A YouTuber went behind the scenes at Apple’s stress-test labs

• Apple puts its devices through some intense durability tests.
• It tests thousands of devices before releasing a product, Apple’s engineering head said.
• In the videos, iPhones are submerged in water, dropped on the ground, and sprayed with a hose.

Apple let Marques Brownlee into test labs, and the YouTuber captured some intense iPhone durability tests that would border on science fiction if there wasn’t video proof.

Brownlee is known for his tech reviews and explainer videos, and he went behind the scenes to witness iPhones go through rain simulators, a drop test machine, and more.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, told Brownlee that the tech giant might test “10,000 devices of a particular model” before releasing it to the public.

Dropping your phone in a puddle should be no problem compared to the levels of water tests Apple puts the iPhone through. They range from light rain and low-pressure sprays to a full-blown fire hose and submersion in water, according to a series of videos posted to X by Brownlee.

And for the clumsier iPhone owners, Apple has also anticipated your needs.

“Apparently, Apple has also bought and programmed an industrial robot to be their own drop test machine — to simulate hundreds of different drop angles onto different materials,” Brownlee said on X.

A slow-motion video of a phone being dropped by this special machine shows the frame wobble upon impact with the ground (the screen does stay intact, though).

Other demonstrations include a computer-controlled machine that can be seen shaking a Vision Pro lens. Brownlee said its purpose is to simulate the vibrations of a motorcycle engine or the subway, for example.

Although Apple’s focus has been mainly on making devices that are harder to break, Ternus told Brownlee that his team is also working to make them easier to repair.

Still, durability is the priority.

“It’s objectively better for the customer to have that reliability, and it’s ultimately better for the planet,” Ternus said.