As they do every year, some YouTubers have made their way over to Australia to get their hands on the iPhone 17 first. Since Australia is far ahead of the US in terms of time zones, it’s the first country that can pick up the new iPhone.
Apple Track, who has gone to Sydney the last few years to do drop tests , has done it once again. And the results from the drop test are pretty surprising.
As expected, the aluminum frame does get beaten up quite a bit, with the paint starting to come off after a few drops. But what is very surprising here is how well Ceramic Shield 2 has held up. Apple says that it is 3x more resistant to scratches, and that seems to be correct.
After quite a few drops, the iPhone 16 Pro Max was shattered, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max was virtually perfect. The back glass didn’t crack until it was dropped from around 20 feet. Which is incredible. That’s the kind of protection we see from cases, not usually from the phone itself. It almost makes you think about not using a case.
Aluminum is still durable, but dents more
What this test shows is that the aluminum is still incredibly durable. Even though many people think its a downgrade from the iPhone 16 Pro being titanium, but it does stand up quite nicely. The only caveat here is that it does dent pretty easily, and that can cause the paint to come off faster than you’d like.
Of course, with the titanium frame on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you were able to sort of just buff out any imperfections, which won’t be the case for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, unfortunately. You can watch the full video from Apple Track to see how the tests performed for yourself.
