Another new smartphone means another new durability test from Zack Nelson, he of the popular YouTube channel JerryRigEverything.
This time it’s Google’s recently released Pixel 8 Pro facing the usual scratching, scraping, burning, and bending involved in Nelson’s challenging stress test.
“With Google promising seven years of updates, I hope their hardware can handle seven years’ worth of use,” the YouTuber says at the start of the video, adding: “In order to find that out, today we’ll inflict seven years’ worth of abuse.”
Following the initial scratch test, we can see that the display isn’t quite as resistant as Apple’s Ceramic Shield display but performs at the same level as most other handsets with tempered glass.
Next, Nelson’s box cutter causes the kind of damage you’d expect when a sharp blade comes up against aluminum, and no, it isn’t pretty. And when the naked flame meets the Pixel 8 Pro’s 6.7-inch display, the flame wins.
Being the same size as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, whose back glass recently shattered during Nelson’s bend test, and recalling how the Pixel 7 Pro suffered damage along the phone’s antenna lines in the same test last year, we were particularly interested to see how the Pixel 8 Pro handled some high-pressure bending.
Turns out pretty well. While it did creak like an old tree swaying in a gale as it bent in Nelson’s hands, the Pixel 8 Pro showed no sign of caving in, and, encouragingly, the back glass remained intact. The YouTuber also noted how the phone’s antenna lines stood up, suggesting Google had done something to strengthen that part of the device. Or that Nelson wasn’t exerting the same degree of force as he did last year.
Overall, though, we’re pleased to report that the Pixel 8 Pro fared rather well in Nelson’s durability test.
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