Nokia tries to kill its mobile phones

Nokia has decided to show the world just how it makes sure each handset it sells isn't going to be broken by our clumsy actions.

Nokia Labs has a set of extreme tests to make sure things like sitting on, dropping or twisting our phones won't make them break easily.

The first sees an N79 being exposed to a pin with the pressure of a fifteen stone man sitting on the device, just in case people decide to relentlessly crush their phones with their rear ends on a hard chair.

Twist until you shout

Nokia also identified a problem with two-handed gaming. When moving around with the game, users often place a lot of stress on the centre of the handset by moving their hands in different directions, so it has to be sure the phone won't snap.

The harshest, and best, test is saved for the end, with a dropped phone simulator smashing the device into a concrete block over and over, just to see if it will break.

The machine uses suction pads to simulate any type of fall, holding the phone until just above the ground before releasing. In this way the Labs team can repeatedly check on a handset's durability before unleashing it into the wild.

The team also used a camera capable of recording 100,000 frames a second, so you can see a video of the handset rippling but refusing to break, which is really cool.

So perhaps next time you fall over drunkenly and throw your phone miles down the road, spare a thought for all the testing to make sure it doesn't break.