Did this Nokia 301 save a man's life by stopping a bullet?

[midian182]

When the Nokia 3310 was released back in the year 2000, it gained a reputation as the Chuck Norris of cell phones. If it were on the Mohs scale of hardness, the 3310 would knock diamond off the top spot. But it seems the more recent Nokia handsets – a Nokia 301 in this instance, first released in 2013 – are just as invincible, with one reportedly saving a man’s life by stopping a bullet.

A picture posted on Twitter showed the remains of the Nokia. You can see the back end of the projectile protruding from the rear of the phone, with the tip sticking out of the smashed screen.

The image comes from Peter Skillman, a former Nokia executive who now works for Microsoft as the general manager for user experience at Windows Desktop. He says he worked on the team that originally developed the 301, and claims the sturdy handset’s heroics saved a man in Afganistan last week.

A Nokia phone I worked on a few years ago saved the life of a man in Afghanistan last week. The embedded bullet.... pic.twitter.com/O2zBxadkDO

— peter skillman (@peterskillman) October 5, 2016

Being the internet, questions over the legitimacy of the story have been raised. When asked to provide more information, Skillman said he was handed the phone by co-worker and failed to provide a source; instead, he posted a link to a similar 2012 story of a Nokia X2 that stopped a bullet in Syria.

Skillman’s association with Nokia also suggests that all may not be as it seems, but there have been plenty of other reports in the past of mobile phones stopping bullets, including a Nokia Lumia 520 saving a Brazilian police officer’s life in 2014 when he was shot by armed thieves.

A shame the person in this instance wasn’t carrying a Nokia 3310, as the bullet would have likely rebounded, leaving barely a scratch on the handset.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66602-did-nokia-301-save-man-life-stopping-bullet.html

 

[Kotters]

A nokia wouldn't have stopped a round like that, unless it had previously penetrated something else. If it had, the bullet probably would have deformed.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

And you can clearly see the display is still working, not a too shabby for a completely mangled device. This is bullshark. Why didn't he just say that the projectile ricocheted off the device then drilled the shooter between the eyes instead? Maybe that would be more believable.

 

[ShadowDeath]

Well...

1> The screen is a wood/paper material
2> that thing that looks like a bullet coming out of the front is actually a rock
3> there are rocks next to it trying to fall out

 

[Kibaruk]

It looks like a demo phone, those that companies showcase on displays that don't really do anything.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Bullets flatten when they hit hard things - whoever pulled this stunt should have at least done a little homework.

 

[Camikazi]

Either that was a really, really, REALLY slow bullet or this is a setup to make it look like it stopped the bullet.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Lol... no.

 

[lipe123]

What a nice feel good article.... oh wait its 99.999% a hoax.

1. the entry hole at the back looks completely wrong, more like a broad arrow hole.
2. the bullet is still in perfect condition and did not even go properly 1/2 way into the device, was NOT fired directly from a gun into the phone.
3. The super pointy thing shown at the front is not a bullet tip.

 

[Raoul Duke]

 

[risc32]

Bullet? that a shell casing, they aren't propelled out of barrels, but you would be surprised how many people think that's what bullets in flight look like. it's a common movie mistake.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Bullet? that a shell casing, they aren't propelled out of barrels, but you would be surprised how many people think that's what bullets in flight look like. it's a common movie mistake.

Looks like a bullet to me. On the rear of the phone photo you can see slight markings from the rifling. Looks about the size of a 7.62x51 NATO bullet. I do agree though a lot of movies incorrectly portray a flying bullet with the casing as well, or rather the entire cartridge as a whole.

 

[risc32]

Bullet? that a shell casing, they aren't propelled out of barrels, but you would be surprised how many people think that's what bullets in flight look like. it's a common movie mistake.

Looks like a bullet to me. On the rear of the phone photo you can see slight markings from the rifling. Looks about the size of a 7.62x51 NATO bullet. I do agree though a lot of movies incorrectly portray a flying bullet with the casing as well, or rather the entire cartridge as a whole.

I think I can also make out the rifling.... huh. my first thought (besides, "nope"), was how what I now believe to be the back end of a bullet looked just like the front end of an empty casing. I stand corrected. still doesn't seem possible.... maybe if it was underwater at just the correct distance when it was hit. maybe...

 

[Uncle Al]

I would guess that round was a 9mm or maybe a .40 cal. If it was a hollow point w/o the improved front sphere, a simple field jacket would have considerably slowed it down (a long standing fault of the original hollow points). But a 7.62x51 really would not be the case, particularly with the hard ball ammo, which will easily do a through and through on a head, which is considerably more mass than that phone and as mentioned, they deform pretty quickly and easily unless they are amour piercing, which easily would have passed through that and many other phones.

The cupped end of the round is very suspicious, making me wonder if this might have simply been a low velocity training round??? Certainly not a frangible round since it would have broken up completely. Any possibility this could have simply been faked?

 

[amghwk]

Oh yeah? Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has auto-destruct mechanism. It may not stop a bullet but it can explode. An offensive phone, I would say. (To the contrary of the defensive Nokia)

 

[Lurker101]

Oh yeah? Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has auto-destruct mechanism. It may not stop a bullet but it can explode. An offensive phone, I would say. (To the contrary of the defensive Nokia)

Nokias weren't always defensive. You could easily end a man rightly with the correct usage of 5210.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

There's a wide variety of possible reasons why this phone stopped that bullet.

We don't know what the final impact velocity was.

We don't know the angle of trajectory.

We don't know the distance the bullet was fired from.

We don't even know if the phone "saved the man's life" - only that it stopped the bullet from penetrating his body.

Smartphones with hard glass displays and metal backs could do the same thing given the right circumstances.

 

[Techstar]

I would guess that round was a 9mm or maybe a .40 cal. If it was a hollow point w/o the improved front sphere, a simple field jacket would have considerably slowed it down (a long standing fault of the original hollow points). But a 7.62x51 really would not be the case, particularly with the hard ball ammo, which will easily do a through and through on a head, which is considerably more mass than that phone and as mentioned, they deform pretty quickly and easily unless they are amour piercing, which easily would have passed through that and many other phones.

The cupped end of the round is very suspicious, making me wonder if this might have simply been a low velocity training round??? Certainly not a frangible round since it would have broken up completely. Any possibility this could have simply been faked?

Faked or recreated to show what happened...and even a low velocity training round in the chest would not feel good as it tore through flesh.
Chances are there was a flack vest behind it that was responsible for actually stopping it. Not a lot of soldiers go into a war zone without protection.

 

[Emexrulsier]

Myth Busters proved ages ago that claims phones can stop bullets is utter tosh. And as already mentioned that phone in those images isn't even a "phone" the screen is cardboard or a similar material.