Have you ever bitten your phone, or thrown it in anger? How about broken it in a collision with a moose? These are just some of the ways in which people have damaged their digital devices, according to a survey.

It probably won't surprise anyone that a cracked screen is the most common form of device damage, but a UK survey by Secure Data Recovery found that as many as one in six people here may be using a phone with a cracked screen at any given moment.

This writer recalls that multiple iPhones with cracked screens can usually be counted on commuter trains in and out of the UK capital, so the latter isn't much of a surprise either. The much-maligned millennials are the most likely folk to have broken their phones multiple times in their lives, according to Secure Data Recovery.

And it isn't just phones - laptops are frequently damaged by being dropped or having a key broken somehow. Dropping it, spilling liquid, or breaking a key appear to be the most common mishaps reported overall.

This writer can also relate from personal experience that smartphone makers seem to have a penchant for giving their devices smooth, glass-like casings that mean if you place them on anything other than a totally flat surface, they just slide off. It's almost as if they want you to break them.

Hence over 77 percent of survey respondents that have broken their phone say they cracked the screen, while getting debris stuck in the headphone or charging socket is the second most common mishap. Spillages or being dropped into the toilet or sink feature highly, while nearly 15 percent of respondents report their device was damaged by them throwing it in anger.

Whether they were angry with the device itself or it was just handy when they wanted something to hurl at someone isn't detailed.

A surprising proportion of people report simply losing their device (18.87 percent), or more specifically, leaving it on public transport or a taxi (16.49 percent), at a restaurant or bar (16 percent), or even leaving it on top of a car (6 percent of respondents, would you believe?).

There are also a number of odd or simply stupid ways that Brits have reported damaging or writing off their device, such as leaving their phone sitting on top of a gas hob, then turning on the wrong burner, or someone holding the phone between their teeth while using it as a torch and cracking the screen.

Then there is the unfortunate respondent who, while cutting the grass, had their phone fall out of their pocket and their lawnmower ran over it, or another who admits to shaking a bottle of chocolate milk in front of their PC and the top came off, showering the contents over 3 monitors and their keyboard.

Pets and children also feature as causes of damage and destruction, with someone reporting that their dog ate the keys off their PC keyboard, another that their cat peed on their MacBook and killed it. Another relates that their toddler tripped while running with their phone, and it sailed gracefully into their pond.

Secure Data Recovery previously carried out a similar survey in the US, which is where one respondent said they damaged their phone when a moose hit them while they were out cycling.

Other reported mishaps from the Land of the Free included the phone going in the washing machine, "my child decided that my phone was thirsty," and dropping the phone while shoveling snow and then hitting it with the shovel.

The survey found that a surprising 23 percent of Americans admit to having dropped their phone in the toilet, while 44 percent reported that they tend to drop their phone at least once a week.

Dropping your phone also varies by state, with 65 percent of respondents from Utah and 58 percent from Connecticut admitting they drop their phones at least once a week.

And when it comes to having to replace a phone because of breaking it, 95 percent of respondents from Texas said they had done this, with Missouri and Oklahoma at 88 percent, Illinois on 86 percent, and South Carolina on 85 percent.

Secure Data Recovery is, of course, keen to point out that it can retrieve data from defunct devices such as hard drives, SSDs, smartphones and SD cards, and says it has a "no data, no recovery fee" guarantee.

The company claims that average Brit has spent $476.34 on phone replacements and repairs, while for Americans in the earlier survey, the figure came to an average of $617 on phone repairs. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/07/26/device_damage_survey/