Tool Reviews

Analysts from Secure Data Recovery polled 2,200 Americans to find out how users break their equipment.

Among those surveyed, 38% of respondents encountered laptop failures. Most often, devices broke due to a fall: this reason was named by 46%. Spilled drinks (33%) and ingested food (30%) also contributed to breakdowns. 20% broke the screen at least once, and 35% had to change the battery.

For smartphones, the screen turned out to be the most problematic place: 75% of respondents broke it at least once. The most common cause of breakage is when the device is accidentally dropped or thrown (46%), a drink is spilled on it (43%) or dropped down the toilet (23%). When a gadget suffers from moisture, 44% put it in rice (which is useless).

As a bonus, the authors shared the funniest causes of breakdowns:

• Forgot the pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop.
• While shoveling snow, he dropped his smartphone and hit it with a shovel.
• I didn’t take my smartphone out of the pocket of my swimming shorts and swam with it for an entire lesson.
• Baked in the oven.
• A bug sat on my hand and, out of fright, I threw the smartphone to the ground.
• He sneezed and leveled the smartphone from the balcony.
• Dropped the phone in the toilet, panicked and flushed it with water, causing more damage.
• Accidentally disturbed the stew on the stove with my smartphone.

Have you ever had occasions when you broke your gadgets in an unusual or funny way? Tell in the comments!