a laptop or camera would quite likely result in damage, perhaps very expensive damage, similar to that of dropping a smartphone.

On 1/23/2024 at 1:24 PM, podkall said:

and rotary phones? you mean those you almost never picked up from the place they were, because you either just picked up part of it, or it was literally screwed into the wall or phone booth...

The base was normally left on a desk or screwed to a wall. But the handset was connected via a chord to the base. Many people ended up getting long curly handset cords to be able to grab the handset and go sit on a couch or even string it around into another room. I can remember people dropping the handset, sometimes from head height down to the ground. Remeber, some of these phones, both rotary and dial, had shoulder rests so you could talk on your phone without using your hands (apparently bluetooth hadn't been invented yet ). That of course made them a drop hazzard. But I never remember an old phone headset being severely damaged from dropping. (I also don't remember any that could take pictures and videos or surf the internet).

On 1/23/2024 at 1:24 PM, podkall said:

though there are couple of solutions outside of the person being more careful, like I or someone else mentioned earlier there are phones which are specifically more durable

 

there's also something called gorilla glass, which some smartphones use, it promises the glass's ability to survive falls even from great heights

 

but depends which type of gorilla glass are we talking about, as there are several types, obviously the more resistant being more expensive

 

• there's even a cheaper solution, that could get combined with the gorilla glass, and that's simply using a phone case, that increases the depth of bezel on the display's side

 

Just to give you an example, this is a video featuring a Samsung phone, with Gorilla Glass Victus: (I'm not sure of the thickness varies on different phones, or of there isn't even better version that might even be "affordable"[talking about glass not phone, but phone can be on same topic])

 

Interestingly the glass on my wifey's Pixel 7 Pro is apparently Gorilla Glass Victus (at least according to a quick Google search).

 

I do think that a case that raises a protective plastic edge around the edge of the screen would be helpful too. Now that I think about it, the one we have on it now (from Dbrand) lets the screen "protrude" out past the case. So there's no protection on a face drop or edge drop at an angle with the glass slanting down. The current case only protects the rear and the very edge if the phone fell perpendicular to the ground.