Apple’s iPhone 15 series has made headlines for various reasons recently. While the new iPhones bring a host of upgrades over the previous models, the heating issue has overshadowed those. There are also concerns about their durability as the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s back glass shattered during a bend test. A drop test has now further exposed the phone’s weaknesses as it loses to Samsung‘s Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The titanium frame doesn’t help the iPhone 15 Pro Max win against the Galaxy S23 Ultra
The latest Apple flagship has a lot going for it. The company has upgraded the frame material from stainless steel to titanium, making it lighter and stronger. The iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221 grams, notably less than the Galaxy S23 Ultra (234 grams) with an aluminum frame. Less weight means less force upon impact during drops. The Samsung phone’s curved glass is also more susceptible to damage than the iPhone’s flat display.
However, despite these theoretical upper hands, the new iPhone fared worse than a seven-month-old Galaxy in a drop test. YouTuber PhoneBuff used robotic arms to drop the phones on concrete from a waist-level height. The first round of the test saw them being dropped on their backs. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone’s back glass shattered, with cracks throughout the back. The Galaxy, on the other hand, suffered limited cracks on two corners.
In the second round, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra were dropped from the same height in such a way that their corners made the first contact with the concrete block. The former’s titanium frame helped it absorb the shock better than the latter’s aluminum frame. However, the iPhone lost a chunk of its back glass due to the force of impact. The YouTuber called this round a tie.
We then move to a face drop, i.e. with the screen facing down. Both phones suffered significant damage to the screen after this drop. However, the cracks were more prominent on the Galaxy due to its curved edges. The devices continued to work perfectly despite the damage. The Samsung phone’s under-display fingerprint scanner didn’t show any problems either. The iPhone won round three with a small margin.
The iPhone’s back glass isn’t as strong as the Galaxy’s
For the final round, the two phones were dropped onto steel from the same height with their screens facing down. With this drop, the iPhone 15 Pro Max lost more of its back glass while the Galaxy S23 Ultra suffered no further damage to its rear panel. The devices remained fully functional, though. Overall, the Samsung flagship won this drop test with a score of 39 vs. 37 out of 40. You can watch the full video below.