
The last thing you want when you drop a few hundred bucks on a new phone is for it to fail on you within a few days.
That’s why manufacturers go through lengthy testing processes to make sure every aspect of their devices work. Samsung does the same with its Galaxy line of phones, including the new flagship phone the Galaxy S5.
We visited Samsung’s testing facilities at its headquarters in Suwon, South Korea. There, engineers test everything from how well phones can survive a fall to how many times you can push the home button before it breaks.
Disclosure: Samsung paid for a portion of our trip to South Korea for this story, including the flight and some meals. Business Insider paid for lodging and all other expenses.
Samsung uses this room to test the radios inside its phones. The foam material absorbs the waves and mimics a wide-open environment without walls.
Samsung uses these antennas to test how the radiation from its gadgets can affect other electronics in the home.
These tubs of liquid mimic the fluids inside the human body. Samsung uses it to test how much radiation from its phones gets absorbed into people’s bodies.
This probe measures the radiation. Each country has its own level of radiation it allows. If Samsung doesn’t meet those requirements, it can’t sell its phones.
The Galaxy S5 is dust and water resistant. This chamber coats the phone in dust.
Later, engineers can check if any dust got inside the phone.
Samsung uses thermal cameras to detect how much heat its phones put out. Testers make sure users don’t notice the phone getting hot when performing certain tasks.
Static electricity can ruin a phone. Samsung uses a static electricity gun to zap phones to make sure they remain resistant to shock.
How many times do you press your phone’s home button over its lifecycle? Samsung uses this machine to make sure it lasts.
These little knobs press the home button over and over and over again to test its durability.
These machines are for drop testing. Samsung records everything using high-speed cameras so engineers can tell which parts of the phones are most likely to bend and break after a fall.
Samsung’s phones go through a variety of camera tests, including different lighting settings.
That arch can test the range of the camera flash.
The Galaxy S5 went through a bunch of audio testing, too. These sound booths help engineers test call quality in a variety of different noise environments.
Audio engineers use dummies with microphones in their ears to test call quality. The mouth has a speaker to test the phone’s mic.
The engineers blast various kinds of background noise into the room to test how the phone handles it. In fact, phones are adjusted region by region to take into account common types of noise there. For example, a European Samsung phone will be tuned differently than one sold in China.

















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