You may remember Nokia's rather thought-provoking video promo "Welcome to the Fourth Screen", embedded below? It was part of the launch of N-Gage 2.0 and devices like the N96 and, yes, it's now somewhat dated, in terms of specifics. But the central concept remains inspiring: that with a smartphone in our pocket we can go out into the world, rather than being cooped up in our homes and offices, plugged into broadband and desktop computers. Into the world, with its knocks and shocks, with rain, with extremes of sun and cold. Good thing that my smartphone tools of choice can take it. Here's some evidence...

I had a bit of a smartphone accident yesterday. Walking along, I went to pull my Nokia N8 out of its belt case and made a complete hash of it. The N8 flicked up, spiralled in the air a few times and then crashed to the tarmac pavement, bouncing lightly and skidding to a halt.

Now, what was interesting was that as I watched it happen in slow motion, there wasn't the slightest worry that I'd broken the device. Honestly. Not the slightest. I was just annoyed that I might have scratched the N8. After all, I'd dropped it before, usually onto wooden floors and table tops - dozens of times, literally - the N8 is a little slippery in shape - but this was the first time it had landed on something really, really tough and abrasive.

Had this been an Apple iPhone 4 or HTC Incredible or Palm Pre 2 (etc), I have no doubt that my slow-motion thoughts as the device spiralled would have been along the lines of 'Oh ****, will it survive? What will break loose or, worse, break off? At the very least, I'd have feared for the glass screen (in the iPhone's case, the glass back as well!)

But no, I watched it fall and bounce on the tarmac and worried about mere cosmetics. And I was right:

Although there were abrasions on the plastic end caps, it was the camera island that seems to have taken most of the shock and you can see the chips in the aluminium above. But, utterly unsurprisingly, the N8's functions weren't in the slightest bit damaged by the experience. I didn't expect them to be.

You may remember that the N8's predecessor, the N82, from almost three years earlier, also with camera-centric 'focus' and also with Xenon flash, was also a tough little thing. I even wrote up a savage (and embarrassing) accident I had with it in which it essentially broke my 11 stone fall, again onto tarmac, in a car park. Here are a couple of shots of the battle-scarred N82:

Again, the N82 didn't break sweat, despite the damage. It still turns in terrific photos, by the way, even today in 2011, mainly in the hands of my daughter who 'borrows' it because her iPhone's indoor photos aren't good enough.

It's not just these two Nokia models which are tough, of course. Build quality on most units is very high -  and you may remember Rafe taking a similar fall and projecting his Nokia E71 into a river(!) This is not a fan-boy speaking, please note. Even Nokia's harshest critics grudgingly agree that the company knows how to build a phone to last. But it does seem as though these camera-centric smartphone examples, both crafted under the guiding hand of a certain Damian Dinning and his team, are tougher than most.

Which is just as well, given what I asserted above. Smartphones are for going out into the world. And that means enduring weather and shocks and drops. The latest Far East-designed Android 4.3"-screened touch-slab may look pretty while testing it in the office, but it's going to feel rather fragile when you're down the skate-park or on the beach or at a club.

Am I sad that my pristine N8 just got itself some battle scars? Only a little. I'm also rather proud. There's also something rather reassuring about having two top camera-centric smartphones from different eras which have the marks to prove that they can take whatever the world (and you or I) throw at them - and keep working, day after day, year after year.

Comments welcome if you have a real world robustness testimony of your own!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 6th May 2011