Watch The OnePlus 10 Pro Snap Like A Candy Bar In Brutal Durability Test
If anything is actually like watching a train wreck (which I've never done), it would be witnessing a premium smartphone undergo an unforgiving durability test, as is the case here with the OnePlus 10 Pro introduced last month at CES. There's just something unsettling about seeing a top tier handset scratched with a box cutter, burned with a lighter, cracked, and ultimately snapped in half. And yet, my gaze never averted.
These kinds of durability tests (or torture tests) take things to the extreme to see just how much abuse an electronic device can withstand. Most people aren't likely to hold a flame to the display of their smartphone for 40 seconds, the time it took YouTuber JerryRigEverything to leave a permanent mark on the OnePlus 10 Pro's screen with this lighter.
Other tests are somewhat more practical, revealing how prone a phone is to scuffs and scratches. It's safe to assume most smartphone owners won't willingly take a box cutter to their handset's screen or chassis, but the rigors of daily use can subject these devices to abrasions. That's why there is a thriving market for screen protectors and cases.
It's the bend test, though, where things truly go bad for the OnePlus 10 Pro in the above durability test. As noted in the video, any noises arising from this particular test are usually a bad thing. And indeed the back of the OnePlus 10 Pro quickly shattered when forcefully bent. Interestingly, the cracks consolidate into a line below the camera bump.
When following this up with another bend test in the opposite direction, the phone breaks in half right at the aforementioned line. The phone dies at that point, except for the LED flash, which remarkably stays lit. Why did it break in such spectacular fashion, though?
The YouTuber notes that most phones he tests don't actually break in this fashion with his bare hands. A subsequent teardown reveals that a "lack of structure" likely contributed to the phone breaking like a candy bar. That line at the camera bump separates the top section from the bottom, which is occupied by a dual cell battery pack.
That battery pack also runs from one side to the other, leaving only the side rails to absorb inadvertent impacts, like accidentally sitting on the phone. There's room for improvement in other areas, too. On the bright side, though, the fingerprint reader proved pretty resilient, as it functioned perfectly after the surfaced had been scratched up pretty bad.
Suffice to say, though, don't try any of these tests at home.
