I-Team Investigation: Shattered screens

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It's a smartphone nightmare! That sleek, glass screen cracks after slipping out of your hands. The ABC7 I-Team looks into shattered screens and why newer phones may be more likely to crack.

A newer the phone may look prettier, but that sleek design could cost anywhere from $100 to $150 to repair broken glass. How can you avoid a shattered screen?

"I drop my phone 10 times a day," Shannon Gephart said.

In just an hour at Millennium Park, the I-Team found several people with cracked phones.

"One of my kids was playing with it and we dropped it on some rocks and it just immediately shattered," Kristi Strossner said.

Experts at Jet City Device Repair and other stores say they can't keep up with requests for new screens. The demand, they say, increased with the debut of the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. According to Jet City and seven other area repair stores, glass on the newer iPhones can crack easier because of the design.

"It's all about the bezel," Neal Dexter said. The bezel is the grooved ring on your phone holding the glass.

"The 5, the glass doesn't come around to the edges. The bezel of the phone kind of goes up flat and the glass stops at the edge there. With the 6, you have a rounded bezel and the glass comes around... a little more susceptible to the damage," Dexter said.

Technicians say the design and larger glass screens mean similar concerns for the new Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge and other newer phones.

As the phones get bigger and thinner, repair technicians get busier.

"Bigger glass. Physics says it's more likely to break," Matt McCormick, Jet City Device Repair, said. "I am shocked people don't protect it given how expensive these phones are."

Experts say a cheap way to prevent cracking is by using a case where the lip raises over the glass.

"The cases that have the rubber and go all the way around the phone and have the plastic backing - and then the rubber that gives it the lift like that guy, so if it falls flat you are hitting the rubber before the glass," Dexter said.

And, add a tempered glass cover.

"Phones are going to get abused people," Enrico Bellomo said.

If you still break it, ask if it's cheaper to fix the screen than use insurance to replace the phone, which could cost $150 to $300, and many times is "refurbished."

Apple refused to comment but the I-Team also found that the glass used on iPhones and most smartphones is specially treated to be the strongest glass in the industry. But if it falls at the wrong angle, there's no avoiding a crack.

Samsung hasn't yet gotten back to the I-Team but in published reports, the company said the new phones have a "super strong" glass finish.