Apple’s ‘toughest ever’ smartphone failed the drop test

Hey, here’s a thing we’ve all done - smashed our mobile phone. If you haven’t, well, you’re clearly not having enough fun - we demand you throw your handset onto the floor this instant, so you may join our club of fun-havers.

• This is the best mid-range phone on the planet right now.

But sometimes, it would be nice to be able to drop our phones (so, still have the fun, basically) but without them breaking or smashing. So like, you drop it, but when you pick it up, it is intact and usable, rather than a lifeless slab of jagged glass. Would be so nice, that would.

So the news that Apple’s latest phones, the iPhone XS and XS Max would be their “toughest ever” was music to the buttered fingers of klutzes the world over. But just how resilient are they? Well, the tech bods over at SquareTrade found out:

Oh. Oh, they’re not, erm, hard… at all? That video right there, shows those two new phones smashing just like every one of ours ever has - one model even becomes unusable. There is no difference, it seems. It was all a lie!

Now, when you drop your phone, you are not necessarily dropping it from a height of six feet (more like four, probably), but you know, by the looks of things, those babies are still gonna smash. Sure, they’ll survive a dip in some beer but they ain’t gonna be able to handle a fumbled CityMapper trip-up in Soho, are they? Unless they land in a pint of beer, maybe?

They’re at least sturdier than their predecessor, the iPhone X, which, if you’ve got one and are partial to a “drink”, you’ll know are flimsy slices of ice that will splinter at the slightest hint of I’m-going-to-flip-this-phone-up-into-the-air-and-catch-it-as-I-walk-out-of-the-pub-and-hooo-boy-you-better-believe-the-chicks-are-gonna-dig-it-baby WHOOPS. So at least there’s that.

Either way, if you’re gonna get one of them, the XS Max is probably the one to go for, with Jason Siciliano, vice president global creative director at SquareTrade, saying in a statement, “We were super impressed with the iPhone XS Max, which is much stronger than its discontinued predecessor, the iPhone X.”

Interesting statement, that, seeing as we’re not sure we’d be super impressed if it slid off our desk and became irreversibly decked, especially when you consider that Apple charges $279 to fix a broken screen on the iPhone XS and $329 on the XS Max. These two figures are what is known in certain circles as “I hate myself” amounts of money. Up to you, we guess.

(Image: Getty)