iPhone XS and XS Max drop test reveals which will crack first

Apple’s iPhone XS and XS Max are finally getting into the hands of the consumers, and what’s the first thing they do? They drop the phones onto concrete, of course.

Well, maybe not all consumers. YouTube channel TechSmartt performed the first drop test of Apple’s new iPhones on Thursday, which is especially interesting given that Apple said the iPhone XS and XS Max have “the most durable glass in the world.”

TechSmartt dropped the new XS and XS Max — as well as last year’s iPhone X — from three (loosely defined) heights: pocket height, head height, and roughly 10 feet. Obviously, this isn’t the most scientific of approaches, but still interesting enough, and quite daring: Can you really expect any phone to escape a 10-foot drop onto concrete unscathed? 

You can see how the new iPhones fared in the video (above). Watch it before reading further if you hate spoilers.

Neither phone suffered much visible damage after the pocket-height drop. When dropped from head height, the iPhone X’s glass cracked, while the iPhone XS escaped with nearly no damage. The iPhone XS Max did have some ugly scratch marks, though. 

Finally, when dropped from 10 feet of height, the iPhone X suffered additional damage (not surprising, given it was already cracked). The iPhone XS, amazingly, again emerged with nearly no visible damage. The XS Max did not fare that well as its front glass cracked in the upper left corner. 

We’ll likely see many similar drop tests in the future,  but Apple’s latest and greatest phones fared quite well in this one. Both the iPhone XS and XS Max survived pretty severe drops with minimal damage, and while this doesn’t exactly prove Apple’s claims about the durability of the glass used on these devices, it’s a good indication that these phones are, indeed, quite tough to break. 

Hours after the first video, TechSmartt also posted a video that tests whether the iPhone XS and XS Max are really as waterproof as Apple claims (which is up to IP68 specifications) — or even better. 

Again, spoilers are below. 

Long story short: One iPhone XS Max survived being in a bowl of fresh water for 30 minutes with no visible damage.

A different iPhone XS Max spent an hour at 10 meters (33 feet), which essentially killed it. So yeah, the phones appear to be waterproof up to Apple’s specs, but don’t go beyond them because you’ll ruin your phone.