Apple iPhone 18 Pro durability test: beware of the coprolites

Anyone disgusted by fossilized feces should briefly look away at the 5:26 mark in the video below. Given the rather limited upgrades of this year's iPhone 18 Pro generation compared with the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max Zack Nelson had to come up with something new. Similar to last year's iPhones, we can see marks on the anodized glass back from all kinds of objects, though most of them can easily be wiped away. This applies to keys and coins, for example, but not to the fossilized dinosaur excrement that Zack Nelson apparently has lying around at home.

While the YouTuber discusses the “brand-new” variable aperture of the 48-megapixel main camera, he also conveniently provides a magnified look inside the only major hardware upgrade besides the impressive Apple A20 Pro chip. The Face ID sensor, now hidden beneath the display, is examined under the microscope as well. Incidentally, this also shows that the mosaic effect of the hidden sensor is not entirely invisible depending on the viewing angle and lighting, although it is significantly less prominent than on early ZTE Axon phones.

The burgundy-red iPhone 18 Pro passes all the usual durability tests with flying colors. Apple's Ceramic Shield 2 once again proves extremely scratch-resistant, although we saw that last year already. The burn test leaves no permanent marks on the display and there is nothing to criticize Apple for in terms of stability during the bend test. Despite the similarities to its predecessor, the teardown coming soon should be quite interesting, as Zack promises to include an analysis of the variable camera aperture.