The iPhone 16 Pro Max has been available for just a few days, and JerryRigEverything’s Zack Nelson has wasted no time in subjecting it to his brutal durability test.
Posted online on Saturday, Nelson’s test has already racked up more than two million views, suggesting there are a lot of folks out there very keen to see how Apple’s newest, largest, and priciest iPhone stands up to a barrage of abuse, including scraping, burning, and bending.
It’s hard to watch Nelson dragging the blade of his box cutter across the iPhone 16 Pro Max — indeed it’s hard to watch him drag it across any of the devices that come his way — but the exercise at least offers some insight into the toughness of the glass and frame when subjected such extreme acts. The popular YouTuber noted Apple’s recent claim that this year’s Ceramic Shield glass display is 50% tougher than the first-generation ceramic shield, and two times tougher than the glass on any other smartphone, but he still found it relatively easy to scratch using his various tools.
In characteristic fashion, Nelson drops in a few dryly delivered digs at Apple during his durability test. This one, for example, as he surveyed the three camera lenses on the rear of the device: “The cameras are lined up this way to film in spatial video for the three people who own Vision Pros,” adding: “I would admit that filming at 120 frames per second in 4K would also be extremely impressive if Samsung hadn’t already done it first in their S24 Ultra. But you know how it is over at Apple — yesterday’s tech for tomorrow’s prices.”
As usual, out comes the naked flame, which Nelson holds against the display of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Impressively, after more than 10 seconds of burning, the display shows no obvious sign of deterioration, though as the YouTuber says, best not to try this at home.
With last year’s bend test of the iPhone 15 Pro Max producing a shock result when the back glass shattered on the first bend, we were particularly keen to see how the iPhone 16 Pro Max fared. Did it stand up? Well, you’ll have to watch the video to find out …