Tech

iPhone 7 scratch test raises serious durability concerns

Apple has already warned us that the high gloss Jet Black finish found on the new iPhone 7 could be prone to scratching, but a torture test raises concerns about the durability of another important feature.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Sept. 17, 2016 at 3:30 a.m. PT

The camera lens.

YouTuber JerryRigEverything, who regularly carries out torture tests on smartphones, got his hands on a new iPhone 7 and subjected it to a series of highly destructive tests, including a bend test (which the iPhone 7 seems to survive better than the iPhone 6), a burn test (the screen appears to recover well from high heat), and a scratch test.

And it's the scratch test that raises a durability concern.

For this test, a series of test picks are used that correspond to the levels in the Mohs' scale of hardness. The display manages to resist scratching from a pick that has a hardness of six, which means that it shouldn't be harmed by keys and coins and such.

The chassis is also surprisingly scratch resistant, especially considering that it is made of aluminum.

However, one part of the iPhone 7 that appears to scratch easily is the camera lens, which suffered deep scratches from a pick with a Mohs' hardness of six.

Deeply scratched iPhone 7 camera lens cover.
JerryRigEverything

This is particularly interesting given that Apple claims that the camera lens cover is made from sapphire crystal, which should be able to resist such abuse.

This strongly suggests that the lens cover is not sapphire crystal but glass.

We've reached out to Apple for a comment and will update if/when a response is received.