If you’re anything like us, you probably tire of seeing broken phone screens everywhere you look. One company is sick of it, too, and has thrown in free repair as a feature for a new phone.
This week, Huawei’s P8 breaks cover in Australia, and while it’s clear the phone is built to provide a bit of friendly competition for the high-end devices normally put out by the likes of Apple and Samsung, what with its 5.2 inch Full HD screen, 13 megapixel camera, and access to a 4G network, the P8 appears to be driving to a different focus, specifically that of what happens when the phone eventually hits the ground.
If slash when that happens and there is no protection in the crucial areas — the corners — the glass will try to flex and try to wiggle, and when it can’t, it snaps, causing the display of any unprotected smartphone to shatter in a way that partly resembles the pitchfork lightning effect, except on glass.
We don’t have to tell you what sort of damage this does, and while people continue to use the phone when this has happened, it can still be a little dangerous, since you are touching, swiping, and prodding what is essentially broken glass, the very thing your parents probably told you not to do when you were younger.
To try and deal with this issue, Huawei’s P8 will be sold with a promise that if you find a way to break the screen in the first year, you will get a screen replacement free of charge.
“It is estimated this year, over 200,000 smartphone handsets will be repaired or replaced costing Australians approximately $50 million fixing cracked screens on their devices,” said Shawn Marsh, Head of Marketing at Huawei in Australia.
“The new Huawei P8 combines style and innovation with a premium metal body and a tough Gorilla Glass screen. We’re so confident in our product that we’ll replace the screen for free should it shatter or fracture within the first 12 months of purchase.”
As a concept, the idea if intriguing, especially since a screen replacement can cost as much as ten or twenty percent of the retail cost of a phone, and while we don’t advocate breaking a phone, some times accidents just happen.
Talking to Huawei about the concept, we were told that the screen repair promise will only apply to the first screen breakage, which will be free “without an additional special warrant fee at purchase”, but that subsequent “further repairs would be carried out at standard repair”.
Useful to note is that Huawei also says that “the screen protection promise is valid for one year for a single repair on any type of screen damage”. Handy to know if you crush it by sitting, standing, dancing, or falling.
“We’re putting our money where our mouth is,” said Marsh. “We believe in challenging the big smartphone brands to give consumers more for their money.”
Huawei’s P8 smartphone is available this week for $699 outright from JB HiFi, Dick Smith, and Harvey Norman, and will be available from Vodafone from August 5 for $0 on the $70 Red plan over a two year period.
