iPhone 18 Pro tested for durability: glass is hard to scratch, but drops remain dangerous

iPhone 18 Pro has passed two durability test series. JerryRigEverything tested the smartphone for scratches, heat, and bending, while AppleTrack compared it to iPhone 17 Pro in drop tests.

Ceramic Shield 2 proved difficult to scratch, the chassis could not be bent by hand, and the new-generation rear glass withstood drops better. However, the aluminum body still easily collects marks, and the front glass still shatters under strong impact.

In the standard JerryRigEverything test, light scratches on Ceramic Shield 2 appeared only when using a tool with a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale. At level 8, the damage became noticeably deeper. For comparison, Apple itself claims that Ceramic Shield 2 is three times more scratch-resistant than the protective glass iPhone 16 Pro. Nelson’s independent test does not confirm exactly this threefold difference.

The back panel with Ceramic Shield also handled contact with keys, coins, and other metal objects reasonably well. Most of the marks that appeared were not scratches on the glass itself but residue from those objects, which can be wiped away. In contrast, the anodized aluminum body elements are significantly more vulnerable: sharp metal objects leave noticeable damage on them. The iPhone 18 Pro features a unibody aluminum chassis, Ceramic Shield on the back, and Ceramic Shield 2 on the front.

The screen withstood the heat test: after exposure to open flame, no irreversible marks remained on the OLED panel. Then Zak Nelson attempted to bend the iPhone 18 Pro by hand in both directions. The smartphone barely deformed, the glass did not crack, and the structure maintained its integrity. The camera’s glass elements also remained in place.

During testing, Nelson also examined the iPhone 18 Pro under a microscope. This allowed him to observe the mechanical variable aperture of the 48-MP main camera in action, with settings at f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4.0. The blogger also inspected the display area where part of the Face ID system is now hidden beneath the screen. At certain angles and lighting conditions, the pixel structure above the sensor still differs slightly from the rest of the display, though the effect is significantly weaker than in early smartphones with under-display cameras and sensors.

A separate drop test of AppleTrack revealed another aspect of the iPhone 18 Pro’s durability. The smartphone was compared with the iPhone 17 Pro by dropping both devices several times from waist and shoulder height. After the initial drops, scratches and dents appeared on the aluminum body of the iPhone 18 Pro, and as the drop height increased, damage to the frame became more noticeable. Nevertheless, the smartphone remained fully functional, and no significant deformation of the chassis occurred.

The front glass showed no clear advantage over the previous generation in this test: after drops from shoulder height, both smartphones’ displays cracked. However, the iPhone 18 Pro’s back panel withstood several hard impacts, while the iPhone 17 Pro’s glass shattered.

Camera glass on both models also withstood the tests. Thus, the main vulnerable points of the iPhone 18 Pro remain the aluminum body surface and front glass during serious drops, while resistance to scratches, bending, and back panel damage proved significantly better.