thanks everyone for the stories. keep them coming! i am encouraged though with the fact that not too many of you have experienced too many issues following the falls.....
now for me, i have an update. pantera1989 i saw that video a few days back and i attempted it last night. its a decent option at best but what will happen is that the slide and guides will get caught under the tape rendering the phone inoperable. I dont want to have to get into a habit of constantly disassembling this device so i decided against it. I did, however, remove the screen and I inspected the tracks. there was indeed a lot of play in the mechanism but i cleaned it out and reseated the tracks as best as I could. nothing at all seemed to have broken so i think i dodged a bullet. when i tightened it all back up the slider felt good and natural so i left it at that.
i truly believe guys that the saving grace for me was my rugged case. i use the otterbox commuter case. it is bulky and so well made.
well worth the 35 bucks. the case took the brunt of the injury but did not crack or fall off the bottom half of the phone. the bezel did though. (its a 2 part case... a bezel around the screen and a heavy duty bottom part that has a huge rubber bumper)
since this phone fell about 4 feet and then bounced and skidded on concrete the corners of the case are focked but the phone itself is not.
