The iPhone 12 Pro Max fell from a height of 3 meters and the front is not broken. Who is the most “resistant to manufacturing” mobile phone this year?
2020 is coming to an end, and this year's heavy models from major manufacturers have all debuted. When I opened the video website and searched for the videos of various new phones, I found that the more played videos are all kinds of "cruel" durability tests.
Every year after the release of a new mobile phone, it means that it will pass the brutal certification of netizens. It is beyond recognition the standard end of each durability test, and each mobile phone is competing for who can persist for longer. Unexpectedly, this year's mobile phones had a few "stubborn stubbles."
Almost unbreakable front panel
Every generation of iPhone is the protagonist of the durability test of the year. It is not so much that the audience wants to know whether the new iPhone will be more resistant to construction, but rather they are more keen to watch this sophisticated and expensive mobile phone suffer ruthlessly Torture and torture. This year's iPhone 12 is no exception, it has experienced torture once it was released.
Bending the iPhone with bare hands is naturally an annual dish, but after years of upgrading materials and processes, it is almost impossible to bend the iPhone with bare hands.
If the bending, falling, and scratching that simulates real usage scenarios belong to the realism genre in the durability test, then the test of wrapping the iPhone 12 in wax and then falling from a height is a Dadaist reinterpretation of modern technology .
What should I do if my phone accidentally falls into the pot when making cola chicken wings? Why don't you test whether it will break if you cook your iPhone with Coke?
As for testing whether the iPhone can withstand the infinite firepower of laser rays…Well, some people may really want to know if the iPhone 12 can help him block the deadly light if Star Wars breaks out.
Of course, the above "durability" test is more from an absurd and curious perspective. The most practical one has to look at the "drop test". After all, everyone will accidentally drop the phone.
Due to the fragile front panel of the mobile phone, many people have practiced a good skill in DIY screen replacement. But this craft may be difficult to use on the iPhone 12 series. Apple claims that the anti-drop performance of the iPhone 12 series is the best among iPhones of all generations. Judging from the drop tests of major video players, Apple is not exaggerating this time.
The anti-fall performance of super-ceramic glass may exceed your imagination. In a test conducted by video blogger Filip Koroy, he dropped an iPhone 12 Pro Max from 11 feet (approximately 3.35 meters) in the air. After landing, the middle frame of the phone was deformed, the backplane was torn apart, and the camera was not working properly. , The display also has problems such as liquid leakage and dead pixels.
However, looking at the super-ceramic glass panel on the front, it is still intact except for a few scratches.
The previous generation of iPhone 11 did not perform badly. In a drop test under the same conditions, the iPhone 11 can also withstand a 6-foot (about 1.8 meters) drop without breaking. It is also rated as the most durable glass in history, but In front of the super porcelain crystal glass, it is obviously still a younger brother.
According to Apple’s introduction, the super-ceramic glass used in the iPhone 12 was jointly researched by Apple and Corning. The principle is to add nano-scale oxide ceramic crystals in the glass manufacturing process to finally obtain a glass with high light transmittance and high strength. panel.
This material between glass and ceramics is also called glass-ceramic. In fact, we are not unfamiliar with this material in our lives. If you have an induction cooker at home, its panels are basically glass-ceramics. panel.
Of course, this does not mean that the induction cooker panel is as "high-end" as the super-ceramic glass. Although the glass-ceramic has excellent characteristics such as high hardness, wear resistance, resistance to thermal expansion and contraction, but you want to apply it to the mobile phone screen , We must face the two problems of making it thin and making it "through".
To solve these two problems, a very high level of production technology is required, which is why despite the excellent drop resistance of glass-ceramics, before the emergence of Apple's super-ceramic glass, almost no mobile phone manufacturers can apply it to mobile phone panels. .
In order to make the super-ceramic glass thinner while increasing its light transmittance, Apple and Corning jointly developed a unique formula to control the type and crystallinity of the crystals in production, so that the volume of these fine crystals is as small as possible And uniform.
The principle sounds easy, but it is actually very difficult when the glass is actually produced. Because the added ceramic crystals do not transmit light, if you want good optical transparency, you must grasp the temperature of crystal nucleation during production. , Time and heating rate, a slight deviation will cause the crystal to be too large or incomplete, thereby affecting the glass's light transmittance, strength and other properties.
Compared with the previously familiar Gorilla Glass, Super Porcelain Glass has the technological innovations of Yuri (a new formula with ceramic grains) and table (more complex processing), and it also has 4 times the resistance to drop Performance improvement.
However, it is a pity that the iPhone 12 series only uses super-ceramic glass on the front panel, and on the back panel, it still uses the same dual ion exchange strengthened glass as the previous generation.
Although the strength of the back panel glass is still at the top level, it can be seen in the drop test that there is still a considerable distance compared to the super-ceramic glass, so the protective case is still the best choice to protect your phone.
