Apple is known for often making bombastic marketing claims during product launch events that don’t exactly hold up in real life, and it looks like the pricey new iPhone XS and XS Max are no exception.
Just as popular YouTuber Zack Nelson from JerryRigEverything predicted when scratch, burn, and bend-testing the latest extra-large iPhone, “glass is glass, and glass breaks.” That’s precisely what protection plan provider SquareTrade discovered while dropping the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max from different angles using a “scientific robot.”
Forget “the most durable glass ever in a smartphone” and just slap a protective case on one of these bad boys if you don’t want to spend a (second) fortune on replacing its screen or fragile back.
A single face-down drop is enough to wreak total destruction on those beautiful OLED panels, and the same will happen to the two’s shiny backplates if they bump into a hard surface from six feet high. The smaller iPhone XS fell apart completely in SquareTrade’s back drop test, with the XS Max faring a little better in both face-down and back drops. But just a little.
Of course, side drops are a different story, thanks to an incredibly sturdy (and handsome) stainless steel frame, with water and even beer resistance also praised following a rather unconventional dunk experiment.
Instead of submerging the iPhone XS and XS Max in 5 feet of water for 30 minutes, SquareTrade filled its proprietary “DunkBot” with no less than 138 cans of beer. Quite a wasteful exercise to prove Apple indeed stepped up its liquid protection measures for the newest iPhone generation.
But now you know the XS and XS Max can survive a great deal more than “everyday spills”, so maybe that will make those ludicrous official repair costs easier to swallow. All in all, the iPhone XS was found to be stronger than last year’s iPhone X, and the XS Max “much stronger”, but you should still mind the glass.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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