An iPhone 15 Professional Max got here away severely cracked however nonetheless fully purposeful after a punishing collection of drop exams.
Apple’s newest carried out nearly precisely in addition to final 12 months’s iPhone 14 Professional Max did on the identical exams, regardless of a current report that the brand new mannequin is extra fragile than its predecessor.
iPhone 15 Professional Max survives drop exams overwhelmed up however purposeful
It’s an inescapable reality of life that telephones get dropped. Apple makes its handsets in order that they rise up pretty nicely to such punishment, however this needs to be balanced in opposition to customers’ want for a light-weight system.
Apple modifications the iPhone design yearly to a larger or lesser extent, so new drop exams must be carried out on successive fashions to see how nicely they survive crashing to the bottom. The YouTube channel PhoneBuff put the iPhone 15 Professional Max via 4 drop exams to get the newest outcomes.
The primary take a look at was a drop of 1 meter (3.3 toes) onto a concrete block, with the system touchdown on its again. The glass again on the handset broke badly.
Whereas that’s hardly ideally suited, the identical factor occurred to the iPhone 14 Professional Max, and the again plate on the iPhone 13 Professional Max additionally broke in the identical take a look at. The silver lining is that Apple considerably lowered the again glass substitute charge for the iPhone 15 Professional lineup.
Subsequent, PhoneBuff dropped iPhone 15 Professional Max onto its nook. The brand new titanium chassis got here away primarily unscathed. The brand new steel did significantly better on this take a look at than its predecessors’ chrome steel casings.
The harshest take a look at is a face-down 1-meter drop onto concrete. The glass cowl over the LCD shattered, although the touchscreens continued to operate, as did the Face ID scanner. The entrance glass of the 2 earlier Professional Max fashions additionally broke on this take a look at.
The ultimate take a look at was a drop of 1.45 meters (4.8 toes), with the entrance of the system hitting metal. This seems to be a torture take a look at to see how nicely an already closely broken system survives additional punishment. The reply: not nicely.
On the finish of all 4 rounds of exams, with each the back and front glass shattered, the iPhone 15 Professional Max remained absolutely purposeful.
Telephones are considerably fragile
On the finish of the punishing drop exams, the most recent Professional Max was in horrible form. However the iPhone 14 Professional Max was in simply as unhealthy a form after the identical exams. And PhoneBuff did a head-to-head comparability with the Galaxy S23 Extremely, and the Samsung mannequin got here away solely barely much less broken after repeated drops.
There’s no proof that Apple’s change to titanium within the 2023 Professional collection made a big distinction to drop survivability. The titanium itself did higher, however it introduced no extra safety to the glass parts of the handset.
Watch the video to see the iPhone drop exams for your self:
Ignore non-scientific exams
A collection of drop exams achieved on the launch day of the iPhone 15 collection discovered that the brand new Professional Max was simpler to interrupt than the 2022 model. That doesn’t jibe in any respect with PhoneBuff‘s extra rigorous testing.
The distinction nearly actually stems from how the 2 units of exams have been carried out. PhoneBuff did its testing beneath fastidiously measured situations, whereas AppleTrack’s Sam Kohl merely dropped his units on the sidewalk. One is completed scientifically, and one isn’t.
And whereas Kohl throwing the handset off a constructing is actually enjoyable and thrilling, it’s not clear whether or not the result’s helpful.