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The iPhone Duo drop test is finally here. Not only is it Apple's most expensive iPhone ever, it's also its heaviest, with twice as many screens that can crack, moving parts, and a hinge mechanism that holds it all together. So today we'll see how durable it really is by comparing it to the iPhone 18 Pro Max in three of our standard drop tests, before moving on to tests specific to the Duo. Will all this added complexity make the Duo more vulnerable to drops, or is this device truly ready for the real world? Let's find out. This episode is sponsored by Ridge, which sent a bunch of accessories for the new iPhones. For example, their brand new Phantom power bank, which has a transparent design, looks really cool. Of course, it supports MagSafe, so you can
charge your phone wirelessly, whether it's an 18 Pro or an iPhone Duo, and it also has a pretty decent 10,000mAh battery. What I really like about this power bank is the built-in cables that you can simply pull out to charge via USB-C or Lightning. Plus, they added a kickstand on the back so you can prop up your phone while charging. Ridge also carried this style over to their wallet, which I think looks very stylish. And inside it we have a new tracker card. It works with Apple's Find My network, so if you ever lose your wallet, you can easily locate it, and the built-in speaker is surprisingly loud. Another convenient feature is that the battery holds a charge for up to 10 months.
Plus, it's fully rechargeable. Along with the wallet, Ridge has also given its power adapters the same transparent look, so you can maintain a consistent style across all your devices. And now, if you buy two of their power banks, Ridge will give you the third one for free. You can watch all of this at the first link below. So, for the first test, each of the phones is dropped directly onto the back panel from a height of 1 meter. The results are quite consistent with what could be expected. The back glass on both phones cracked, and the main difference is only in the extent of the damage. On the Duo, since the entire back panel is glass, the crack spread over a larger area.
Whereas on the 18th model, it is apparently limited to just the glass part, and the surrounding aluminum has only received a few scratches. 3, 2, 1. After falling on an angle, both phones remain fully functional, and the damage here is mostly cosmetic . But on the iPhone 18, the aluminum looks significantly worse than the titanium in the Duo. Not only is it scratched to the point where the paint is peeling in places, but it also has this dent in the body. This is exactly the same thing we saw last year with the 17 Pro Max. So I do n't think it's just a coincidence. Instead, on the Duo, as on other titanium iPhones we tested, it looks pretty good, considering the tests. Of course, in this lighting,
the damage is clearly visible. But in normal light they are almost invisible. So this is a pretty good result for Duo. And now the moment of truth. Falling from a meter height with the screen facing down. Like this. This time the results are completely different. Although the glass on the iPhone Duo cracked, it survived on the 18 Pro Max. This could be for several reasons. For example, the iPhone 18 is lighter than the Duo. Perhaps the impact is distributed over a larger surface area. Or the aluminum is 18 times less stiff than the titanium in the Duo, so it absorbs some of the impact energy. Anyway, we are only talking about one sample. So we can't draw any
definitive conclusions without testing more devices. Okay, it's time for the iPhone Duo specific drops. The first is a fall on a corner, but this time the phone is unfolded. Wow, Duo took that fall beautifully. I expected the internal display to crack, but it didn't. It did n't even bend from the impact, which indicates the reliability of the hinge. And the phone itself is fully functional. We conduct a thorough 15- point inspection after every fall, and nothing was damaged here. Even the titanium frame on the corner it fell on held up very well. And now the moment we've all been waiting for.
Falling screen-to-screen directly onto the internal display. 3 2 1 And, surprisingly enough, Duo looks perfect. It 's even hard to tell that it fell: no cracks or damage at all. And I think the reason is quite simple. The Duo has a slightly raised bezel around the display that reduces contact with the surface. In addition, it already has a protective film with a nanotexture applied to it. So, maybe it's not really that surprising that he survived here. Of course, if we had dropped the phone on a sharper or more uneven surface, the result would have been completely different. So I would n't take this as a sign that the Duo's internal screen is indestructible, but at least under our testing conditions, I'm very impressed. Okay
, the only thing we haven't checked yet is the hinge itself. We will repeatedly drop it directly onto the hinge from a height of just under five feet to test its strength. After the first drop on the hinge, the phone looks normal from the outside. But as soon as you try to open it, you immediately feel much more resistance, especially at the end of the move. And when it is open, you can see that it does not lie perfectly flat, as it did before the fall. So it's obvious that there was some damage inside. The good news is that the phone is still fully functional and even reads the hinge angle correctly, as you can see in the animation.
Let's continue. After the second drop, oh my god, we have serious damage to the internal display with a large streak along the screen's fold line. While the display technically still works, the damage only causes occasional "phantom presses," where the screen becomes unresponsive for a second, then comes back to life after being bent and unbent. But the most interesting thing is that the internal display never touched the surface, right? After all, the phone was closed when it fell. This damage was caused by the force of the impact transmitted through the phone. It's clear that at this point we've dropped the phone several times already. So this wouldn't necessarily happen with the new Duo, but the result is still not perfect. After
the third fall on the hinge, to be honest, almost nothing changed. Let's continue. After the fourth drop, oh my god, we have catastrophic damage to the internal display: the entire left side of the panel is completely broken. And although the right side still shows the image, it doesn't respond to touch at all. The good news is that the external display works flawlessly. So technically the phone is still usable, but at this point I think it's worth ending the test. So, considering all of the above, I don't think this was the worst outcome for Duo. For the first three rounds, I thought it held up pretty well and even survived a fall onto the indoor display. But obviously, once we started throwing it on its hinges, everything started to fall apart. Now
I want to emphasize that this is just one sample. Therefore, it is quite possible that with the new Duo we will get different results. But at the same time, we have previously tested phones with quite extreme drops without such damage. So I would definitely make sure to protect this phone if you are clumsy. But anyway, that's all I have for this video. Thanks for watching and, as always, see you in the next episode.
