Samsung GALAXY S 4 put through the wringer in a variety of stress tests

Smartphones are, to some degree at least, delicate electronic creatures that happen to be stuffed in pockets, bags, placed on counters, taken to precarious places, and dropped on a near-daily basis. Anyone who has owned a phone for a significant amount of time has cracked a screen or crimped a corner at some point, which mostly makes us look for more durable hardware rather than gentle handling. Those who own the GALAXY S 4 can check out the handset being roughed up by a variety of machines in Samsung's stress tests to get an idea how much abuse their own phone can handle.

The video starts out with a slightly cliched image of an S 4 meeting an unfortunate fate in a toilet bowl, and progresses from there to a drop on the steps, a front-row seat with a stove burner, and finally desecration beneath someone's shoe. All are meant to represent different ways you accidentally render your smartphone unto potential death.

From there we get to see the tests in action, with the Consecutive Drop Test kicking things off with two of the handsets being shoved onto a metal floor, which a worker pounds with his fist to emphasize its hardness. While these tests aren't the entire roster of abuse the S 4 was put through, it does provide a glimpse into how Samsung ensures its devices can handle the rigorous of every day life.

From there, the Free Fall Test kicks off by dropping a mug, which shatters on the floor, followed by a GALAXY S 4, which holds up fine as one of the tech's scroll through the screen. From there, there's the tumble test, which rolls the device around over and over, but neither of those are as entertaining as the display strength test, which starts off by shattering a walnut.

If, after seeing the walnut turned into shrapnel, you expect to see the screen shatter, you weren't the only one. But it holds up with nary an issue, and continues to hold up when subjected to a large metal ball being dropped onto it. The abuse only gets worse from there, including submersion, "Temperature and Humidity Torture Tests," a salt-water sauna, and repeated zapping with a miniature stun gun.