A back shell that combines beauty and durability
The material of the mobile phone is a cycle like the fashion circle. Several materials such as plastic, metal, glass and so on take turns to play the leading role on the mobile phone. Looking at the back shell of this year's new machine, we can see that the most popular material this year is glass that has undergone various treatments.
However, these processes are more about the pursuit of visual breakthroughs, making the appearance of the phone look more advanced, rather than enhancing the strength of its glass.
Even though these glass back shells look less and less like glass, when you accidentally drop your phone on the ground with your hands, the crack on the back will still reveal the fate of glass that cannot escape.
Before new materials like super-ceramic glass are used in the backplane, if you want to coexist with beauty and durability, the ceramic back cover may be the best solution at present.
The use of ceramic back covers for mobile phones is nothing new, as early as OnePlus X, Xiaomi Mi 5, Xiaomi Mix and other models have been tried, but because the production process of ceramic back covers is more difficult than glass back covers, so These products are either very small in output or expensive.
However, as the processing technology matures, ceramic back covers are gradually entering mainstream shopping malls. This year, Huawei has adopted ceramics as the back cover material on P40+, Mate40+ and Mate40 RS. Huawei claims to use "nano-microcrystalline ceramics". From the appearance, it still has the unique texture of ceramic crystal and warm, but it is even more impressive. What is its ability to withstand drops.
Judging from the drop test conducted by Xinping Technology, the P40+ using nano-microcrystalline ceramics, after 10 times of falling from a height of 1.5 meters to a slate, the back shell is still unharmed. In sharp contrast, it The front panel has changed beyond recognition.
For comparison, how about the glass back of Huawei's new flagship series Mate40 Pro? Xinping Technology also used it for testing. Judging from the results of the test, it was as expected.
This result is naturally reasonable. The hardness of ceramics naturally exceeds that of glass, and after nano-crystal processing, the overall strength and toughness of the material has also been greatly improved. For now, Huawei’s nano-microcrystalline ceramic back shell is one of the most resistant back shell materials.
Mobile phone durability is still worth our attention
According to a recent Toluna global consumer survey data, people drop their phones 7 times a year on average, which means that even if we use them carefully in daily use, it is difficult to avoid close contact between glass and the ground.
But the strange thing is that few people care about the drop resistance of the mobile phone when choosing a mobile phone. After everyone buys a mobile phone, the first thing is often to buy the corresponding protective case and glass film to protect the mobile phone strictly. But no one thought about why the protective case should be worn.
If we dial the time forward, the durability of the mobile phone was once an important determinant of our choice of mobile phone when the mobile phone was still focusing on making calls. Nokia's ability to become the former mobile phone king is also due to its durable performance of "one fall becomes three pieces, and can be used together."
After the launch of the first-generation iPhone, the fragile glass panel was bundled with the smartphone. From then on, it means that if we want to embrace the handheld Internet life, we must accept the fact that mobile phones will become irresistible.
What makes this problem worse is that in recent years, mobile phone manufacturers have chosen AG glass as the back shell material of new phones. There are many reasons for choosing AG glass. Firstly, AG glass can achieve a very rich look and feel. Secondly, when wireless charging, the glass back shell can reduce energy loss. But the biggest disadvantage of this is that the mobile phone with glass front and back becomes more resistant to fall.
Nowadays, the weight of durability in the minds of manufacturers has been continuously lowered. In the face of ID design and functionality, durability seems to have to make concessions.
What excites me is that with the maturity of the manufacturing process, the durability of mobile phones has finally been discussed by manufacturers again this year, and since the last time people paid attention to the durability of mobile phones, it seems that the iPhone 6 "bend door". It's time.
The successful application of technologies such as super-ceramic glass and nano-ceramics shows that the beauty, durability and cost of mobile phone materials are no longer mutually exclusive problems.
Imagine if these two technologies are combined, the front panel is made of super-ceramic glass and the back cover is made of nano-ceramics. Does this mean that we will be able to buy an unbreakable flagship in the near future Mobile phone?
Regrettably, because the super-ceramic glass is a technology jointly developed by Apple and Corning, it is still exclusive to Apple and Corning cannot supply it to other manufacturers; while nano-ceramics technology still has long working hours and low yield manufacturing problems. , The current production cost is still very high, we are still a long way from the mobile phone that will not break, but at least we can see it now.
Although sticking a tempered film and wearing a phone case are still the best way to protect the phone, don't be discouraged. We can already choose to remove one of the two on phones that use new material technology.
When TV shopping advertisements were in vogue, there was a mobile phone advertisement that deeply shocked the young and ignorant me: the host of the shopping advertisement dropped the phone and watermelon from the fourth floor together. The watermelon was smashed to pieces, and the host picked it up. When I picked up the phone, it was still intact, and I could even make calls.
Until now, I still look forward to having such a sturdy and durable mobile phone. This is my biggest longing for a new mobile phone after I broke 4 mobile phones.
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