IPhone 11 and 11 Pro fall test: we could not decipher these phones, but we broke the camera

What does it take to break the glass on the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro? That's the question I ask myself after submitting these phones to eight different drop tests, each time on hard concrete. Despite all my efforts, the glass of these phones just did not crack. But that does not mean the phones were without damage.

Kaiann Drance, senior director of product marketing at Apple in September, said the glass for iPhone 11 was "the most rugged ever designed for a smartphone, front and back." We know that the glass is custom-made for the iPhone by Corning, the company behind Gorilla Glass.

This is not the first time that Apple has made such claims. Last year, marketing chief Phil Schiller said that the iPhone XS had "the most durable glass ever built in a smartphone". We dropped the phone four times on the sidewalk and the screen did not crack.

The iPhone XR, however, has not been so lucky. On the fourth drop, the screen is cracked.

We decided to change things with this year's fall test. Our test area was a concrete floor and, for the drops to be as consistent as possible, CNET producer / producer Chris Parker developed a system that allows each phone to drop directly onto the screen or in back. Although the drop machine does not guarantee that phones land in the desired position every time, it helps us to perform tests in a controlled manner.

Of course, these tests were not scientific, but they give us an idea of ​​how the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro work when it is abandoned without a case.

After every drop, I checked:

• The screen for scratches or cracks
• Back and camera for scratches or cracks
• If the screen still worked
• If the camera still worked

Here is what happened.

Drop 1: 3 feet on the screen and back

For the first fall, I positioned the iPhone 11 to land on the screen side. Falling 3 feet, which corresponds to the height of the hip (or pocket), the phone was not damaged at all when it landed on the screen.

the iPhone 11 Pro gave the same result. There was no visible damage and everything was still working as expected.

I repeated the fall with both phones, except that this time they fell on their backs. As when they fell on the screen, there was no damage to report.

Drop 2: 6 feet on the screen and back

For the next series of drops, we took the machine to 6 feet and repeated the same drops.

The iPhone 11 has not suffered any damage when it is placed on the screen or on the back.

But the results were a bit different for the iPhone 11 Pro. After the drop of the screen at the first drop, I could see a small area of ​​discolored or damaged pixels down the screen. However, the glass itself did not show any cracks and the screen still functioned normally.

Drop 3: 8 feet on the screen and at the back

I wanted to take those phones even higher, so we set our machine to its limit: 8 feet and seven inches.

By dropping the iPhone 11 on its screen, the glass again did not crack. But by letting it fall on its back, it suffered damage: a minor scratch on the aluminum bumper and an aesthetic scratch on the housing of the top lens. The camera itself was still working.

The iPhone 11 Pro first fell on its screen and added a few small damaged pixels, this time higher up on the screen. Like the iPhone 11, the camera case suffered minor cosmetic damage.

Although it is unlikely that you dropped your phone higher than that, we pushed it to a higher level – these phones were still usable and the glass showed no signs of cracking.

Final fall: 11 feet

For the final lap, we disassembled the machine and went up as high as we could take it: 11 feet.

I dropped the phones only once from this height, screen side down. The iPhone 11 fell first on a corner, then tipped over and then found itself screen side down. The iPhone 11 Pro fell first on the side, returned and landed on the back.

Again, the glass did not break on either of the two phones – in front or on the back. The rear camera of the iPhone 11 has completely stopped working and contained only a black screen when opening the camera app, even if the TrueDepth camera was going good. I restarted the phone just to check and the camera was still displaying a black screen.

The iPhone 11 Pro SIM card The board jumped when it landed, but I was able to push it back. Then, I put my finger on the edge of the phone and felt a small bulge where the screen did not fit perfectly with the stainless steel frame. There was also a fading area at the back of the phone (click to enlarge the photo below).

The breakdown

Does this mean that the windows of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro are stronger than those of the previous iPhone? It's a hard call to make since our previous tests have not been conducted in the same way. But this shows that this year's phones can withstand a lot more concrete drops than we expected.

Although none of the phones broke as we had seen in previous years, they did not come out unscathed: the iPhone 11 Pro featured damaged pixels and the rear camera of the camera. iPhone 11 stopped working after our last fall.

I've contacted Apple for more information and the company has formulated the following statement: "The iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro are both made from the most rugged glass ever delivered in the smartphone industry, at the front and back. The iPhone 11 is equipped with aerospace-grade aluminum The band and the iPhone 11 Pro's feature a structural stainless steel band.All of them undergo rigorous tests in the real world and are designed to be durable, but not indestructible.If someone is worried about dropping his iPhone and l & # 39; 39; damage, we suggest using one of the many beautiful cases available to protect the iPhone. "

I was not the only one to test the iPhone 11 Pro and find that the glass did not break when it had fallen to an extreme height. EverythingApplePro achieved similar results by dropping the 10-foot phones. However, the window broke during his last fall, probably because one phone landed on another.

For ultimate peace of mind, we still recommend putting a holster on your phone, because getting it repaired if the glass cracks can be expensive: up to $ 329 for the screen or $ 599 for the back if you do not have AppleCare + coverage.