In the weeks since the iPhone 3G’s release, I’ve written a lot about it…and much of what I’ve written has involved the phone failing to live up to its considerable promise. So it’s nice to have an opportunity to write about it behaving in a way that seemed practically superhuman (superphonic?).

A few minutes ago, I was standing in my garage. I took a step and felt something under my right foot, after I’d already shifted my weight onto it. I looked down. It was my iPhone, sitting under the sole of my dress shoe. (Don’t ask how it got there–it’s not so much that it’s embarrassing as that I’m not entirely sure.)

The phone seemed to be making a crunching noise. I went into a brief spasm of horror. I thought that I’d probably broken the screen…and that, if I hadn’t, I’d be very lucky if I had a working-but-extremely-scratched-up iPhone. The screen was fine. The phone turned on without incident. I saw no deep gouges anyewhere.

I polished up the phone a polishing cloth, and darned if there’s absolutely no evidence that I’d applied 150+ pounds of pressure to it against a rough concrete floor. It looks brand new, front and back.

Now, I know there’s a large randomness factor in phone damage; if I’d stepped on it at a slightly different angle, it’s possible that it would have been toast, or would have at least gained a beauty mark or two. (My old Treo 650 ended up with such a heavy patina of scratches, nicks, scuffs, and embedded grime that I liked to think of it all as showing character.)

I’m still impressed, though. Especially considering that every iPod I’ve ever owned has acquired at least a few scratches within milliseconds of the moment I took it out of its packaging.

While we’re on the subject of iPhone torture tests–intentional or otherwise–here are a couple of videos from my PC World pals–one involving the original iPhone and one with the 3G:

 
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