When ASUS first unveiled their innovative flip camera design, a lot of people questioned its durability. Gosh, having gears and moving parts on a mobile phone? Weak. Bound to fail. It must be fragile. Wrong! There are a few recent videos and demonstrations showing the true toughness of the ZenFone 6 flip camera and it’s safe to say you don’t have a whole lot to worry about. The initial ZenFone 6 flip camera naysayers are now gushing at the durability of the flip camera. Go figure.
If you want to make an impact these days, you need exposure especially on places like YouTube. ASUS can thank JerryRigEverything who is a renowned, well respected and relevant YouTuber who puts various devices through their paces and teardowns. He’s the ultimate torture test guy and can do to phones what none of us would dare do. He will scratch, bend, burn, and push a device to the limit, all for our viewing pleasure. Judging by his gleeful commentary while torturing devices, he quite enjoys his job.
At the time of writing this article, almost 1.3 million people have watched JerryRigEverything’s ZenFone 6 durability test. Clearly people are quite curious about this phone’s durability. JerryRigEverything doesn’t hold back and completes his full-on durability testing and the ZenFone 6 passes with flying colors. The main focus is of course the flip camera and here are a few quotes from JerryRigEverything’s flip camera durability test:
“The camera unit really does feel much stronger than I thought it would”
“There’s definitely a very strong hinge of some sort inside the phone”
“I’m impressed. This thing is solid and still moving like a flipping champion.”
During the ASUS India launch event they also focused in on the flip camera durability and toughness. In one launch event video, ASUS has someone holding the phone by the camera module only. They wiggle it excessively and they even start swinging it around like a windmill. As you might expect, the flip camera module continued to operate perfectly regardless of the excessive handling.
ASUS engineers put a lot of work into the flip camera design. They tried various materials and found that liquid metal (new type of alloy) was the best solution. It is 80-percent the weight of stainless steel and is 4-times tougher. ASUS also ran an endurance test in their lab where the camera module was opened and closed continuously. ASUS claims the flip camera is good for up to 100,000 flips, which amounts to 28 selfies every day for 5 years.
Beyond just the materials and testing ASUS wanted to reduce every risk they could. Thus, they implemented an automatic detection system so that when the phone suddenly drops, the flip camera module will retract super fast. Technically ASUS calls this a gravitational sensor. We’ve included a video of that built-in drop defense system. Reviewers have tested this safeguard and have confirmed that indeed it works.
If you want to enjoy innovation, most times you need to trust the product was well put together. Brilliant engineers and quality materials should provide peace of mind, but nothing beats real life durability tests. Lab tests can only tell us so much. The recent real-life tests and demonstrations should provide even the most cynical consumers with peace of mind about the ZenFone 6 flip camera. Are you convinced or do you continue to be skeptical of the flip module durability? Let up know in the comment section below!
