TechRax Puts the iPhone Duo Through Stairs and City Drop Tests

Launch week for Apple’s first foldable brought the usual ritual from TechRax, who has spent years sending new iPhones through increasingly harsh trials. This time he took two separate iPhone Duo units. One went down a spiral staircase from roughly 200 feet. The other spent an afternoon being released over and over on ordinary city surfaces.

For the staircase run, he was able to secure a unit as a same-day walk-in, just in time for the rigors he had planned. The plan was to begin with an open fall, followed by a closed one if there was still life in it. As he let go at the top while unfurled, the phone landed flat, but the exterior glass held up well and the cover display continued to record. When he opened the device, it revealed a different story. A hairline crack had emerged across the inner panel, one corner had some scuffs and marks, and the main screen had just given up and ceased working. Fortunately, the outer sections still worked, so he scampered back up for a second try.

This time, he closed it up nice and tight before letting it go again, and it landed the whole ten stories, springing straight out on impact, but instead of just the screen, both rear glass panels were smashed, and the inside bits were hanging out in all their glory. There was even a bulge where it had received the first hit, and it was still warm to the touch, but he was surprised to find that it still had some juice. It flickered on and off, half of the panel was an interesting shade of yellow, and the other half was a nice chocolate brown, but to his astonishment, the hinge was still working well, opening and shutting without any visible signs of difficulties. Clearly, the glass and foldy pieces had taken a beating, but the hinge had held up much better than he had anticipated.


Saturday afternoon brought a second, fresh unit outside for a bit of a beating, this time with a little more environment, just the sound of the city and the phone dropping out of his grasp and into the sidewalk. He unboxed it on a park seat and let the chaos begin. Falls came quick and fast in both open and folded positions, on plain old concrete, a good yellow curb ramp, cracked up driveways, asphalt close to the curb, and pavement next to an iron fence. Not only that, but he had to deal with a few more as they slipped off a cardboard box and a clipboard, as well as some while walking. Between each fall, he opened and closed the device, pressed it flat, and examined the screens to see how it was holding up.


To his surprise, the cover display continued to work, flashing up brightly each time. It took around 3 minutes for the inner panel to show indications of wear, and even then, it wasn’t until a few more drops in either position that it began to slow down, but it was still showing the home screen and responding to touch. However, it was worth mentioning that it was the third or fourth time it had landed on this patch of pavement near a curb that ultimately broke the camel’s back, and the glass over the rear cameras had simply cracked, with the edges of the back frame chipping away a bit.


Further sidewalk drops only exacerbated the damage, leaving the folding screen scuffed and the hinge spine worn and exhausted when he opened it up for a closer look. No on-screen counter tracked the total, yet the unit absorbed a long run of ordinary-height impacts before visible harm appeared. Cover display continued lighting up through the final frames, ending on the lock screen


These two minor tests sat alongside some other testing they’d already done with the launch week units, which revealed the hinge’s sensitivity to a little dirt and how expensive it is to repair the internal panel. What was really remarkable was that the phone basically endured a lot of sidewalk abuse, and while it didn’t fare as well as it did on the staircase run, it still managed to show that leaving the phone sitting around unprotected is a recipe for potential disaster.