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over the construction of their recent iPhones because they are so expensive to replace. With the iPhone X, it's $549 to replace the
back glass. With the iPhone 8 Plus it's a little bit cheaper,
but still incredibly expensive. So today I'm going to put my money where my
mouth is and I have two brand new phones, the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus.
Both of them have the glass backs with the
new construction design, and we're going going to drop them both with realistic drops and
see when they may or may not break. Remember that drop tests are never conclusive. With a larger sample size you can get a better
idea of what's going to happen. I have done two drop tests in the past with
regular sized iPhone 8's, but I have never dropped these two phones.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens. Plus I'll be attempting my own back glass
repairs on these broken phones, so I need broken phones in order to do that. So it's all for a good cause. Apple does claim to have the most durable
glass ever on a smartphone, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with this iPhone X and
the new iPhone 8 Plus.
Let's get started. [Intro] So like always, we'll have two smartphones. This is the Galaxy S8 Plus, and over here
we have the Google Pixel 2. Both of these will be recording in slow motion
as we do the drop test.
So I'll start with the iPhone 8 Plus. It also has an aluminum frame which is slightly
softer than stainless steel and can be pushed into the glass a little more easily. Now, both the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone
X have a small plastic layer between the glass and the metal, but since aluminum gets pressed
in easier, I'm going to assume that this one breaks sooner. So I'm just going to set this on my leg.
Right now it's about 3 feet up or 1 meter
give or take. Both cameras are recording and I'll just stand
up. [Music] So after the first drop it looks like the
back is fine. We hit right up here on the corner next the
the camera bump.
But the back panel is fine and the front is
fine. Set that down. And we'll start playing with the iPhone X
or the iPhone 10 whatever you want to call it. This one does have the stainless steel rails
on the side, which is a little bit harder than aluminum.
So my assumption is that this is going to
break after the 8 Plus, but there's only one way to find out. I'll go ahead and set this on my leg, and
we will stand up. [Music] Looks like the back glass is totally fine. Front glass is still good.
Let's try it again. We'll do sitting down one more time because
this is the most common type of drop just forgetting it's on your lap and then standing
up. [Music] And the back glass...This is amazing...The
back glass is completely shattered. I'm impressed at how shattered that is from
such a short drop.
Wow. So this brand new iPhone 8 Plus took only
two drops from about knee height as it slides off of my leg to completely shatter the back. And now we owe Apple a ton of money to replace
this thing. That is mind blowing.
This wouldn't be an issue if we could just
remove the back without destroying the camera, and replace it with a third party. But what Apple does is they replace the whole
housing of the phone, transferring over all the internal components because the back glass
does not separate from the back housing. Alright, now that the iPhone 8 Plus is completely
shattered, let's go back to the iPhone X. Once again, I think this one will last a little
bit longer because of that stainless steel frame, but let's find out.
It is on my leg. Standing up. [Music] It looks like the front is still fine. The back glass is still totally fine no
damage.
So hopefully that stainless steel side is
absorbing the impact and not denting in to hit the glass. So the iPhone 8 Plus is completely shattered,
but we're going to do another drop test anyway and see how long it takes the front to shatter. Now I'll be pulling it out of my pocket and
dropping it from about waist high. [Music] That time around it did fall directly on the
screen as I flopped it out of my pocket.
From waist high, the front of the phone is
completely damaged, whether it's from the glass slightly protruding above the edge of
the aluminum right here, or just the aluminum getting pushed into the top edge of the glass
and breaking it that way. Either way, the front and the back of this
phone are completely damaged now from I think drops 2 and 3 of this drop test. So as far as most durable glass on a smartphone
ever, glass is still glass, and gravity is still gravity. But we're not done with the X yet.
Let's keep going. We'll pull it out of my pocket and let it
hit the ground. [Music] Alright, still nothing wrong with the X. We have complete, solid glass on the back
and no cracks on the front.
We'll do one more waist high drop with the
X since the 8 Plus has bit the dust. [Music] Yet again, waist-high. There is nothing wrong with the front of the
phone. Still zero cracks on the whole front side
of the device.
But on the back side, right next to the camera
hump, there's the smallest of nicks. So I'm going to assume that with the next
drop or a drop soon after, the whole back is going to shatter from that point because
once there's a weak point introduced into the glass, that's where all the damage happens. We'll do one more from about chest high. [Music] So I was wrong about where the glass was going
to crack.
It did not start from up by the camera hump,
it actually emanates from the bottom corner all the way up to the top. But now the back glass is shattered and we
owe Apple $549 to replace it. It's not because the components are expensive,
this back glass portion probably only costs about $20, it's the construction of the phone
that makes it expensive. It's is not removable and that's the bad part.
With Samsungs, you pay that $20 and get the
replacement part and you're good to go. So now the iPhone X/iPhone 10 has been damaged
from chest high. We're going to do one more, like if it drops
from your hand while it's up by you ear. I'm about 6 feet tall, about 2 meters give
or take, so let's see what happens.
[Music] So the front glass of the phone does have
damage in that bottom left corner. Nothing too drastic, but it is damaged. And the back is not just shattered everywhere. So overall I would say I'm pretty disappointed
in the construction of the Apple phone.
I think they look fantastic. I love the glass, I love the metal. The stainless steel is probably one of my
favorite phone materials of all time. But the way the back glass is adhered to the
phone is incredibly stupid.
It is not repairable and it is incredibly
expensive to replace for us as the consumers, which means there will be a ton of these phones
walking around in the wild with cracked backs from people who don't want to pay $500 to
replace them. So now that we know how the phones are constructed
and how fragile they are, it's time to make a decision. And to me, a case seems like a no-brainer. In my past videos I did have a case on one
of the phones that I was dropping and it lasted significantly longer than the naked phone.
And with the high price point cost of repair
on these phones, the risk is not worth the reward. Yeah, the phones look good naked, but they
don't last long naked. So yeah, I would say a case is mandatory on
both of these phones because you're basically buying a new phone with the price it costs
to repair it. Definitely a poor decision on Apple's part.
Let me know what you think though, down in
the comments. I'm curious, would you buy a phone like this? And if you would buy an extremely fragile
phone that's expensive to repair, would you walk around with it naked or would you put
a case on it? As always, thanks a ton for watching, and
I'll see you around..