If you’re not a fan of thousand-dollar phones getting tortured right out of the box, then look away now.
AppleTrack’s Sam Kohl flew all the way to Australia to pit the brand-new iPhone 15 Pro against last year’s iPhone 14 Pro in a series of escalating drop tests. And while it’s difficult to be entirely fair in these things due to the number of variables involved, last year’s model comes out comfortably on top.
Indeed, after 14 drops, while both phones are battered, only the iPhone 14 Pro is still usable, with the iPhone 15 Pro’s camera casing snapping off the back and the screen featuring a permanent white half.
It’s important to maintain perspective. This is a sample of two phones, and drop tests are notoriously hard to execute fairly because of the way handsets can fall. Even if dropped from exactly the same heights in exactly the same conditions, one might land on a corner, while another could land on its side, for example. This point of impact can make or (literally) break a phone screen.
That said, the iPhone 14 Pro’s dogged resistance to even the highest of drops is nothing short of remarkable, and there are structural differences between the two handsets that could make the newer model more susceptible to damage if you’re of a butter-fingered nature.
While the iPhone 14 Pro’s frame is made of stainless steel, the new model has a titanium alloy. This makes it lighter, but also more flexible — and it seems that this along with the introduction of curved edges may have done something to the phone’s ability to absorb shocks.
In other words, it could be more readily transmitting vibrations to other components, like the glass back which cracks relatively early on in the video.
But it’s important to note that after a handful of normal knee and waist-height drops, both phones are largely unscathed. That’s the key detail for most buyers: unless you’re stupidly unlucky, your phone will survive the little bumps of everyday use with barely a scratch.
Still, if you’re worried then quality iPhone 15 Pro cases aren’t exactly hard to come by, and AppleCare Plus offers valuable peace of mind, too.
