Briefly: The iPhone 16 sequence may provide few upgrades over its predecessor, however critiques of Apple’s newest handsets have been optimistic. There have additionally been a number of sturdiness exams carried out on the Professional fashions – with largely good outcomes. The units stand as much as a wide range of punishments fairly effectively, although the skinny bezels imply that dropping them may cause some huge issues.
Beginning with YouTube’s favourite device-torture channel, JerryRigEverything, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is put by the standard sturdiness exams by Zack Nelson.
Nelson begins by mocking Apple for the similarities between this 12 months’s iPhone and the iPhone 15, in addition to the included USB-C cable solely with the ability to switch information at USB 2 speeds reasonably than the USB 3 speeds the cellphone is able to dealing with.
The iPhone 16’s Sapphire-plated digicam management button is the only new {hardware} characteristic on the handsets. It begins exhibiting scratches at degree 5 (on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness) reasonably than 8 or 9, which might be the case for pure sapphire. Nelson posits that that is as a result of microfracturing of the reducing course of – a gem tester machine barely registers the button.
Onto the display screen, which Apple says is twice as robust because the glass on another smartphone, because of the brand new Ceramic Protect glass that’s 50% harder than the earlier era. However scratches nonetheless seem at degree 6. “Glass is glass,” Nelson notes.
The titanium exoskeleton scratches simply as simply as anodized aluminum, however the OLED show reveals little response to the flame check.
Lastly, there’s the bend check. The iPhone 15 Professional Max did not fare very effectively on this part; the again glass fully shattered on the primary bend. Nevertheless, its successor survived a forceful bend with no injury. Total, it is a fairly good outcome for the Apple handset.
One space the place the Professional telephones do not seem to excel is surviving drops. AppleTrack’s video from Sam Kohl compares an iPhone 15 Professional towards an iPhone 16 Professional (not a Max). Even a pocket-height drop reveals injury on the 16 Professional’s edge, with extra injury showing from a chest-height drop. The fourth drop onto the 16 Professional’s edge not solely cracks the show barely, however it additionally refuses to activate, possible the results of these skinny bezels inflicting the edge-drop to influence the display screen.
The 15 Professional lasts till drop quantity 11 (round 12-13 toes). The 16 Professional would not seem as broken, though the cellphone is basically damaged from that earlier edge-facing drop.
