iPhone Drop Tests
After Apple announced at its iPhone 11 event that its newest phones have the “toughest glass in a smartphone” it’s no surprise that we’re seeing that put to the test on launch day. The first drop tests show how the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max fare from up to 11-foot drops on concrete.
So far we’ve got some drop tests from Tom’s Guide and YouTuber EverythingApplePro. The results from Tom’s Guide were disappointing as the iPhone 11 Pro cracked on the first drop. However, EverythingApplePro had a totally different experience with both Pro iPhones lasting over 8 drops each before the glass cracked.
According to SquareTrade’s Breakability Score tests, the new iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models had more durable glass and better handled small drops, but were still prone to shattering in major drops.
In a series of 6 foot drop tests conducted both face up and face down, all three of the iPhones broke and suffered damage of varying degrees. In a tumble test, though, where the iPhones are tumbled around in a metal cylinder, the new devices fared a bit better.
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According to SquareTrade, the iPhone 11 Pro is the first iPhone that’s ever been able to survive the tumble test intact. SquareTrade says the iPhone 11 Pro is the “most durable iPhone” it’s tested in generations.
While neither of the phones cracked like we’ve seen in previous years, they didn’t emerge totally unscathed: The iPhone 11 Pro had some damaged pixels and the iPhone 11’s rear camera stopped working after our final drop.
Long ago I worked for a school district that drop tested Mac laptops to figure out how kids were breaking them. A lot of what we figured out is that gear doesn’t break like you think it does.
We were surprised when we had really good results from high drop distances, so much that it didn’t match with what we were seeing students do. But device damage isn’t necessarily based on height.
A drop from a very short height could damage the device significantly as long as it hit in just the right location. Corners are especially vulnerable, which is one reasons I suspect Apple has been rounding device corners more and more.
Már Másson Maack (via Ben Lovejoy):
Last year, photographer Haukur Snorrason was on an aerial photo tour of the Skaftá river in South Iceland to grab pictures of the yearly glacier river floods. Unfortunately, when he grabbed his iPhone [6s] to film the flood, the phone got swept away by a gust of wind. Falling 60 meters (200 feet) down on rocky terrain — where a massive river was overflowing and rupturing roads — the time came for Haukur to say goodbye to his phone forever – or so he thought.
Or so he thought, until 13 months later, when he received a phone call from people that had found his phone while hiking. After falling from a plane, and spending over a year exposed to the harsh Icelandic elements, it still worked!
