The iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest iPhone to date. But does its thinness sacrifice durability for the sake of design? Apple has stated many times that the iPhone Air is durable , despite its thinness, and that’s what the folks at GizmoSlip set out to find out. In a video posted on YouTube, they encased the iPhone 17 Air inside of a watermelon in a drop test from a 250-foot skyscraper.
iPhone 17 Air drop test
Now, if you don’t have time to spare, spoiler alert: the iPhone 17 Air did not exactly survive the drop test. In the video, the watermelon essentially explodes into near nothingness upon impact. As for the iPhone itself, it did walk away with some damage. The back of the phone was shattered, while the front seemed to fare slightly better. Additionally, the shattered back exposed a portion of the phone’s battery.
On the surface, it looked like it was a done deal for the iPhone Air. However, during the inspection, they felt the phone vibrate a little. This seemed to suggest that the phone could actually still be alive. However, since the front display showed nothing, it is possible that internally, the phone still works, just that its display components might have been damaged.
That being said, we can’t say we’re surprised at the results. While Apple did tout the durability of the iPhone Air , we’re not sure there are many phones that could survive a 250 feet drop anyway.
No iPhone Air 2 next year
Here comes the bad news. If you love the iPhone Air’s design, don’t expect to see it next year. Apple launched the Air alongside the rest of the iPhone 17 series . Many expected the company to follow up with the iPhone Air 2 next year, but the rumors suggest that won’t be happening.
For starters, sales of the handset have reportedly been quite bad. The price of the phone compared to its shoddy battery life makes it a hard sell, despite it being an engineering feat. However, some claim that Apple never had the intention to make it an annual thing. This means that Apple hasn’t killed the iPhone Air 2. Instead, the company could opt to refresh it on an irregular basis .
