“One of the most important pieces of feedback we give to the design team is what’s known as the product’s design margin,” says Ajay. “For example, we ask, ‘How many more drops can this phone withstand? If 90% of users drop their phones a certain number of times a year, how can we build something that survives even more than that?’ And these decisions are especially important as we build phones to last even longer.”
While the team could come up with any type of test, they rooted their tests in practical scenarios. “We test for things like high altitude—what happens to our phones at 14,000 feet, for example, because if there’s an unpressurized plane carrying our phones, we don’t want them to break,” says Ajay. “But testing what would happen if a phone fell out of a plane – for curiosity’s sake? Sure, it’s a fun test to think about, but it’s not a use case that happens often enough to be worth designing an entire product around.”
Nevertheless, the teams complete the practical tests could helping our devices survive more outlandish scenarios if (and when) they arise. That might explain how the two Pixel phones survived their time in the snow. The team tests how our devices survive in temperatures from -30ºC (-22ºF) to 75ºC (167ºF), for example, to help see what will happen when you accidentally leave your phone out in the sun on a hot summer day or subject your Pixel to rapid temperature changes when you leave your toasty home for the cold outdoors in winter.
Likewise, while snow isn’t on the test docket, the Pixel 6a, which Andrew left outside for six months, was certified (with an ingress protection rating) for water and dust resistance. “So the phones are relatively sealed from the elements, the snow cover kept them relatively protected, and the charging circuit was most likely disabled, saving the battery,” says Ajay. “It’s not our phones the design for that scenario, but anything else they’re tested and designed for can help them survive.”
So should we all start throwing our phones against walls or leave them in the desert? “I wouldn’t recommend it,” Ajay says with a laugh. “We don’t want to let people feel that they can something with our products, but it’s great to surprise them when something bad happens and their phone survives. The moment they pick up their phone and they don’t see a broken screen or the camera is working – that’s where the joy is.”