Will your smartphone be as lucky as this Xiaomi if it falls 33 floors into the elevator slot?

A smartphone falling from the 4th floor hurt. But from the 33rd, into an elevator shaft? The Xiaomi 13 has just broken the record... and defied the laws of physics.

This is the story of a phone that should have ended up in pieces... and which came out almost unscathed. Posted in a Facebook group dedicated to Xiaomi, the anecdote is making waves: a Xiaomi 13 fell 33 floors down an elevator shaft in Hong Kong. After several resounding "booms," the device was recovered "banana-shaped," according to its owner. Verdict? Functional touchscreen, active incoming calls... and just a few dead pixels.

The drama unfolded as the user was exiting the elevator. The smartphone slipped from his grasp, slipped through the gap in the door, and tumbled 100 meters across concrete. A technician on site opened the elevator door to try to recover the "remains." After several minutes of searching in the dark, a brilliant idea came to him: call the number. The Xiaomi vibrated, rang... and was recovered bent, but alive.

Aluminum, Gorilla Glass... and crazy luck

Certainly, the case is deformed, the protective glass shattered, and about ten pixels are burnt out on the left edge. But the screen responds, the applications run, and the camera remains usable. An exploit reminiscent of the iPhone found intact after falling from an Alaska Airlines plane in mid-flight.

So, how can we explain this resistance? The aluminum structure of the Xiaomi 13 would have absorbed part of the shock. The Gorilla Glass and the flexible AMOLED panel probably limited the damage. But the real hero was perhaps chance: the narrow drop probably caused the phone to ricochet against the walls, dissipating the impact energy.

However, before you want to try it yourself, almost no smartphone is designed for this. It's mainly luck, although the smartphone's design can help. Protective glass screens, like the one the Xiaomi had, sometimes save the day... but they don't work miracles. Would your phone survive? If it's a tank like Ulefone's, maybe. Otherwise, it's best to avoid dropping your smartphone.