If we were to make a list of the top things you should never do to your smartphone, holding a flame from a lighter to the display for 30 seconds (or any amount of time) would surely rank high. So would gouging the frame with a blade from a box cutter, and trying to bend the phone with enough force to make the Incredible Hulk blush. However, if you're curious how Samsung's new
Galaxy S25 Ultra would fare to these and other torturous tasks, someone has done the dirty work for you.
We have the YouTube channel JerryRigEverything to thank for subjecting Samsung's newest flagship to a litany of tests, and not because the host, Zack Nelson, is a technology masochist (nor are we saying he isn't one). That falls more into the realm of the 'Will It Blend?' series. His purpose for these kinds of torture tests is to examine the durability of a device.
Sure, these are extreme tests that no sane person would subject their premium (or even budget) smartphone to. But they provide some valuable data. In the video above, Nelson begins his testing by snapping the included S-Pen in half. This gives us a look at the retooled internal design, which now lacks Bluetooth support.
According to Nelson, rumors on the street are that Samsung went this route to sell more its
Galaxy Rings and
Galaxy Watches. The previous version of the S-Pen with Bluetooth support could perform air gestures, act as a remote trigger, and change slides on a PowerPoint presentation, all of which are functionalities that the new S-Pen does not support.
After ruining the S-Pen, he pivots to scratching the display with various picks to determine where it falls on the Mohs scale of hardness. Whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra didn't show signs of damage until level 7, the Galaxy S25 Ultra showed noticeable damage marks starting at level 6, and deeper grooves than before at level 7. You can also see some markings down at level 2, though Nelson says he was able to rub those away.
"I'm not too sure what's going on here with the glass at a level 6. It could be that the glass might just have been a tad brittle last time, so they dialed it back with Gorilla Armor 2," Nelson surmises. "All I know is glass is glass, and glass breaks for everyone eventually."
His torture tests also revealed some other interesting bits, such as more titanium on the frame, but not on the buttons, and what he believes are "purely aesthetic" rings around the rear cameras.
It's an interesting analysis, though no matter how it might have fared, our advice remains the same: protect your device with a case and a screen protector. There are tons of options out there, like this
Spigen Tough Armor MagFit (with a kickstand) for
$19.99 at Amazon, and a
3-pack of tempered glass that's on sale for
$9.85 at Amazon (42% off).