The iPhone X may contain some advanced hardware, but Apple’s latest smartphone isn’t faring well in the durability department.
The $999 iPhone X is hitting the market ten years after the first iteration of the iPhone was introduced. However, if consumer electronics site tests are any indication, it’s the most delicate iPhone yet.
Last year, Ars Technica pointed out the back of the iPhone X is made out of glass to allow for wireless charging. A reviewer said they weren’t able to drop test the loaner phone from Apple, but “my gut tells me it would probably fare about as well as the iPhone 8—which is to say, not that well.”
As suspected, recent drop tests conducted after the phone was released didn’t go so well. CNET’s John Kim said, “If you just spent $1,000 on an iPhoneX, put a case on it now!”
Kim’s article claims when the iPhone was dropped from a height of three feet, the glass on three of the phone’s four corners cracked. The phone fell face down in another three-foot drop test. “Everything still worked fine, but this iPhone X definitely looked banged up.”
Results from SquareTrade showed the phone was damaged functionally in more extreme drop tests. However, the company offers protection plans for phones, so they have an incentive to tell consumers their devices are at-risk.
CNET reports if purchasers don’t fork over an extra $200 for AppleCare+, replacing the screen can cost $279. The glass back, inexplicably, costs $550 to replace. No, that’s not a typo. Yes, that’s over half the price of the phone.
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