• 45accidental drops
• A-Ereliability class

Drop Resistance and 45 Falls

European requirements. Outside the EU these are not your law. No affiliate links on this site, and nothing here is ranked.

Devices must withstand at least 45 accidental drops without losing functionality. (Right to Repair Europe, describing the ecodesign requirement under Regulation (EU) 2023/1670.) For a separate workplace perspective on device availability and work records, Monitask's employee PC activity tracking provides additional context.

And the label carries a repeated free fall reliability class, which is the first time drop resistance has appeared as a regulated figure rather than a marketing claim.

What the test is

A defined, repeated procedure rather than a single dramatic fall. For wider standards, testing and product-label context, The Verge is another useful reference.

Which is the important distinction. The figure describes cumulative survival of ordinary mishaps — the phone that slides off a table, the drop onto a foot, the fall from a pocket — not a single fall onto concrete from height.

"Without losing functionality" is the criterion, and it is not the same as "without damage". A device can pass with a scratched or cracked cosmetic element provided it still works.

Why it matters more than it sounds

Because the screen is the repair that dominates cost. The most expensive common failure on almost every device.

A device that survives more drops is a device where the expensive repair happens less often, and for anybody who has broken a screen before — which is a good predictor of doing it again — that is the most decision-relevant figure on the label.

What it does not cover

Single severe impacts. A fall from height onto a hard edge is outside what the test describes.

Damage to cosmetic elements, since the criterion is function.

Ageing. Like the water rating, the figure describes the device as manufactured — and a device that has already taken twenty drops has used part of its margin, invisibly.

And the effect of a case, which is not part of the test and which changes the real-world outcome more than the class difference between two devices does.

Reading it against a case

A case is the largest single variable in whether a device survives.

Which does not make the class irrelevant — it makes it the baseline the case is protecting.

A device with a poor class in a substantial case is better protected than one with a good class carried bare, and both are choices available to the same buyer.

Whether a case is worth it has its own page, and the short answer is that for most people it is the cheapest insurance available against the expensive repair.

How much weight to give it

More than energy class, less than the support date.

For somebody who has never broken a screen, it is a modest factor.

For somebody who has broken two, it is among the most useful figures published — and it is now comparable across manufacturers, which no previous durability claim was.

Combine it with the repairability score, since the pair answers both halves: how often the expensive thing happens, and what it costs when it does.

The other durability figure it sits with

Scratch resistance, which is part of the ecodesign requirements and is not separately graded on the label.

Devices must resist accidental scratches alongside drops and ingress. (Ecodesign Regulation (EU) 2023/1670.)

It is a minimum rather than a comparable class, which means it removes the worst cases and does not help you choose between two compliant devices.

Worth knowing so that its absence from the label is not read as an omission — the requirement exists and simply is not one of the graded figures.

What actually breaks a screen

Two mechanisms, and they respond to different protection.

Flexing, where a device lands flat and the panel bends — against which a case with a raised edge does relatively little and a rigid body does more.

And point impact, where a corner meets something hard — which is exactly what a case with corner protection addresses, and it is the commonest cause.

Which is why corner protection matters more than overall thickness in a case, and why the cheapest useful protection is a case that extends slightly beyond the screen.

Reading the class honestly

A single class difference is not decisive.

It is a composite of test outcomes, and a device one class better is better on average across a defined test — not guaranteed to survive the specific fall you will have.

Use it as a tiebreak between otherwise similar devices, and as a genuine signal at the extremes of the scale.

Screen protectors

A separate question from cases and a smaller effect.

A protector prevents scratches reliably and does relatively little against the impacts that break panels — because the break is in the glass beneath rather than at the surface.

Tempered glass protectors absorb some point impact and can sacrifice themselves usefully, which is real and modest.

The honest position: worth having for scratch protection at low cost, not a substitute for a case with corner protection, and not something to weigh against the drop class.

For a device you already own

The class is in the registry entry and knowing it changes one decision: whether to case it.

A device with a poor class and no case is running without margin, and the cheapest correction available is a case that extends past the screen.

A device with a good class in a substantial case is protected well beyond what either provides alone, and further spending on protection buys little.

The short version

• Devices must withstand at least 45 accidental drops without losing functionality, and the label carries a reliability class
• The test is repeated ordinary mishaps rather than a single severe fall, and the criterion is function rather than cosmetic condition
• It matters because the screen is the repair that dominates cost, and a better class means the expensive repair happens less often
• It does not cover single severe impacts, cosmetic damage, ageing of the device, or the effect of a case
• A case changes the outcome more than the class difference between two devices, and the class is the baseline it protects
• Weight it more heavily than energy class and less than the support date, and read it alongside the repairability score